Pokemon Trading Card Preview

Pokemaniacs will be in heaven when Nintendo releases the Pokemon Trading Card game this February. For all of you fans who are spending large sums of money on individual cards, the Pokemon Trading Card title is definitely something you should know about.

The game is basically a virtual representation of the actual strategy card game produced by Wizards of the Coast. Players of the previous Pokemon issues will recognize the game's top down look and feel, as it still somewhat resembles the current Red, Blue, and Yellow Game Boy Color games. The big difference though is the actual battling. Instead of Pokemon being used against opponents, virtual representations of the cards are used. Players must tap energy cards, assign them to a Pokemon card in play, prep the cards he or she will use next, draw cards, and so on, just like in the actual card game.

The overall goal for a single player game is to defeat the four grand Pokemon masters and become the ultimate Pokemon card player. In order to do this the player must first travel to the eight card dueling clubs and defeat the respective masters. If this is done, he or she receives eight medals which allow him or her the right to battle the grand masters. Along the way you earn new cards to add to your deck, which allow you to build the ultimate Pokemon deck. Pokemon Trading Card is great for players not used to the card game and its rules, since it has an easy to follow tutorial at the game's outset that teaches players the basics.

You can link up two Game Boys and play against friends, too. You can even use the Game Boy printer to print out the cards that you've received in the game. In addition, Nintendo is including an exclusive limited edition Pokemon card with the game.

The game looks great; all of the cards look like their real life counterparts and also accurately represent each tactile card's abilities and traits. Checking out all of the cards would cost a fortune in real life; but they're all right there on the screen and that's really cool. Pokemon Trading Card looks like a must-have for any Pokemon fan. We'll have to wait until the game's release to see whether or not it makes the actual cards obsolete.