POKEMON TRADING CARD GAME

Man. Judging from the reaction to my Huge-Freaking-Shaymin Award-winning coverage of the Game Boy Colorversion of the Pokémon Trading Card game, you folks were kind of hungry for a proper follow-up. Well, here’s... this thing. It’s an online client for the Pokémon TCG that actually runs on cards obtained in real-life booster packs. Me, would you demonstrate by opening pack? Thank you. Pooh, Dragons Exalted. Nice.

Anyway, included in each pack since the dawn of the Black and White era is a code card, with a QR graphic as well as an alphanumeric code. By redeeming these via the TCGO program... well, the QR thing used to work, but has yet to be implemented in this build... by redeeming these codes, you obtain virtual booster packs for use in the online game. So while the program is free, you’re kind of using real money. Kind a. And, of course, all the cards you actually want in real-space - like this Dark TranceHydreigon - you’ll get online. Oh well. Still pulled a foil Mitotic; that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Still, there’s gaming to be done! The UI for the game will look fairly familiar, but unlike the Game Boy version, there’s actually room for everything at a glance. Everything’s available with just a few points and clicks, while tooltips usually do a good job of summing a Pokémon’s remaining Hand summarizing its attacks and powers and whatnot, though you might have to get the cursor in just the right spot. The sound effects can be a little off at points, especially for multi-flip attacks, and the music - when it exists - is easy to ignore.

After all, you’re going to be too busy concentrating on your strategy, right? You’ve spent countless...arm. Minutes... customizing your deck; least you can do is play it correctly. As would-be expected, you’ve got a limitless supply of basic energy, though that won’t stop you from pulling more basic energy from packs, if it happens to be in the mix for that expansion. If you’re not feeling up to playing against actual people in the head-to-head mode, there’s an AI opponent for you to battle, as well as a “Trainer Challenge” campaign mode what you can play with pre-constructed decks or starter theme decks you can just buy off the rack.

Yes, those have codes in ‘me too, and all 60 cards in such a pack will be added to your online collection. This interpretation is still far from perfect: there are several bugs in both the UI (like audio hiccups and large chunks of lag when a game ends) as wells the procedural game mechanic stuff (how the cards interact with one another). But they’re working on it, and it’s a nice little bonus if you’ve already bought the cards and need a quick game to take the edge off of 2AM on a Tuesday morning. But most importantly, they DID fix Victory Star. My Fliptini rises again!