My days of playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG competitively and spending hundreds of dollars on boxes and special editions are long over but I still get that itch to play every so often. While I can break out some of my older decks, I still like to keep up with the more recent additions and that’s where Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution fits perfectly for me.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is an updated version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist which was released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC back in 2015. It features all the DLC content from the original along with the addition of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS’s Link Summon format and historic battles, upping the total number of obtainable cards from 8,000 to over 9,000. That means you will be able to create a variety of decks that suit you but this won’t mean you are tournament ready.
The game offers various modes of play to enjoy with single player and multi-player options, for single player you have the ability to relive some of the iconic moments of the tv series from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series to the more recent Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS with 170 duels to face off against while also being able to switch things around via reverse duel where you take on the role as opponent. There are also various challenges to take on as you complete these duels and if you want to play with friends you have a local battles, online ranked and unranked matches along with sealed play where you creates decks on the spot with cards you pull out of packs.
Of course the real fun is building your decks, as you defeat opponents you earn Duel Points and cards. Duel Points let you buy packs and you can never beat the feel of opening packs and see what you pull, I still enjoy that feeling to this day and it feels great even in digital form since I know I am not spending a bunch of money on actual cards.
One of the biggest changes that took me a while to get used to is the fact that the game completely does away with traditional duels for the link format. If anything I would have loved to see an option to switch between the two for the older series, which is just a personal preference.
There is so much to do in the game that it’s really easy to just get lost in the duels, it’s a perfect fit on the Nintendo Switch since it also features touchscreen functionality to make it feel like you are really dueling as you set your cards and activate your trap cards! It is a bit of a shame that there isn’t really too much new content as I would have loved to see a few new battles added from the original series or voice acting added just to give it some flavor as I just tend to skip all the text and jump straight into the duel. In terms of the Yu-Gi-Oh!, TCG Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is everything you could want in a handheld version of the game.
Nuke the Fridge Score: 8/10