Yu-Gi-Oh! WC2007 is probably the best card game software to date, at least for a portable system.
I've already felt the sting to the wallet that trading card games can leave, so my passing interest couldn't bring me to try out the game through buying dozens of cards. I DID, however, stumble upon this game. It's a Yu-Gi-Oh single player duel simulator in the vein of Microprose's MtG conversion... and since Yu-Gi-Oh turns out to be a decent card game, this package turned out to be a lot of fun.
About Yu-Gi-Oh: Since this software is really just a simulation of the real-life card game, I might say something about the TCG itself. Yu-Gi-Oh is a trading card game in the same vein as Magic: the Gathering or VS System. Players buy packs and collect cards, then use their collections to assemble decks and battle each other. The combination of collectability and competitiveness is what makes TGCs like Yu-Gi-Oh so addicting. Yu-Gi-Oh happens to take the dramatic over-stylized anime approach for its game setting, which is fine. Instead of fantasy or science-fiction, we now have a giant hamburger fighting next to a space ship and a black wizard. Hey, whatever works. As far as gameplay goes... suffice to say I like it. It can seem a little random at times, but there's plenty of choices to make and it always feels like you can have an impact on the outcome of the game.
About the DS Software: Unlike previous Yu-Gi-Oh games (so I read), which involved some RPG and plot elements akin to the anime adaptation, this game is a straight duel simulator. (Yeah, they made a card game into a horrible cartoon. Yeah, it's horrible.) There is no plot, no minigames, just dueling. Upon firing up the game, you will be issued a handful of starter cards, you pick a CPU opponent, and you duel them. Victory earns you Duel Points, which you use to buy virtual booster packs to augment your collection. Some nice features of this game include complete Wi-fi support (including free downloadable unlockables and online dueling), a challenge/puzzle mode, and the ability to download and play against the decks of top-ranked players. Be warned, like any console game with a online play or a ranking system, the game is rife with cheaters. You'll stumble upon genuine gamers occasionaly, so it all works out in the end... I find its best not to get worked up when someone cheats in a kiddie card game, but it still sucks.
The game has about 1600 unique cards. It's only about half of all YuGiOh cards in existence, but it's still plenty. My main problem with this game is that accumulating all of these cards (let alone three copies of each) will take a LONG time. The amount of DP you earn from duels, especially early in the game, is very small... sometimes not even enough to buy a single pack. Add that to the fact your starter cards aren't even really that good, and you'll have a lot of dueling to do before you can begin to assemble your dream deck. I think that's where this software fails primarily... instead of getting to use all those power cards that a player of the game would only dream about, I must struggle and duel over and over again to accumulate the DP needed to get those Ultra Rare cards out of a pack. Sometimes I think to myself I might as well go to work, and earn the money to buy the cards for real!
Other than that, the game functions fine. The graphics are mediocre. The text is easy to read and the card pictures in the menus look fine. Everything else is very pixelated and drab. The music and sound effects are forgettable. In duels you'll be treated to 2D representations of your monsters doing battle, though they are very ugly looking and not animated. You'll get the occasional 3D model for a few monsters, which look nice, but those cutscenes only last a moment or two. The controls and the deck editor are both intuitive and clear. The game is very playable and as accessible as real cards, and that's why I like it. You can control with either conventional buttons or the stylus, which is also nice. The AI usually plays decks competently... don't expect this to be a cakewalk.
The Verdict:
As far as card game simulators go, YGO WC 2007 actually isn't to bad. It's got a heck of a lot of cards, every feature you could ask for, and its all very readable and playable on my little DS. It has a few faults, a few things I wish it could do, and a few things I wish it wouldn't... but that's par for the course on games of this type.
In the end, anyone who can enjoy a trading card game with anime stylings can enjoy Yu-Gi-Oh, and therefore enjoy this software. I like it, since it fills my hunger for TGCs, can be played solo, and is only a one-time investment of $35 to get 1600 different cards to choose from. If you're willing to spend the time to grind and get the cards out of the packs, that is.
+Fully functional Yu-Gi-Oh simulator without any crappy plot or RPG elements
+Lots and lots of cards
+Competent (for the most part) AI
+Lots of extra modes and Wi-fi support
+Controls entirely with buttons or stylus
-Graphics and sound are kindof blah
-Cheating on internet games is always a problem, WC2007 is no exception
-Getting all the cards takes a LONG time without cheating