Nightmare Troubadour is the first YGO video game for the Nintendo DS.
New features unlike previous Nintendo YGO hand held games include:
Utilization of the DS's touch screen to make faster and easier decisions, while still able to use the buttons.
The top screen shows a 3-D game board view of the duel including battle between monsters and animations of each Monster Card when they're on the field.. Some monsters, such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician and more, have special full 3-D animations that play when they are summoned.
While in the overworld, the bottom screen shows a map to freely navigate to different areas and find duelists.
Shortly after begining, Shadow Games are introduced. When moving at night, you can be intercepted by evil duelists such as Shadow Riders and are forced to duel them. Losing will result in being sent to the Shadow Realm, aka Game Over, and you will start again from when you last saved.
You role play as a novice duelist participating in the Battle City Tournament featuring the original Yu-Gi-Oh! cast. The original Battle City storyline has been altered some to extend game play and include duelists such as Maximillion Pegasus, the Paradox Brothers, etc. (The Virtual World story arc is also included.)
