Yu-Gi-Oh!: Power of Chaos - Joey the Passion

The Good
The Power of Chaos series in general is the best Yu-Gi-Oh! experience around. The user interface is easy to see and understand, the cards are great, and the opponents each have their own personalities. This game takes all that great stuff to a new level.

You may wonder why I refer to all the games in the series in this review, but the reason is simple... all the games are made to work together. If you have this game, you really should have the others as well in order to get the full experience.

With 771 total cards if you have all three games, you will not run out of choices for your deck construction. As mentioned, the interface is great and is much better to deal with than ones found in other games such as the GBA versions.

Besides cards and interface, Joey is the first opponent whose level will change as you win and lose duels. If you're really good, Joey will be really good. If you aren't any good, Joey won't be either. This helps beginning players while giving advanced players a challenge.

This is also the first game to allow 2-player dueling with a friend. The game itself supports only LAN dueling, but you can easily play over the Internet using a utility like BattleLAN (read the Tips & Tricks section for more information). This lets you have fun testing your deck and skills against those of your friends around the world.

This is also the first game in the series to allow you the option of having your computer opponent (Joey) battle using only the Joey cards, or the cards from all three games in the series. This option can make for a different experience for you as you battle.

You also have the choice of allowing Forbidden cards in the game. I am not certain if there ARE any Forbidden cards yet as the Konami site currently says there are not any, though I believe that information may be outdated. Note that Forbidden cards are not the limited cards such as Monster Reborn which you can only have a limited number in your deck. Forbidden cards are cards that cannot be in your deck at all.

The graphic effects in the game are also nice (as with the others in the series), as you destroy the cards of your opponents. And the new cards are great.

The Bad
Sound, sound, sound. As with the others in the series, this is the one major downfall of the game. Not the music so much, but the voice acting. At certain points in the game, your opponent will speak. At these times, you are required to listen and cannot skip the talking. Some of these comments are long and when you hear them over and over, it really gets annoying.

The Bottom Line
If you like Yu-Gi-Oh!, this is the game for you. If you like the Power of Chaos series, this is an excellent addition to that series. If you want to play against others on the PC, this is the only game for you.

Ignore the sound and you will have a great game. Remember to look in the Tips & Tricks section for how to play 2-player over the Internet. It really does work.