Behind Yu-Gi-Oh's goofy anime—starring characters with increasingly ridiculous haircuts that pose a genuine threat to public safety—is a wildly unique card game that's quietly kept Konami afloat for decades. I loved it when I was younger. I was a diehard Saturday morning viewer in elementary school, and I put countless hours into online versions of the card game in high school. But I don't love Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, a mobile spinoff which recently came to Steam. It's a serviceable free-to-play card game, but in its pursuit of casual appeal and mobile viability, it's lost a lot of what makes Yu-Gi-Oh distinct.

Duel Links makes use of a completely fresh rule set. Duels are designed to last for just a few minutes, due to the mobile nature of the game. The number of monster and trap/magic cards you can put on the field are reduced to just three, as opposed to the standard five. Additionally, Life Points are reduced to 4,000 and deck sizes are halved to 20-30 cards, instead of the regular 40-60. Also, there is no Main Phase 2, which means that you can't play any cards after the Battle Phase.

That same sense of authenticity extends to its very sizeable campaign as well. Split into six chapters (covering all six seasons), it covers all the major story beats from the seasons so far, including many of the biggest and most memorable battles. From ZEXAL to ARC-V, you can relive some classic duels from both sides, enabling you to double the rewards as a result. Each chapter has around 25-30 battles each, so you’re getting a good 30 hours of play (and that’s not counting the reverse matches). With the inclusion of the ‘new’ Link Monsters (a type of card that doesn’t sit in your main deck or hand, but effectively enhances those that do), you’re getting every aspect of the modern game. Link Summoning was only introduced to the real-life TCG in 2017, so it’s great to see this enhanced ruleset included here.

While the game does not offer a story mode that revolves around the actual events from the anime, it does take you on a whole different journey. A much better one at that. In Duel Links, you can choose between dueling the characters from the anime, such as Yugi, Joey, Kaiba and the rest of the gang. These duels are all fairly easy for people who grew up playing Yu-Gi-Oh! on their PC or Gameboy because the CPU in those games was significantly harder to beat.

Duel Links follows the 'speed duel' beginner format of 2016's Saikyo Card Battle, and I speak no hyperbole when I say it cuts the game in half. You put 20 cards in your deck instead of 40, start with 4,000 life points instead of 8,000, start with four cards in your hand instead of five, have one main phase instead of two, and have three board spaces instead of five. Duel Links also lacks Synchro, XYZ and Pendulum monsters, which severely limits how you can use your extra deck to make up for your deck's weaknesses.

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