Shadow game
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A Shadow Game, or Yami no Game as it is known in the original Japanese, in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the two anime series, the first series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (internationally simply known as Yu-Gi-Oh!), is a contest generally between two people that involves a harsh penalty for the loser.
In some versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh! story, the shadow games are games played given that the loser or someone who attempts to cheat suffers a harsh penalty, such as being killed, losing his or her vision, and/or losing his or her soul. In others, the shadow games involve releasing monsters from stone tablets, and was played by Egyptian Pharaohs, with the fate of the world at stake. The Shadow Games are held in the Shadow Realm in the 4Kids English dub of the anime.
In the anime, it is stated that the Egyptians first allowed the Shadow Games. Using various means of sorcery, they send themselves into an alternate dimension where their duel would not be interrupted, and where cheating is strictly forbidden, punishable by death. In the Shadow Games, the sorcerors' skills would be tested by seeing how powerful of monsters they can summon, and how powerful a spell they can cast to power up their monsters.
The power of the monsters could best be harnessed by the Millenium Items. Created for the purpose of defending Egypt, they were put into the possession of the Pharaoh and his six priests. However, Yami Bakura wishes to steal the Items all for himself, and tries to take the Items, both in Ancient Egypt and in the modern world. To do so, Bakura must play shadow games.
Generally the rules of each "Shadow Game" would change based on the contestants in it. For example, when Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original Japanese) dueled Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto in the English anime), summoning monsters and having them destroyed would drain the souls of the duelists. Moreover, the Shadow Games can commence only after the challenger makes certain rules that do not give anybody an advantage, but can test the stamina of the duelists as well as the duelists' skills. For example, Marik could not simply say that all his monsters get an additional 10,000 attack points, but can state that the destruction of monsters erases memory or drains life energy.
In the English anime, while in the duel between Yami Marik (Dark Marik in the manga) and Yami Yugi (Dark Yugi in the manga) and the duel between Yami Marik and Yami Bakura (Dark Bakura in the manga), the weaker halves of the pair would partially disappear into the Shadow Realm each time the stronger half lost life points by paying card cost or attack by opponent (The Shadow Realm does not exist in the manga and the original Japanese anime).