Despite hassling my parents to buy my Pokemon TCG card packs all the time as a kid, I never actually learned to play the damn game. I chalked it up to my unhealthy obsession with the franchise at the time, and when I finally entered my teens, Pokemon cards became a relic of my childhood.
I never got the hype around the Pokemon card market when it surged back into popularity just a few years ago, either. Unfortunately, I’d given away most of my cards by then, and seeing my YouTube feed get invaded by pack opening videos and vlogs about people making hundreds of thousands of dollars off of buying and selling Pokemon cards never elicited much more than an eye roll from me. If you haven’t already guessed from this article’s headline, though, all that has changed with Pokemon TCG Pocket.
Not only does Pocket provide a more simplified and streamlined version of TCG for smooth-brained Marvel Snap enjoyers like myself, but it’s also clear that the developers recognized the appeal of opening booster packs and they’ve created a game that replicates that dopamine hit. No shade to Marvel Snap players; that game has a ton of depth, but it’s just also extremely easy to understand and get into.
When you choose to open a single booster pack in Pokemon TCG Pocket, you can choose your pack from a selection of packs. All of these packs are actually different and contain different cards, by the way. And when you choose a pack, you can rip off the top right away, or you can do the classy thing and turn the pack around before opening it.
Doing so will allow you to take the cards out with their backs facing you, and you’ll actually need to tap on each one an additional time to flip them around and see what you got. I mean, it’s basically a pack-opening video at this point. You know all those YouTubers and vloggers who love to build up suspense when opening their new booster packs? They hold the cards with the backs facing up before flipping them over, and the fact that you can do the exact same thing in Pokemon TCG Pocket shows just how tuned in the developers are to Pokemon card culture.
As if that wasn’t enough, when you open a pack, you can even tilt the cards to the side to kinda get a peek at the borders and see if you got anything good. It’s a simple detail, but it’s also transported me right back to my childhood when I was still obsessed with collecting Pokemon cards even though I just threw them to the side after I was done opening the packs.
The love and care that has gone into the pack-opening animations in Pocket is insane, and let me tell you, it’s working on me. Finally, after all these years, I finally understand why people go crazy over opening Pokemon card packs and watching other people open Pokemon card packs.
While The Pokemon Company has certainly dipped its toes into the gacha game realm in the past with games like Pokemon Masters EX, I have a good feeling that this is going to be their main moneymaker.
Aside from the extremely impressive pack-opening animations, a lot of effort has been put into the UI and just making the game look good overall. The user experience could still use some improvements, as there are some parts of the game that feel sluggish, and not having a basic search function in the Point Exchange Store seems like a massive oversight. But when you put Pokemon cards together with a gacha pull system into an app, AND you pair that with beautiful art that’s just purely cosmetic with no bearing on gameplay, you’ve got a real winner on your hands. There’s absolutely no way Pokemon TCG Pocket isn’t going to make a disgusting amount of money.
What about the actual gameplay, I hear you asking? What do you mean, gameplay? Opening card packs is gameplay!
In all seriousness, though, the actual game itself also feels great. It removes a lot of the clunkier aspects of the original TCG and packages it into a more casual version that will definitely appeal to the masses. Matches are short, there are no more Energy cards to deal with (you draw Energy automatically and separately now), and the goal of the game is simple: defeat three of your opponent’s Pokemon before they do.
The game gets more complex as you unlock more cards, of course, and things get trickier when Ex versions of various Pokemon come into play. Before you know it, you’re evolving your ‘Mons mid-match, playing fun abilities that force your opponents to shuffle their hands or put their active Pokemon away… the list goes on.
For folks looking for a solid card battler, Pokemon TCG Pocket absolutely delivers. But let’s be real, the real heart of the game lies in card collection and pack-opening. After spending a good amount of time with the game, I finally get it. When I’m playing Pocket, I’m thinking about how I can get more Pack Hourglasses so I can open more packs. When I’m not playing it, I’m counting down the hours till my next free booster pack.
Frankly, it’s becoming a little unhealthy, and this may very well be a lowkey cry for help. I’m not sure yet, I’ll report back at the end of the month when my credit card bill comes in. But hey, that means the game’s doing its job, and it’s doing it well, right?
Pokemon TCG Pocket drops worldwide on October 30, 2024.
Published: Oct 1, 2024 09:00 am