Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection

Lore & Background

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection was announced on February 5, 2024, at a Konami event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. The announcement revealed two of the included games, with the remaining entries confirmed gradually over the course of the year; the final list of included games was published in December 2024. The compilation marks the first international release of several titles, including but not limited to Yu-Gi-Oh!

Duel Monsters, Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories, Monster Capsule, Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists, and Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2. All games in the compilation are playable in Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, including those which had not previously been localized, with the exception of Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2, which is only available in Japanese. In each game, players can remap the button layout, create save states, and fast forward or rewind gameplay.

Online multiplayer support has been added to select games via post-launch updates. An 'enhancements' menu allows the player to apply special modifiers to each game; examples include unlocking all cards, removing deck point limits for player decks, enabling cards normally banned from play, or activating hidden characters and cards that could originally only be accessed through special means. An in-game gallery includes digital scans of the games' original box art and instruction manuals.

Reader's Guide

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection serves as a preservation effort for the first 14 handheld games of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, originally released between 1998 and 2004. The collection received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the collection's preservational aspects and amount of content, but criticized the games themselves for their slow gameplay and lack of tutorials. Reviewers noted that while quality-of-life improvements such as save states and fast-forwarding made the games more manageable, they did not eliminate frustrations with the older titles.

Several critics felt the collection would only appeal to existing Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, with particular criticism towards the lack of online multiplayer support for most of the games. The price was considered too high for newcomers, as many of the games were similar to one another, raising questions about the long-term appeal of the collection. However, a select few games that diverged from the traditional Yu-Gi-Oh! formula—such as Monster Capsule (a real-time strategy game) and Dungeon Dice Monsters and Destiny Board Traveler (based on board game mechanics)—were seen as making the collection a worthwhile purchase for some.