Man, Yu-Gi-Oh! Day of the Duelist takes me back—that satisfying click of the GBA power switch, the pixelated Blue-Eyes staring you down. It’s got that classic early 2000s card-game vibe where you’re scrambling to pull off a decent combo with whatever cards you’ve scraped together early on. (Spoiler: Your starter deck is rough.)

The AI opponents actually make you sweat sometimes—none of that "play a monster face-down and pass" nonsense. You’ll get wrecked by some random NPC running a fiend deck if you’re not careful. And building your collection? Way more fun than it should be for a game this old. Nothing beats finally pulling that one rare card after grinding duels for hours.

It’s janky in that nostalgic GBA way, but man, when you pull off a last-second Mirror Force to wipe their field? Chef’s kiss. Just don’t expect modern polish—this is pure, unfiltered early Yu-Gi-Oh chaos.