Summary
Konami has announced that it will be bringing back some of its classicYu-Gi-Ohgames, though it appears this collection might be Japan-only right now. TheYu-Gi-Ohfranchise is turning 25 in 2024, with Konami celebrating the long-running franchise’s anniversary with new projects. This includes an anime series based on the card game’s lore, more cards, and updates to games likeYu-Gi-Oh Master Duel. It also appears that Konami is digging into its back catalog and bringing back a series of retro games for fans to play.
Konami has developed an eclecticlibrary ofYu-Gi-Ohgamesover the past 25 years. These include direct simulations of the card game likeMaster Duel, spin-off titles that tackle a different genre, likeFalsebound Kingdom, and even games that have their own original story based on the show, likeReshef of Destruction. With such a diverse library of games, some fans are naturally nostalgic for them and hope they will be re-released one day. Fortunately, Konami has been re-introducing its older games to new audiences with re-release collections for IPs likeCastlevaniaand evenFelix the Cat, and now it’s doing the same thing withYu-Gi-Oh.
The announcement was posted on the officialYu-Gi-Ohcard game Twitter account, stating that this new collection will be released on Switch and Steam sometime in 2024. Based on a machine translation, this collection will be titledYu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, and will consist ofgames released during theYu-Gi-Ohfranchise’s early years. The first two games revealed in this collection areYu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of the Great DuelistandYu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2, which were released on the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance respectively.
Games Revealed for Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection
Based on the “Early Days” title and games currently revealed in this collection, fans can assume that the other video games in this collection will be from theYu-Gi-Oh Duel MonstersGame Boy games, which had a very early rule set that was made before Konami officially streamlined it. Of the eight mainlineDuel MonstersGame Boy games, the West only got the fifth, seventh, and eighth titles, which were localized asDark Duel Stories,The Sacred Cards, andReshef of Destruction. Some fans are hoping other obscure and weirdYu-Gi-Ohgame spin-offs likeDuelist of the Rosesend up being included in this retro collection.
The games currently revealed in this collection were previouslyJapan-only Nintendo titles, which makes it sound unlikely for thisYu-Gi-Ohcollection to be localized. This is just speculation, however, and fans should still wait until Konami says anything regarding a localization.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
The Yu-Gi-Oh! series is a massive franchise that stretches across a wide array of mediums including Manga, animated series, trading cards, and video games. The original release followed the story of protagonist Yugi Moto as he used powerful cards to battle against his foes. Yu-Gi-Oh! has since been through multiple series and spinoffs that introduce new characters and monsters to the franchise.
