Move over Pokemon, Yugi in town From Staff and Wire Reports November 2, 2002

Haven't noticed yet? Stuck in the bygone era of Pokemon? Time to learn about a young animated hero named Yugi.

Yugi started life as a comic-book hero before he jumped the Pacific Ocean into American consciousness. His TV show airs on the WB network. And his card game has youngsters, teens and even some adults regularly duking it out at home and at officially sanctioned weekly tournaments.

"It's a very good game to play," said Curtis Rogers, a 19-year-old Amarillo resident.

Basically, Rogers said, Yugi is on a quest. In the TV show, he's trying to save his father's soul from an evil person who stole it. Rogers said the card game is about millennium puzzles.

"Certain artifacts from long ago give you power," he said. "There's monsters, dragons and elves, lots of mythical creatures. Basically, you fight against other people's monsters."

Erica Herrera, floor manager at Amarillo's Toys R Us, said she's not too familiar with how the game works, but her customers explain.

"The kids tell me it's a trading card game," she said. "Each has a different power or strength, and they'll trade off cards to gain power."

Rogers admits the game targets younger players. Edd McCommon, owner of Big Apple Comics & Collectibles in Amarillo, said kids ages 8 to 14 generally play.

"It's fairly new here, it's been out five or six months, and it's just starting to catch on," he said.

Only time and the uncertain nature of kid-driven fads will tell if Yu-Gi-Oh! (say: YEW-ghee-oh) - which roughly translates to King of Games in English - will become a phenom on the order of Pokemon. It certainly has all the ingredients.

Willie Tierney's sons, Dallas and Jean-Luc, got hooked watching the animated TV show last fall. They were among the first in line in March when the American version of the card game arrived in the Kansas City area.

That was OK with Tierney, who actually liked the game himself. Plus, he had a collector's habit going back to his baseball-card days.

"It started out as an incentive for my boys to do their chores," Tierney said. "It kind of escalated from there."

Escalate is right. Once players have the $10 starter deck of 50 cards, they want to improve their decks via "booster" sets, $3 for nine more cards. The latest of three booster sets, called Magic Ruler, was issued earlier this month.

Several stores in Amarillo sell Yu-Gi-Oh! products. Becky Salsedo, an assistant manager at KB Toys, said the store sells booster packs of cards.

"We go through them like crazy," she said. "On the weekend, we have quite a few kids inquiring about it - that's usually the first thing they go for, the boys and the girls. They know instantly what cards are in what pack."

Herrera said the game is very popular.

"It's just as popular as Pokemon was when it was at its height," she said.

She said the store sells the starter pack of cards, booster packs of cards, collectible tins that contain booster packs, VHS videos of the TV series, puzzles, board games and other products.

"We (had) Halloween costumes that came in for Yu-Gi-Oh! this year," she said.

Herrera said Toys R Us employees put Yu-Gi-Oh! products near the front door so customers can see what's available.

"The closer it gets to Christmas, the harder it'll be to get it in and keep it in," she said.

And then there are the tournaments. Mary Mancera, spokesperson for the Upper Deck Co. in Carlsbad, Calif., which distributes the American version of the game, said nearly 800 hobby and collector stores around the country signed up to take part in their tournament program. About 46,000 players have put their names on tournament rosters around the country, with about 1,000 added every day.

Herrera and McCommon said their stores don't hold tournaments yet, because the game is fairly new, but they are trying to start some leagues. Herrera said she believes it would be popular.

"When we had Pokemon leagues, there was 10 or 12 kids waiting for us at the door," she said.

McCommon said his store holds tournaments for other games; however, he said customers play "all the time on Saturday and Sunday in the game room."

Mancera said the company is privately held and doesn't release sales figures on the card game. However, the Kids WB show recently ranked No. 1 in its time slot Saturday morning for youngsters 6 to 11 and 9 to 14.

That's a big deal, said Al Kahn, chairman of 4Kids Entertainment in New York, since the show drives the game and interest in other Yu-Gi-Oh! products. Kahn's company decides what products have tie-ins with Yu-Gi-Oh!

"The show talks about the game," Kahn said. "So when you watch the show, the first thing you want to do is go out and buy the cards and play the game yourself."

While a home video was just released this week, other products have been available for several months, including action figures, T-shirts, puzzles and other games that play off the TV storyline.

Plenty of Yu-Gi-Oh! players are in the first- to sixth-grade set, but anecdotal evidence suggests fans track a little older than they did for Pokemon. In the Kansas City area, tournaments attract elementary schoolers but also 20-somethings to 40-somethings.

Nick Goodner, 20, participates in Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments at Action Sports Cards in Antioch Shopping Center. He admitted he got started watching the TV show and was drawn to the card game.

"It's Japanese anime, and I've always been into that," he said.

"There's nothing worse than a 5-year-old beating you because you did something stupid," he said.

As yet, the phenomenon in the United States is far from the craze in its home country.

More than 3.5 billion cards have been issued in Japan since 1996. A tournament a few years ago drew 55,000 children and parents - and riot police when the thing got out of hand. In a game, players pit their decks against each other. Each player starts with 8,000 "life points" and tries to reduce the other player's points to zero.

The cards depict monsters and other figures and have value and powers singly or in combination with other cards. There are common cards, rare cards and even rarer cards. (Every booster pack contains a rare card.)

If a player's deck lacks oomph, Mears said, he or she will go looking for more powerful cards. Booster packs help, and individual cards can be had - for a price. A special card like "Blue Eyes White Dragon" can cost $30.

Globe-News Feature Writer Sara Sepulveda and Edward M. Eveld of Knight-Ridder News Service contributed to this report.