Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

The popularity of collectable card games took of with the phenomenon called Magic: The Gathering.  It was unique in that it created a game where you constructed your own deck from random cards you bought from the store.  Since then, other collectable card games have come and gone, but a few have continued to gain popularity.  One of those is Yu-Gi-Oh!  While we’ve seen several games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, PSP owners are only getting their second dose of Yu-Gi-Oh! with Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2.

Tag Force 2 follows the characters of the popular 4KidsTV cartoon series.  You are a new student at the Duel Monster Academy.  You are paired up with another student and set to duel other students on campus.  As you continue you gain points that can be spent on cards and other items.  Build the strongest deck that you can, because you’ll need it to beat the other students on campus.

When out on the map walking around, you see everyone represented as people walking around with big heads and small bodies.  The areas represented on the map are the same ones you’d find on the TV show.  Everything is bright but also very plain colored.

During battle, the on screen representation has the card graphic to the upper left, the card description to the lower left, and the play area to the right.  The background changes if a field card is in effect.  The cards in your hand are displayed well enough that you can tell what they are without being able to read the card.  The left side of the screen shows all of the information you need, so all you have to do is highlight a card to see it.

If you are battling on campus, then you’ll see 3D graphical representations of the characters.  While some of the characters are generic, you can easily recognize those that appear in the show.  While they move very fluidly on screen and wince when attacked, they character models are blocky with little in texture graphics.
 
In battle certain attacks are represented on screen.  Depending on the type of attack, you’ll see air swirling or fire streaking.  When summoned, certain monsters get a little animation that shows the creature getting summoned.  When those creatures attack, an animation from the TV show showing how the creature attacks is shown.  These are over fairly quickly without hurting the flow of the game.

The intro of Tag Force 2 sounds like what you’d expect from a Japanese anime game.  There are big thrashing guitars playing with some melodic themes behind.  The in-game music isn’t nearly as heavy, with a lighthearted and sweet tone.  It sounds like a flute is playing the music for you.  The dueling music is an odd combination of light jazz.  It really doesn’t sound right for a heated contest.

The game is based on a fairly popular cartoon series, so you would have thought it was natural to have the voice actors from the show appear.  Unfortunately, there isn’t ANY voice acting in the game.  While some of the voices from the show can be a bit grating, not having any voice acting at all on a PSP title like this is inexcusable.

The controls are relatively simple.  The D-pad controls movement, X selects cards or interacts with the environment, and Circle cancels.  Konami has surprising gone above and beyond with the controls.  When hitting the L or R button, the face buttons become shortcuts for things like saving, talking, or editing your deck while on the field screen.  While you probably won’t memorize the actions, it is a quick way to save.  In the duel screen, you can use the analog nub to scroll down the description of the card.  This is helpful in that you don’t have to constantly go to another screen to check out the card details and keeps the gameplay quick.

If you have played Yu-Gi-Oh as a card game or as a video game, then you probably know what to expect.  You create a character move around the map, finding others to talk to, get information from, and duel against.  What is different about Tag Force 2 is the fact that you have a partner that you hang out with all the time.  You duel together on the same field if you want to.

As you duel you win dueling points.  These points can be used to buy cards for yourself or to buy gifts for your partner.  In Tag Force 2 you have a relationship with your partner that develops thoughout the game.  By your partner’s portrait there are hearts that appear and fill up.  The more hearts that get filled up, the better your relationship is, and the better your partner will duel.

A simple explanation of the rules is that you attempt to drain your opponent’s life points by using monsters, traps, and spells.  Monsters have attack and defense points, and you use those to determine the outcome of battles between the two.  Special abilities of the monsters appear on the card, and some of the more powerful monsters require other creatures to be sacrificed to summon them.  Trap and spell cards can add abilities to monsters, give extra life points, or allow you to get a card from your deck, among other things.

Tag Force 2 does have a good tutorial to help you learn how to arrange your deck and how to play the game.  This is the most thorough tutorial included in a Yu-Gi-Oh game.  This is much better than the lack of a tutorial in the GBA versions.

The presentation of the duels is better than the GBA or Nintendo DS versions because of the capabilities of the PSP.  When a character summons a monster, the card literally shows up in front of the character, very representative of the “Duel Disk” system in the cartoon.  Having cuts from the cartoon play when specific characters are summoned adds to the game.

The pace of the duels is surprisingly fast.  While the game lets you check out each card and asks you if you want to play a trap card when available, it still doesn’t slow down the pace of the game.  The animations aren’t that long as well, giving you a feel for the interaction between the duelists and the action on screen.

One thing that is unique about Tag Force 2 is that you can have tag duels where you battle as a two-on-two match.  You use the same field and are restricted to only having five monsters and five spell and trap cards on your side of the board, and you share health points.  What is neat about this is that you’ll be able to use monsters and traps that you normally wouldn’t because of the cards laid down by your partner.

The AI of the game is fairly easy throughout the game.  Some of the time you wonder exactly why the computer plays certain cards the way it does.  That’s not saying that some matches won’t be a challenge, because you will have a fight on your hands sometimes.  Still, some matches are so easy you feel like they are quick Dueling Points.

The loading of the game on the PSP is surprisingly good.  Tag Force 2 does seem to take a little while to load right before a match starts, but once the match starts, there isn’t any discernable time when the game loads.

The main portion of the game is going through as a member of Duel Academy.  What if you just want to play a quick game without worrying about the storyline and finding an opponent?  Then you can just go to the Free Duel and set up if you want to do a one-on-one duel or a two-on-two duel and the number of duels to win the match.  The game does have multiplayer through a network connection, but it’s only available in ad hoc mode.  It is disappointing that you can’t play against others online.

There are six mini-games available for you to play which will give you points. There is also a database with cards and their descriptions.  There really isn’t that much additional content to the game.  If you aren’t into Yu-Gi-Oh!, then you aren’t going to find much here.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 for the PSP sets out to do what it’s meant to, be a Yu-Gi-Oh game with a storyline and tag team matches.  If you are a fan of the show you’ll probably get a kick out of the game and the story behind it.  If you are curious about the card game and don’t mind the cartoon character interactions, then the excellent tutorial should provide a good explanation of the basics.  If you don’t care about trading card games, then this won’t do anything to change your mind.

Gaming Trend Score

73

1. Graphics: 80
2. Audio: 55
3. Controls: 88
4. Gameplay: 72
5. Value/Replay: 72
6. OVERALL:73