First of all: yes this collection of 14 games is definitly overpriced considering the age of the games (and the quality of some/a lot of them).
The biggest upside this collection brings is the rewind (up to 60 seconds) and the fast forward (which you can't use at every step) feature.
The Controls however just suck, the mouse is not suppored at all. Most if not all games are super grindy. The collection also comes with some cheats. But it's mostly for getting all cards, which is completly pointless as it takes away all fun or for getting around the stupid deck or character level restriction which I gladly used.
I'd say only get this when you are a big YGO fan and don't mind some very simple and antique feeling games.

From those 14 games you gotta cut 3 which don't play like YGO at all and just suck.
(Monster Capsule, Dungeon Dice Monsters, Destiny Board Traveler)

Then you have 6 games which play similar than YGO but have also big differences (no phases, most monsters don't have effects and that stupid allignement system). And of course that stupid deck or character level restriction. Honestly most of them are still kinda fine except Reshef of Destruction which is just borderline unfair and extremly grindy).
However at least 4 of them are very similar to each other; if you played one you basically seen everything.

That leaves us with just 5 games which mostly play by TCG/OCG rules which were the ones I enjoyed the most and by far. And again, those 5 games are then are quite similar to each other. Like Duel Monsters 6 and Worldwide Edition are like 99% the same game, the biggest difference is the first of them is only available in japanese. Like Wtf. Was it too much to ask to give us a translation?

All games in the collection were originally released between 1998 and 2005. I just wish we would have gotten at least some newer ones.

So yeah, overall definitly a mixed bag. I still somehow hope Konami releases a second collection with some better and newer titles.

I remember playing several Yu-Gi-Oh! titles on the GameBoy advance and loving it. Old school Yu-Gi-Oh! from before GX. Compared to modern Yu-Gi-Oh! the pace is much slower, but there's more back and forth gameplay making each duel more exciting. This collection brings me back and shows me that many more titles came out in that time period, many I wasn't even aware of.

Most titles are your standard deck builder types, with a campaign that requires you to beat each character multiple times (usually 5x) before letting you advance to the next chapter. Some are RPG adventures. Some are completely different types of games, like Capsule Monsters or Dungeon Dice monsters. There's so much content here, if you wanted to complete it all you'll easily go over two hundred hours. Among the deck builder titles, I was especially surprised by the Duel Monsters series, each title in that series has slightly different rules, clearly they were still experimenting and working out the rules that would eventually become the official TCG.

Also of note are quality of life features that I've not seen before. The most notable one being the abbility to reverse time up to 1 minute, in any game at any point. You can abuse this to undo mistakes or reroll a bad-RNG roll. I abused the heck out of it and I'm not sure that I would have had the patience to 100% this game without it. Especiallly when it comes to pack openings, rerolling them until I got what I wanted is such a nice experience.

I recommend the Early Days Collection to people who love Yu-Gi-Oh! and enjoy the older Deck builder games. If you're not into Yu-Gi-Oh! or you are expecting the fast-paced gameplay of modern Yu-Gi-Oh!, this probably isn't for you. I loved it and hope that we'll get more collections like these in the future.

Eternal Duelists Soul GOTY

Feels like I'm 10 again <3 What a mind-warp.

Gimme a heart or something if you're an old schooler still playing this kinda stuff!
Feels lonely, sometimes... :'(