Pokemon Trading Card Game

For the millions of you who are into the Pokemon Trading Card Game, you're going to love the electronic version. No more searching stores or waiting in long lines to buy booster packs. Every American card and most Japanese promos can be found here. There are also several exclusive GB cards to be had. For the rest of you...try it. I never thought I'd be into the card game, but now I'm hooked. The card duels require much more skill and strategy than traditional Poêåòoï fights. The focus of the game is collecting cards, building decks and battling. There is a simple plot involving a quest for the Legendary Pokemon cards, and where your character visits eight different clubs to battle a leader and his or her minions. The game offers lots of pre-fab deck designs, but none are as good as the tournament winning decks found on most Pokemon TCG Web sites and magazines. Up to five of your decks can be saved in the laboratory. The in-game graphics have the look and feel of previous GB Pokemon games and the card art is reproduced nicely. There are some Al concerns, however; the computer will often just let you win, even in a tight contest. On numerous occasions the computer built up its bench instead of retreating its severely damaged Pokemon right before I took my last prize. I miss the sounds and smells of a real card duel, but when space is limited or there are no live opponents around, this is a great substitute.

I am not a fan of trading-card games like this or Magic. When I play a game, at least for the first time, I want to be able to quickly understand the rules and put in a decent showing in the very beginning without having to customize my own freakin' deck or read a huge manual of instructions. So when I started to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game, I became frustrated. No matter what I did or who I went up against, I got royally schooled by virtually every opponent except, of course, the tutorial match. Don't get me wrong, I love the regular Pokemon Game Boy games. But I just can't get Into the coin-flip, oops-you're-dead gameplay.

Being a huge fan of the original GB game and the Trading Card Game, you might say I was a wee bit excited about a GBC version of the TCG. I was not disappointed. This little gem holds very true to its real-world cousin. It's fun, addictive, and really makes you consider each move carefully. There are a few variations from the real card game (i.e., the number of prize cards vary, and you get no extra cards when an opponent pulls a mulligan hand). But the only true negatives I found were the inability to back out of an attack, length of the opponent's turn, and as Cy said, the soft opponent Al. All in all, if you're a fan of Pokemon, or just like TCGs, this is a must-have.