Over a quarter century has passed since the original release of Yu-Gi-Oh! In 2002, Yu-Gi-Oh! came to North America and was an immediate success with the card game and anime surpassing its rival, Pokemon. At that point, Pokemon was starting to decline in popularity due to the anime becoming repetitive and the game’s waiting for a new release and localization.
Although Yu-Gi-Oh! was first released in 1998, it became a global phenomenon in the 2000s. The rise in popularity led to the release of over 20 Yu-Gi-Oh! titles between 1998 and 2005. In 2002. the first two Yu-Gi-Oh! games released in North America Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories and Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories. In celebration of the Quarter Century achievement, Konami and Digital Eclipse have released Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection.
Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch
Release Date: February 27th, 2025
Players: 1 to 2
Price: Base: $49.99 USD
Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection is a 14-game collection comprised of some of the most popular titles released in Japan and North America; Sadly, the popular PS1, PS2, and Gamecube games were not included. Hopefully, in the near future, we can get a remastered version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! console games. The Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection contains a number of titles from the series, from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Advance.
The first three games on the list were released solely in Japan with Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories combined to create Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories (4). The third game on the list, Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule, is a traditional turn-based JRPG where death is permanent, similar to Fire Emblem.
With all fourteen games on the list, players can use enhancements to improve their gameplay experience; these enhancements can range from unlocking all cards to removing deck cost limit, forbidden card limit, capsule power-ups, and unlimited star chips. Once an enhancement has been applied to the game, the only way to remove it is to start a new game save. The collection features two ways to save 1. the natural save system of each game and 2. a main menu save option. The main menu save option saves the game’s state without having to finish what you are doing.
The game also features a rewind option that can undo up to 60 seconds of gameplay; this feature helps you from potentially losing cards, capsules, or even the match. The rewind feature does have a few issues though with audio distortion occurring for a few seconds after rewinding. Another helpful feature is the game’s ability to increase the text speed.
One major problem with the collection is that there are no sound options so you will have to adjust the collection’s volume in your sound mixer. The Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection comes in six languages (English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese). The game advertises that there is online multiplayer available, however, at the time of launch it only is available for Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists, which is the worst game in the collection.
Both Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories follows the Duelist Kingdom Rules with players able to summon whatever monsters they desire as long as they have them available. With the enhancements, you can speed through the original three card games; however, completing Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule will be no easy task.
Even with unlimited Star Chips and Skill Boost Capsules, you are looking at a 12 to 20-hour game; traditional will run you 20 to 60 hours potentially. With game 4, Dark Duel Stories, you start to learn the mechanics of the trading card game. In games 2 and 4, there is an additional advantage that you have to be aware of based off card elements, with Divine being immune to type advantage. In the first three card game games, the password system does not work properly and can lock you out of playing until you restart the game.
With Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists, the game throws away the mechanics of all prior and future games and has its own mechanics with cards having drastically different costs; with this being the only available multiplayer game, it is a bit off-putting and a bit of a poor selling point.
Outside of Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters & Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler, the remainder of the games follow the common mainstream aspects of the Yugioh Card Game. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards, Reshef of Destruction, and Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel have their own narrative stories that follow that of an adventure game vs mass duels.
If you want to revisit some of the earlier Yu-Gi-Oh games, then the Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection would be a good choice. With controller support and multiple languages to play it in, there is a wide variety of games to enjoy. If you were to play through each game even with enhancements, you can expect to get at least forty to sixty hours of gameplay out of the collection if not more.
If you were to play through it without the enhancements, you could have somewhere between 80 to 200 hrs of gameplay depending on your playstyle and how much you want to grind.
As someone who used to love Yu-Gi-Oh! as a child, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection allowed me to reconnect with some of my nostalgic memories while getting to enjoy hours of fun gameplay from a time when Yu-Gi-Oh! was less complicated.
The game’s enhancements between a rewind feature and an unlock system made it so that the games could be enjoyed however I pleased. Being able to undo mistakes from either button mashing or reckless play can easily be undone with a quick button press. While playing, we did notice that the game would freak out if the controller disconnected for a second resulting in a few minutes of recalibration.
At the end of the day, if you are looking to play the Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection to just relive or experience some of the beloved early games then it is worth picking up. If you are looking to battle against other duelists, then it might be better to hold off on picking up this collection until there are more multiplayer options.
Each game in the collection looks like it has been digitally enhanced slightly but has not received a remaster. For $49.99, whether you plan to play it online or not, Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection is a treasure to cherish. In most instances, the gameplay elements are fairly easy to understand and you can get hours of enjoyment out of playing through the Yu-Gi-Oh! handheld games.
Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Konami. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION is now available for PC (via Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
