There’s a new Pokémon game for mobile devices that brings the best of the franchise’s card game to our pockets, even the battles
I’ve been playing the Pokémon series since its origins on that legendary portable console called Game Boy in the late 1990s, and it was very difficult for me not to get hooked on its “physical” version, the Pokémon Trading Card Game. After all, it brought the best of gaming to the real world: combat and collecting .
Now, nearly three decades after Pokémon’s Game Boy days, comes Pokémon TCG Pocket , a new mobile title based on the franchise, and I couldn’t help but give it a try. To no one’s surprise, I’m hooked, and have spent the past few days playing Pokémon Pocket on my Android in all my spare time. It’s, on the face of it, an excellent pocket-sized offering, with just one problem – one that’s common with today’s mobile titles.
This is Pokémon TCG Pocket, the new collectible card and combat game for mobile devices
Pokémon Pocket TCG (which I will now simply call Pokémon Pocket) brings the classic Pokémon card game experience to our pockets. It’s not the first mobile game to do so, but it’s certainly a very accessible, intuitive and, above all, fun proposition .
Our goal in Pokémon Pocket is simple: we must collect all the Pokémon cards available : Charmander, Bulbasaur, Mewtwo, Ekans, Koffing… I mention those from the first generation because they are the ones I know best, but there are many more, and surely those responsible for them will continue adding creatures over time through updates.
The way to get new Pokémon is the same as in the real-world card game: opening packs that include five random cards . Sometimes these packs include special editions of the cards, those that have a shiny, holographic effect, which the game simulates very well on our screens. After a few minutes we are already familiar with the interface, and we can start collecting cards, review the ones we already have and admire them, connect with friends and get gift cards, among other things related to collecting.
But in addition to collecting, there is also combat , and this is where things get interesting.
Pokémon Pocket not only allows us to collect cards, but we can use those cards to build decks and use them in combat with the game’s artificial intelligence or with other players . Although I get the impression that the card collecting factor is the most important or main aspect of the game, combat is an excellent addition, a very fun one that I can’t stop playing.
I’ve been opening as many booster packs as I can, or at least that the game will allow, for the past few days to upgrade my decks, implementing different strategies. There’s a lot to take into account, for example, some Pokémon need to evolve to reach their full potential, which sometimes means you need to have their different phases in your deck in order to evolve. In other words, you might need to have a Charmander on the table first before you can use Charizard, and then a Charmeleon. It seems annoying, but honestly, it adds an extra layer of fun and strategy to the game . I love it.
What I don’t love, and this is the problem I’ve been talking about since the title of this article, is the game’s monetization system . I saw this coming since the announcement of Pokémon Pocket, and honestly, it’s not something out of the ordinary these days, in an era where countless mobile games rely on microtransactions and a system that consists of multiple types of in-game “currency.”
In Pokémon Pocket, in short, it goes like this: every 12 hours we can open a free pack , and we can’t buy packs with real money; instead, we can buy items that allow us to speed up time, there are also currencies to buy special items, there are “pokélingotes” that serve as money to access items in the virtual store, there are free tickets that you get by completing missions, there is even a “premium pass”; in short, there are many ways to access the items. My idea is to play without spending a cent, and yes, it is possible, it just requires patience.
As I said, this isn’t a problem with Pokémon Pocket, it’s something that ‘s already become commonplace in mobile gaming . Gone seem to be the days where you’d get access to a limited version of a game (a “demo”) and then make a one-time payment to unlock the full game, like the excellent Super Mario Run . It’s the times we live in, and perhaps it’s something I should be used to by now, but I still find it hard to accept as the standard.
Is it possible to play Pokémon Pocket without spending? Yes , of course, it will just take you longer to get more cards. Although in the first four days of playing the game I have already been given about 20 or more booster packs, so far it seems to be quite generous.
Pokémon Pocket TCG is available for free on the Google Play Store .