Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal World Duel Carnival Review
Summary: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal World Duel Carnival is an interesting duelling card game on the 3DS but lacks any real replay value, especially with no 2-player support
3
Lacking
Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal World Duel Carnival is the latest virtual card game to hit the Nintendo 3DS and features the very popular Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. In essence, it’s basically a card duelling game and for those who have never played one of these games before, the title gives the player a decent tutorial on the gaming mechanics. Virtual cards? It’s not for everyone but apparently it’s the rage with some!
Before diving into the game, you first need to create your Avatar that will be used in the world Zexal that offers players a story mode and also a free duel mode that is more akin to the real world duelling card games. In story mode, the player has the option of choosing their avatar, each having their own pros, cons and a different set of cards. There is also a relatively “basic” story that follows these avatars.
The capabilities of the 3DS is used well with the top screen used for cards, text and information, whereas the bottom screen is where the main gameplay takes place. Depending on your style of play, you can either use the touch screen or the d-pad to navigate through your card options.
Like other card games, the players have a variety of tools up their sleeves such as spells or summoning’s to support them with victory. If things become too complicated, you alo have the option of tweaking the difficulty setting and even turning on a help system. Unfortunately the story mode is rather lacklustre when it comes to action and in order for a challenge or something more realistic, the Free Duel Mode is where you should be headed.
In the Free Duel Mode, this gives the player access to all 5000+ cards plus a wide gamut of enemies that is not limited to the story mode. This is where the challenge of the game is found and can be quite a steep learning curve for those who have never played a card duelling title before. The only down side is that all cards are available to the player but fortunately each game is different. The most glaring omission in the game is that the title does not support 2-players so unfortunately you have to deal with just the 3DS itself.
Graphically, the title is a little dated on the 3DS and you can only do so much with card games. The character portraits look great as do the cards but the main gameplay screen is a little dull. Thankfully the music is quite memorable and the sound effects do help with the overall gaming enjoyment.
Final Thoughts?
Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal World Duel Carnival is an interesting duelling card game on the 3DS but lacks any real replay value, especially with no 2-player support. The gaming mechanics are interesting as are the cards but overall, it’s quite limited to what is available to player.
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