Pokemon Is better than Yu-Gi-Oh

IT'S TIME TO DUEL! PLATFORMSYuGiOh started as a manga and a card game, while Pokemon started as a video game. It is no surprise that the focus of both franchises has been different and each has targeted different platforms. YuGiOh does have the world's most popular trading card game (surpassing even MTG), two anime series (the first of which started in 1998), a vast number of anime spin-off series, several video games, a manga with several comic adaptions, a few movies, and a huge range of toys and merchandise. Just like the card game of Pokemon isn't as popular as YuGiOh, YuGiOh's games aren't on so many platforms, but this is becoming increasingly irrelevant with the advent of YuGiOh Online, a browser based game that allows all people to duel no matter what system they're on, if they have an internet connection. The ubiquity of the franchise across multiple platforms seems even more irrelevant when you consider the fact that both can be ported very easily. So despite the fact that there aren't many plush toys of the Pharoah, for example, fans have still made, brought and sold a great many of them. However, let's be honest, the card game ALONE is enough to provide hours of entertainment. Some people are even able to get enough in sponsorship to duel for a living, which they are glad to do. The card game can be enjoyed in many places the pokemon video games cannot, such as at the south pole, on Mars, in a bathtub, or anywhere else where there's no reliable electricity supply. But at the end of the day, both are about equal regardless of what platforms they're on, because both have the ability to entertain people for a long period of time. Which brings me to the second, far more important point my opponent raised. FUNHow many times can you fight little "pokemon" against each other before that gets old? All games inherently revolve around some mechanic, just like Monopoly is about buying property and Scrabble is about writing words. While YuGiOh's mechanic seems simple ("get your opponent's life points to zero") there's actually a whole lot of strategic depth behind that. Pokemon has a remarkably similar mechanic ("make it so your opponent's trainer has zero pokemon able to fight, achieved by getting each of their hit points to zero"). It's like playing a series of YuGiOh games. Actually in both the manga and the show there were several duels exactly like this (Yugi and Kaiba against Noah comes to mind). There not being a definitive storyline behind the card game is in many ways one of its strengths as it allows people to craft their own stories and legends. The same thing applies to the Pokemon card game by the way. However, some of the YuGiOh video games actually did have extremely intricate and well-worked out plot lines. Most if not all had bosses. While minigames have been lacking, the strength of the trading card game is such that minigames are not actually required to have a lot of fun, unlike Pokemon. YuGiOh is not just a card game, however, and I'd like to bring this debate back to the TV series. My contention is that watching Yugi is far more entertaining than watching Ash. I'll get to this more later. This is relevant because fun need not be interactive. Reading the manga or watching the show is fun. Of course the show is more fun, because the manga is like an earlier draft, but it's still enjoyable. The same cannot be said for Pokemon, a show that once spawned an anime episode so horribe, 685 kids collapsed in a seizure while watching it (. http://en.wikipedia.org...).PRICEPokemon and YuGiOh use different marketing strategies. Pokemon uses planned obsolescence, selling hordes of games now even though they know it will be obsolete when their next generation of games comes out. YuGiOh relies almost entirely on its cards for revenue and gives away most other things cheaply. The entertainment franchise as a whole is cheap - the card game is not. Both ways work for the respective companies. However, that does not mean YuGiOh has to be expensive, or that Pokemon has to be. I usually play YuGiOh with people who only have starter decks like me. I can't afford anything else and neither can most people, so that's what we play with. Similarly, I still play Pokemon Red. It's still fun and I can't be bothered playing all the newer ones. And watching the animes for both series is free. If people really want to, they can throw as much money as they can afford at either franchise. If both are really fun and thus get people hooked, both can be considered "gateways" - it just isn't so obvious in one case because it's disguised behind a marketing model. MESSAGESThe extent of the messages in Pokemon is to stick up for your friends, believe in your dreams, and fight bad guys. I'm not even kidding. The story arcs in Pokemon hardly develop any kinds of messages beyond that. Contrast that with YuGiOh, one of the first successful kids animes to have a tritagonist - Seto Kaiba. The storyline is incredibly complex and intricate, each episode providing interesting insights into life. Indeed, in just a single card game (against Rafael) Yugi learnt about the corruption of power, falling from grace, redemption, revenge, taking responsibility for his actions, love, being honest to yourself, and via a flashback to Rafael's past, the importance of family. The game mechanic makes all this not sound preachy, and most people don't even realize it as they're watching, but it's this kind of subliminal teaching that makes YuGiOh eternally endearing for its messages on making the world a better place. Indeed, the very fact that in that duel the main protagonist could commit an act clearly identified on the show is evil (run away from his friends, make a pact with their enemy, and then play an evil card that takes away his own soul) is startling. Unlike Pokemon, the characters in YuGiOh are believable, with no black and white, right and wrong moral system. Other duels have a similar level of depth and sophistication. AWESOMENESSMew is nothing. Yugi literally has three almost undefeatable gods, the undefeatable exodia, and a hairstyle that puts everybody else to shame. Even the abridged series of yugioh is better than the abridged series of pokemon. Yugi could probably school Ash with his swagger alone. I hope my opponent gets his game on for round two and wish him more good luck.