Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime Gameplay

Duelist Kingdom Gameplay
Duelist Kingdom had a simplified card play and battle system, and is perhaps the reason why so many fans of the Anime didn't understand the TCG's far stricter rules. It had some major differences to the real life game:


 * Each player began with 2000 Life Points.
 * It was often inferred that only one monster could attack per turn (maybe because of the duel between Bonz and Joey), however, it was really a complicated set of rules that dictated when a player could, and could not attack if the opponent already destroyed a monster that turn, he/she could not attack directly.
 * Tributes were not required to summon monsters of Level 5 or higher, so they could be directly summoned to the field.
 * Some Fusion Monsters could be played directly from the hand like Normal Monsters.
 * Monsters could be Normal Summoned in face-up Defense Position.
 * There is no Draw Phase on each player's first turn.
 * When a player uses a Ritual Spell Card properly, they didn't actually need the corresponding Ritual Monster, which was abandoned just before Battle City. There's also debate about whether or not this also applied to Fusion Monsters.
 * Each Attribute had a strength and weakness against another Attribute. A monster will always destroy a monster with a inferior attribute and always be destroyed by one with a superior attribute.
 * If a monster was played in it's favored terrain, it would recieve a 30% increase in its ATK and DEF points.

Battle City Gameplay
Battle City more accurately represented the real rules of the card game, but it still had some differences as follows:


 * Each player began with 4000 Life Points.
 * Fusion Monsters could not attack in the turn they were summoned. Players had to instead use the card Quick Attack, to allow the Fusion Monster to attack in the turn that it was summoned. After Battle City, this rule was eliminated.
 * Spell Cards could be used on the opponent's turn if they were Set, even if they weren't Quick-Play ones.
 * Monsters could still be Normal Summoned or Tribute Summoned in face-up Defense Position.

Most of the Battle City rules were basically the same ones used for the remainder of the series as well as in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.