The Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection for Nintendo Switch is another highly anticipated Konami compilation, following on from their recent, surprise Castlevania: Dominus Collection launch, and the slightly older Castlevania, Contra, and Arcade collections.
These collections do a fantastic job of bringing back older, long-out-of-print titles that can be difficult to get hold of and play on original hardware, and they’re also great at showcasing just how high Konami set the quality bar for each of their releases in decades past.
Now of course, it’s the turn of Yu-Gi-Oh fans to get their hands on some classic games from the earliest days of the series, including titles that weren’t previously released outside of Japan. The Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days collection, which is being published to celebrate Yu-Gi-Oh’s 25th anniversary, will feature ‘over ten’ titles (the final number has yet to be confirmed by Konami, who are keeping their trap cards close to their chest), though only five have been revealed so far.
Perhaps most excitingly for fans, Konami has now confirmed that an actual promo card, fully playable in the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game, will be included with the physical copies of Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection. The Harpie’s Feather Duster card will be included in each physical copy, as long as you’re based in the US, Canada, or European regions.
This in itself is a neat throwback to the beginnings of Yu-Gi-Oh; back in the day, a physical card was included with each Yu-Gi-Oh video game, and there’d often be multiple cards to be collected, which no doubt saw particularly obsessive fans buying several copies of the same game to get their hands on more special, promotional cards!
In the case of the Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection, Konami has pulled a similar trick, with the Harpie’s Feather Duster available as two different variants, with only one included in each game at random. Each is a Quarter Century Secret Rare; this is a very special, highly sought-after Yu-Gi-Oh card rarity, and our sister site Card Gamer has all the details on what exactly a Quarter Century Secret Rare is.
The Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection’s release date is yet to be confirmed by Konami, but it is expected to launch in 2024. Though it is due to be released on Steam and Nintendo Switch, as you’d expect it’s just the latter format that’ll be receiving a physical release and, therefore, those fancy Harpie’s Feather Duster cards.
The games confirmed to be included so far are Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters (Game Boy), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories (Game Boy Color), Yu-Gi-Oh: Dark Duel Stories (Game Boy Color), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists (Game Boy Color) and Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2 (Game Boy Advance). Of those, note that three (Duel Monsters, Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories, and Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2) have never been previously released outside Japan, making this an especially exciting collection for Yu-Gi-Oh fans in the West.
However, it’s also worth noting that Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2 will be featured only in Japanese in this collection, so you’d better brush up on your kanji if you want to get to grips with that particular Yu-Gi-Oh title!
Here at Retro Dodo, we’re big fans of Yu-Gi-Oh, and have been for decades; we’ve eagerly lapped up numerous anime shows, movies, the physical card game itself, and plenty of video games over the years. Let’s hope that a few of those are added to the list of the games included in the Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection, which, with only half of its included titles announced, is already a very exciting compilation!
