Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Duel Academy on the GBA is basically the closest you could get to actually attending Duel Academy back in the day—minus the holographic monsters, unfortunately. You start off picking your dorm (Slifer Red for life, no shame) and immediately get thrown into duels where you realize your starter deck is... not great. But that’s half the fun—scrounging up new cards between classes, tweaking your deck, and slowly climbing the ranks.

The AI isn’t always the smartest, but the sheer variety of cards means you can pull off some ridiculous combos if you build right. Nothing beats the satisfaction of finally assembling that perfect fusion or ritual summon after losing five times in a row to some smug Obelisk Blue kid. And yeah, the dialogue is cheesy as hell, but it’s the good kind of cheesy—like the anime cranked up to 11.

It’s not perfect (good luck getting through some duels without save-scumming), but if you ever wanted to live out your GX fantasy, this is the game for it. Just don’t blame me when you lose sleep over one more duel.