I’ve been a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! for as long as I can remember. Of the various eras and gameplay changes that the franchise has gone through, I’m the most nostalgic for the original Duel Monsters and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX era. So I was very happy to hear that there was going to be a revamped release of Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force GX with added scenes, updated animation, and English voice acting. That game is set to come out in early 2027, but there was a special preview of the game being showcased at the Yu-Gi-Oh! booth at New York Comic Con, and I was lucky enough to give this game a try.

One of the main things I love about this game so far is just how expressive it is. When I booted up the game, I was able to pick my tag team partner and explore the overworld with them on Academy Island. The characters are represented by little chibi versions, but the character portraits are very well drawn, and the CG models that are showcased during the duels themselves have a lot of personality. The game’s speed and overall flow are very fast and kinetic, which feels like a stark difference compared to how the original Tag Force games that I grew up on used to be. I was able to squeeze in about three duels during my time, two solo duels and one tag team duel before I was timed out. While the overall format of both the deck building and the duels themselves reminds me a little bit of modern-day Master Duel, that tells me that both new and old fans are gonna be able to slip into this game rather seamlessly.

What I found most interesting about playing Tag Force was that, while it seemed like the card roster had been updated to involve a few modern cards, a majority of what was featured were cards from that era. In fact, the overall gameplay structure reverted back to how duels were during the era, which means there were no extra monster zones for Link Monsters or Pendulum cards. This is Yu-Gi-Oh! as it was played during the mid 2000s, right down to a lot of ruling changes reverting back to how things were during that time. For example, you get to draw even if you go first, which is something that you’re not allowed to do when playing the game in modern-day. What’s more, two field spells can’t exist on the field at the same time. While some people might not like the fact that this definitely doesn’t play like a modern Yu-Gi-Oh! game, I actually welcome this throwback because a part of me is nostalgic for this slower era of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The duels felt relatively balanced, and turns didn’t take an eternity to do. Even if there was a minor setback from a trap card or a strategy falling apart, it wouldn’t immediately mean that I lost the duel. While this might affect the game, acting as a good gateway to people checking out modern Yu-Gi-Oh!, I think it does a good job of easing people in.

There are a few things that I am curious about, though. It seems that the developers were able to get back most of the voice cast from the dub of the show, and in fact, some of the voice actors were actually present at the booth meeting up with people. I’m very much looking forward to this because, from what I’ve seen in trailers, this game might feature material that technically was never dubbed over in America, which means this could be the first time that I get to hear how certain characters sound in English. However, some voice actors were not able to reprise their roles, and while I can understand some recasts due to the fact that a lot of actors who worked on this show just don’t really work in the industry anymore, others were a bit questionable. Sean Schimmel, for example, does not reprise his role as Crawler in this game, despite still being active in the dubbing industry. I have no idea why the recast is there, and well, I have a lot of respect for his replacement, Billy Bob Thompson; I would be lying if you said he did a seamless voice match to the rather iconic performance that Sean did for the character. I’ll have to listen to more of it when the game officially comes out, but despite a few questionable elements, I more than enjoyed my time with this game, and I cannot wait as a die-hard Yu-Gi-Oh! fan to get my hands on it when it comes out.