Hot off the heels of Pokemon's breakout success, it only made sense that 4Kids would want to license more anime and make big hits out of them. The first victim of this business model was Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Of course, Pokemon was treated decently, with accurate scripting, passable voices, original music kept, and fairly minimal censorship. So it stands to reason that Yu-Gi-Oh! would receive similar treatment, right?
Wrong.
Seven years after the fact, this dub still sucks. The script is heavily mistranslated, the voice cast just sounds off, all of the music is changed, the censorship is goofy... At the very least, I can say it hasn't reached the level of other famous hack jobs, such as Cardcaptors or One Piece. Yet.
I'm not a big fan of Yugi's voice, but it's tolerable. The voice of Pharaoh is pretty good, though that'll change quickly. Tristan and Tea are okay, while Joey was given a New Yorker accent, so it just sounds awful. Kaiba's voice is good for his "mean side," but it'll become problematic when his nicer side shines through later on, and he still has the same voice. Grandpa is given a typical old man voice, and Mokuba is alright, but he only shows up for all of two seconds.
1) DIALOGUE: The prologue that begins each episode is pretty much changed entirely. The original talked about the shadow games, while the dub talks about the Millennium Items. Also, the Japanese version mentions 3,000 years ago, while the dub says 5,000.
2) CUT: The opening song is replaced, of course, as well as all of the background music! You can actually hear a short second of Kaiba's theme when he gets into his limousine, but that's probably a slip-up. To their credit, there is quite a bit of silence considering this is a 4Kids dub, but that's going to change soon...
Also, the American theme song sucks. The lyrics consist of the word "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and the Pharaoh shouting "It's time to duel!" with stutter-emphasis on the d in "duel." Would it have been so terrible to write an actual song? You know, with words?
3) EDIT: All of the cards are changed in the dub, to avoid a law that forbids broadcasters from putting actual products on children's shows.
4) DIALOGUE: Joey: Hey Tristan, Yugi's teaching me how to play Duel Monsters!
Tristan: "Drooling monsters?"
Haha. Drool. That's funny. >_>
5) EDIT: The mat that Yugi and Jonouchi are playing on is changed to avoid looking like the actual product.
6) EDIT: The book that Kaiba reads has its title erased.
7) DIALOGUE: In the original, Jonouchi asks Yugi's grandpa if he could buy the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. In the dub, he just wants some other cards to get him started.
8) DIALOGUE: Kaiba: Me? Duel you? I'd have more of a challenge playing solitaire.
Ooh, you're gonna need some ice for that burn!
9) DIALOGUE: When Kaiba leaves the game shop, he's much more condescending to Yugi's grandpa when he leaves, calling him a "senile old fool."
10) EDIT: Kanji for "turtle" is erased off of the sign for the game shop.
11) EDIT: A street sign has its kanji changed to... blobs...
12) DIALOGUE: Minor, but nonetheless - after Kaiba rips up the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, he says "The fourth one could be an enemy!" ("This one will never be used against me" in the dub) to which Yugi asks "the fourth?", foreshadowing that Kaiba has the other three cards. Yugi says nothing in the dub.
13) DIALOGUE: While Yugi's grandpa does mention the heart of the cards in the Japanese version, it's not stressed to the point where it is in the 4Kids dub. In fact, no one else ever says that phrase after this episode.
14) DIALOGUE: In the original when Jonouchi is trying to convince Yugi to duel Kaiba, he brings up that Yugi helped turn his life around from being a street thug, while in the dub, he just says how great of a player Yugi is.
15) DIALOGUE: Anzu mentions in the original that their sharpie-drawn smiley face will wash away, but their friendship won't disappear. Tea just says it's a symbol of their friendship.
16) EDIT: Some kanji is erased off of the hospital van that Yugi's grandpa is put into.
17) EDIT: That whole thing where Yugi chants "Yu-Gi-Oh!" before transforming is a 4Kids invention. Whatever.
18) EDIT: The Negative Energy Generator card that Kaiba plays has its image changed in the 4Kids dub. I don't think these edits are actually 4Kids' fault, but it's fun to pretend it is anyway.
19) EDIT: Same goes for Yugi's Exodia cards. The background is changed from a pentagram in the original to a strange circle.
20) NOTE: In earlier airings of the 4Kids dub, Gaia the Fierce Knight was called "Gaia the Dark Knight," which is actually a better translation, but I guess it also makes him Batman.
21) NOTE: The Blue-Eyes White Dragon's Japanese voice is changed. Why?
22) NOTE: Whenever the Pharaoh is thinking, the 4Kids dub uses Yugi's voice, as if Yugi is the one coming up with the strategies. In the Japanese version, Pharaoh thinks with Pharaoh's voice. Makes sense, right?
23) EDIT: The boxes that show the Attack and Defense are changed in the dub. Like changing the cards themselves, this will be a recurring edit.
24) EDIT: 4Kids actually adds footage! After their third commercial break, the shot of Yugi facing the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons is repeated, although Kaiba's dialogue differs between each version of the scene.
25) EDIT: The Exodia pentagram is changed to the Exodia bazillion-point star.
26) CUT: The 4Kids version doesn't have a real ending theme at all, just an instrumental of the regular theme song. Laaame.