For a neophyte trading-card gamer, jumping into a Yu-Gi-Oh game is much like learning to fire walk over a mile-long stretch of fresh lava. You are going to get burned … badly.

So along comes Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force 2, replete with characters from a fleshed-out universe, and a gameplay mechanic that is a little daunting to start. Diving right in was the wrong thing to do. Played a card and then waited eight minutes or so for the CPU to finish its turn. By that time, the initial foray was long lost.

Part of the problem is that there is no tutorial readily accessible (there is one, but you have to hunt to find it and it is a bit of a time sink) to ease you into the game. If you can’t find it you are thrust into the thick of the fray and once in, it is either sink or swim (or any other cliché you care to dreg up).

There are several ways to play this title. You can enter story mode (which follows the story of a student at the duel academy), free duel (choose the number of players – one or tag teams of 2v2 – and the number or duels, play one of six mini games, or edit your deck. The database contains information that will be needed, which includes the tutorial as well as the ability to USB to the PS2 for an inter-console game (the PS2 title is Yu-Gi-Oh GZ The Beginning of Destiny).

Newcomers will want to hit the tutorial in order to understand the way the game evolves, the rules and what you can accomplish during your particular turn. Do not expect any of that information in the manual. It is short and to the point. It details things like connected gaming, but not how to actually play the game.

But here is the lesson, albeit. First off, this is a card game, of sorts, and as such, you place cards that have a certain value on a board. There are four rows total on the board, each with five slots across. Two of the rows belong to you and two to your opponent. Each of the rows have certain zones where you place cards, like the Monster Card Zone (where summoned monsters are placed and it is the space where they can battle from – this is the top row of your side of the board). There is also a Spell & Trap Card Zone, the Graveyard (where cards that have been defeated are placed), the Deck Zone (where you place your game deck, which is comprised of 40-80 cards), the Removed Card Zone, the Field Spell Zone (think of this as a card that has an affect on attributes on the field of play), and Fusion Deck Zone (where you place Fusion Monster cards). There are three main type of cards, the monster cards, spell cards and trap cards.

Each monster card has an ATK (attack) rating. When in a fight, the monster with the lower ATK loses – it is almost that simple.

The game begins with a rock-paper-scissors mini game to decide order of play. Each player draws five cards for their active hand to begin the game. A turn begins by drawing a card. Then, if you have a monster card in your hand you want to play, it is moved onto the Monster Card Zone. Only one monster may be summoned during a turn. There are six total phases to each turn. After the initial draw, and monster card phase, there is the standby phase, followed by the battle phase, main phase 2 and then the end phase.

To battle, you select a monster on your side of the board and then select a target to attack. Destroy the monster and some residual damage will be charged to your opponent’s health points. Each player begins a duel with 8,000 hit points. Reduce it to zero and that player loses. (This is one condition of winning a duel; another would be that if your turn comes up and you have no cards left in your deck to draw, you lose.) As the tutorial so eloquently explains: if a monster with an ATK of 800 battles a monster with an ATK of 500, the difference is 300, which is taken from the player’s life points.

And that is essentially the way the game plays out. As easy as that may sound, there is a lot more to the game and when you actually start dueling, whether in a 1v1 or 2v2 scenario, the battles take on a cerebral quality.

Graphically the game uses the vantage point of what you might see if you were looking at the board seated in a chair. The animations are minimal and the game just lacks compelling visuals – which might be just fine for the TCG crowd. The music, on the other hand, is annoying after 10 minutes and this is a game that can be played silently so as to avoid that repetitious hum.

There are a huge number of collectible cards available (the number 3,000 is mentioned), so building a deck can be painstaking and involved. The game does allow for 2v2 WiFi tag-team battles, but no online mode is available.

In the end, GX Tag Force 2 is a game that requires patience to learn and then a lot of team to really get to know and excel at. This is not a game for the TCG newcomer. It is a game for TCG gamers who have knowledge of the Yu-Gi-Oh universe and don’t mind playing with minimal graphics and sound that will grate on you after a short time.

Gameplay: 5.5
A newcomer to the TCG genre, then this is not the game for you. The interface is convoluted and there is a steep learning curve. The game looks like it could be made for children, but only if those kids are experience trading card gamers.

Graphics: 6.5
It’s a card game, so what do you expect? You have to look close at times for the numbers on your cards, and then the effects of combat are basic at best.  

Sound: 4.0
Turn it off. The music is predominant and annoying in this game.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Even if you think you understand the basics, this game is more complex in latter phases than “basics” will prepare you for.

Concept: 5.8
This seems like a notion that was half-baked. WiFi but no online, and the simplest of graphics with a learning curve that is not overly friendly to newcomers.

Multiplayer: 6.2
WiFi connectivity, but that’s it for the 2v2 component.   

Overall: 6.2
This is a decent and deep TCG game that could have been much better. If you don’t have much experience with this type of game, you will have to work through the tutorial to understand the root concepts, but even that can’t prepare you for taking on another player that knows the game, or the CPU when it decides to decimate you. The game is behind the times in terms of graphics and sound, but that is more than made up for with the depth of the game itself. Be prepared for a steep learning curve, though. This is a game that could have been a great card game that challenged the experienced and gave an entry point for newcomers, but it just falls short.