YF --> ANIME --> Yu-Gi-Oh! The Shadow Games

Sitting by himself in the back of the cflass, 10th-grader Yugi always had his head in some game - until he solved the Millennium Puzzle, an Egyptian artifact containing the spirit of a master gambler from the age of the pharaohs!

Now, the pharaoh has awakened from his ancient slumber.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Awakened after thousands of years, the King of Games is kept alive through Yugi and the Millennium Puzzle, recklessly challenging bullies and evildoers to the Shadow Games, where the stakes are high, and even the most ordinary bet may result in weirdness and danger beyond belief.

Following the early adventures of Yugi and his friends before they discovered Duel Monsters, The Shadow Games revolves around other types of games, such as Action Figures, the (original) Capsule Monsters board game, table-top RPG games, card games such as Poker and Solitaire, and even Tamagotchi Digital Pets! Unfortunately, the series was never dubbed into English due to its much more adult-oriented nature. Plot lines involving issues such as terrorism, sex, prostitution, street crime and, surprisingly often, murder, made sure 4Kids Entertainment stayed far, far away.

This series does bare some resemblance to the Duel Monsters series, and some even feel that the Duel Monsters series is merely the Shadow Games series "stretched out". What adds to this effect is that the last section of the Shadow Games series is similarto the Dawn of the Duel saga of the Duel Monsters series, in that it revolves around Yugi and his friends taking on Bakura and Zorc. However, the whole instance in which this takes place is totally different, taking place on a table-top RPG game. In fact, the concept of the Pharaoh's memories is not mentioned at all.

The series concluded with a 40-minute special entitled "War of the Dragons".

The series was created by Toei Animation, and had a 27-episode run between April 4th and October 10th, 1998.