Yu-Gi-Oh!: Face Off, Vol. 8

And I thought Pokémon blew poké-chunks! Welcome to Yu-Gi-Oh!, a kind of Mortal Kombat-lite affair featuring various brats armed with magic card packs squaring off against one another for smackdown battles. Plots? To paraphrase Cheech and Chong, we don't need no stinkin' plots. In this three-episode disc, our boy Yugi must fight Kaiba to earn the right to challenge Pegasus (who, um, has Yugi's grandfather's soul in his evil--one assumes, sans backstory--grasp). This battle, which consists entirely of Yugi and Kaiba trying to drain the opponent's life points by taking turns and playing cards that summon attack beasties such as Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon or defense tactics such as Curse of Dragon, takes three whole episodes. Granted, my grandson--bless his as-yet-unformed-six-year-old-media-critic's-soul--thinks that this popular kids' TV show is the proverbial bee's knees (granddad: play Curse of Bee's Knees card!), and it does have a rabid following amongst the 5-to-10-year-old mini-male demographic. On the technical side, the disc sports a rather undistinguished transfer (a bit fuzzy for a 1996 vintage cartoon), and an absolutely maddening opening two-minute commercial barrage that you can't fast-forward through or skip. Optional. [Note: seven previous volumes are also available at the same price.] Aud: P. (R. Pitman)