Pros: It's got an interesting twist on the normal game. Plus, Metalmorph!
Cons: It's just rules out the window with this baby.
The bottom line: Though decent enough for total newbies, people looking for a little more strategy in their card games are better off searching elsewhere.
If you're a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! but don't have the money for the real card game or just want a different twist on the regular game, you might want to check outForbidden Memories. Though it's not like the real game in terms of rules, the basic idea is the same.

Basically, Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories is a card game in which you try to eliminate your opponent by taking off 8000 of his life points. You do this by summoning monsters in attack position or setting them in defense position. If you have a monster in attack position and attack your opponent's monster in attack position, and your ATK (a score written on the card) is higher than the other monster's, the monster you attack is destroyed, and the difference in ATK between the monsters is decreased from the opponent. (If I have a monster with 1500 ATK and attack your monster with 1000 ATK, I destroy the 1000 ATKer and also take 500 off of your life points) Defense mode monsters can't attack, but if you attack a monster in defense mode and your ATK is higher than the opponent's DEF, it is destroyed, but no life point damage is inflicted. The key to winning Yu-Gi-Oh! is to inflict enough damage to your opponent without losing too much of your own.

Trap cards are set on the field and are automatically activated (one, for example, destroys the next monster that attacks). Magic cards are immediate, and destroy monsters or increase the power of your own.

It's not too difficult to get used to, and with a couple games, you'll be ready to go.

The flaws of this game come from the fact that the AI is often pretty dumb (summoning low attack monsters in attack position when it knows you'll attack it next turn and take off lots of damage), and also from a little thing called fusing. By combining two cards, you will either create a more powerful monsters, or end up discarding the two cards. It's the key to winning, but, unfortunately, it becomes very, very tedious to sit there for hours on end, trying new combinations with the many, many, many cards in the game. There is an AI you can battle who has the exact same cards as are in your deck (you receive new cards after each battle, and can change your deck accordingly), so he may show you some fusions, but it's still very boring and long.

Most of the cards are simply monsters; for the most part, after a while, it becomes a tedious I-whack-you-you-whack-me battle, without as much strategy as there could be. The storyline is also virtually nil, though that's because there's a revolution around fighting instead of having a story.

All in all, unless you're looking to get the promo cards (Metalmorph is a rather good one), I'd stray more towards one of the Game Boy Advance games, such as Worldwide Edition. This has many more cards, and is more strict on the rules - and, as a result, is more strategic.

To its credit, however, it's not all bad, and can show you some interesting cards if you're new to the Yu-Gi-Oh! world. It even has a multiplayer mode if you have other friends with the game.

If you can find it cheap or borrow it from a friend, go for it, but if not, don't bother; there are better Yu-Gi-Oh! games out there.