Nightmare Troubadour is the first Yu-Gi-Oh video game for the Nintendo DS. New features unlike previous Nintendo YGO hand held games include:

• Utilization of the DS's touch screen to make faster and easier decisions, while still able to use the buttons.
• The top screen shows a 3-D game board view of the duel including battle between monsters and animations of each Monster Card when they're on the field.. Some monsters, such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician and more, have special full 3-D animations that play when they are summoned.
• While in the Overworld, the bottom screen shows a map to freely navigate to different areas and find duelists.
• Shortly after beginning, Shadow Games are introduced. When moving at night, you can be intercepted by evil duelists such as Rare Hunters and be forced to duel them. Losing or having a tie with them will result in being sent to the Shadow Realm, aka Game Over, and you will start again from when you last saved.

The promotional cards included are:

• Silent Magician LV4
• Silent Magician LV8
• Magician's Circle

You role play as a novice duelist participating in the Battle City Tournament featuring the original Yu-Gi-Oh! cast. The original Battle City storyline has been altered some to extend game play and include duelists such as Maximillion Pegasus, the Paradox Brothers, etc. (The Virtual World story arc is also included.)

• For some reason, after defeating Odion Ishtar for the first time, Pegasus no longer appears as an opponent. It is widely believed that this is a bug in the game that had not been checked until the game's release; other opinions say that after Marik's defeat, Pegasus simply went home to relax until the events of The Pyramid of Light. Whatever the case, it is suggested that players get his cards (via Trading) and Deck Recipe before defeating Odion.

• Despite having support for the Sea Serpent-type, the only noticable Sea Serpent is Kairyu-Shin.