Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I miss Yu-Gi-Oh games. I'm not a Metal Gear Solid fan like at all, so forgive me Kojima fans, but when I first heard that MGS was probably going to die out thanks to Konami, my first thought was "so, can they focus on Yu-Gi-Oh again now that it's the best thing they have left?"
As a kid, alongside new entries in the Mega Man Battle Network series, Yu-Gi-Oh was always my favorite annual release. I ate those games up, even thought not all of them were that stellar, and some downright sucked, they were still fun for me to play in the car on vacations, or play while relaxing around the house on Sundays.
Plus, as someone who enjoyed the Yu-Gi-Oh cardgame, but never had the money to buy a lot of the real cards, or really anyone to play them with, the videogames became the perfect way for me to experience the franchise while on a budget. Sure, the computer players weren't always the greatest opponents, but they were more creative in the range of decks they used, and allowed me to hone my skills at my own pace as opposed to embarrassing myself in an actual Duel against a real opponent. Actually, I only went to one Yu-Gi-Oh tournament in my entire life, and it was a painful, embarrassing experience---I really didn't know all the more hardcore rules, and my first opponent pretty much mocked me the entire time. I had to hold back the tears. Still, despite this bad experience, I still had a fondness for the franchise, and stuck with it on-and-off through the years.
Now, though, it feels like Konami has just said "fuck it!" to Yu-Gi-Oh. Now, the new series that's on Arc-V---it's surprisingly a great show that I as a long-time fan enjoys, as it actually incorporates elements from the previous series such as all the various summoning methods introduced throughout the year, and got me back into the show after I got bored with it during 5Ds, and couldn't really stomach Zexal. I mean, it's silly, over-the-top, and not a deep show or anything, but it's fun to watch and I find it oddly endearing. While the new cards are definitely way more complex and powerful than they were in the past, I find a lot of the cards to look quite fun to use and would love to get into the game again, but now...I find that Konami basically doesn't want me to get into the game anymore unless I actually decide to buy the real cards (I can afford them easily now, but as an adult I don't like to collect stuff like that anymore due to space concerns and such), which is a shame.
I miss when Konami put out a new Yu-Gi-Oh game each year, sometimes even more, that had a healthy collection of cards new and old to play with and a host of CPU opponents to challenge. Since 2011 there have only been two games really like this, the Zexal game which was completely torn to shreds when released in the US, and a Tag Force game for the PSP released in 2015!!! which will probably never be released here, and I don't know how good it was and if it would be worth the localization. It does have characters from all the series, which was always something I wanted to see though. Beyond that, they've experimented with some pay-to-play online games that are sorely lacking and I believe most of them are already defunct. Yes, there's the Yu-Gi-Oh Pro client, but that takes away all the fun of the Yu-Gi-Oh games as there's no exploration, no having to earn cards, no real style, nothing for a casual fan just wanting to play around and have fun. And I miss all the genre-twist Yu-Gi-Oh Konami experimented with such as Duelist of the Roses, Falsebound Kingdoms, and Wheelie Breakers.
So, Konami, throw us videogame Yu-Gi-Oh fans a bone. Start bringing back the neat World Championship series games, create some quirky spin-offs like one built around the Action Duels in Arc-V, and stop making us spend money to collect virtual cards when in the past they came with the game without charge. And hey, you know, I wouldn't mind you throwing a couple classic Yu-Gi-Oh games on the Virtual Console and PSN too! I'd kill for Duelist of the Roses PS2 Classic, and GX Duel Academy GBA VC!
