Yu-Gi-Oh!: Dungeon Dice Monsters is a Game Boy Advance title developed and published by Konami and released in February 2003.
It's best described as a video game adaptation of both the In-Universe Dungeon Dice Monsters game created by Duke Devlin/Ryuji Otogi in the original series and the real life board game.
The gameplay is based entirely around playing the original series characters in various Dungeon Dice Monsters tournaments, with many manga-only characters appearing and everyone having their personalities from the manga. Similar to past games, the only way to unlock higher tiered tournaments and opponents is to win every tournament in the currently unlock tier first.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters provides examples of the following tropes:
- Artificial Stupidity: The AI will have no problem walking their monsters into any hazards they set up turns earlier, even if they lose said monster over it, such as running them into their own Explosive Disc.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Level 3 and 4 Dice usually offer the strongest monsters and items in terms of stats and ability. The higher level a Dice is however, the less Summon Crests on the Die. This makes it harder to summon Level 3 and especially level 4 monsters or items compared to the weaker Dice.
- Exodia the Forbidden One has his Instant-Win Condition fully transferred over from his card game counterpart to here, but you need to get pretty lucky to summon his Level 3 limbs and Level 4 head. Because you have to summon them, the Exodia Pieces are also at risk of being destroyed pretty easily due to their low stats.
- Boring, but Practical: Generally speaking, quickly summoning many level 1 monsters and clogging up your opponents' field space is far more easy to pull off than trying to pull out a high-level summon.
- Boss Game: Every opponent is essentially a boss battle due to the tournament nature of this game and the lack of proper storytelling.
- Continuity Cavalcade: Due to the insane amount of characters in the game, many of their short biographies also act as trivia for their roles in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga.
- Disc-One Nuke: Twin-Headed Dragon is one of the monsters you start a new game with, and he has some of the best utility for a Level 1 Dice. The Tunneler effect to move past other monsters and items, a +2 Magic Crest side, and a free Trap Crest when summoned for Die Pools using Trap Crest effects. Having 2 HP also makes him pretty sturdy for his level.
- Dub Name Change: Every manga character was given an English name, usually verging on the Punny Name side.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Warrior > Dragon > Spellcaster > Zombie > Beast > Warrior. Unlike in past games where attacking a monster with its weakness was a One-Hit Kill, DDM only buffs the attacker's ATK by 10. Conversely, attacking with a monster that's weak to its target buffs the target's DEF by 10.
- Not Completely Useless: Even if the Monster or Item you decided to roll for isn't exactly good, you can always try to roll for any of the other Crests on the Die. More than a handful of Monsters are only worth putting into your Die Pool for their Crest Sides.
