Plays like it's 1999 - and that couldn't mean anything better
But the story won’t drive you here. No, the story’s far too awkward. You’re trying to become the ultimate Pokemon card master by collecting neat medallion trinkets at local gyms and then battling a group of four, elite and above all others. Sound familiar? It’s the whole Pokemon story (as in, Red, Blue, Gold, Silver, etc) except instead of actual monsters you’re trying to conquer using cards with pictures depicting the monsters. Right.
If you’re not into Pokemon cards, this game won’t convert you. It’ll probably push you even further away, actually, as the battles can be slow and dull at times if you haven’t a clue as to what this weird Gengar thing’s ‘Pokemon Power’ does, or why it’s hurting you. It’s confusing, and while the game’s cards will tell you what they do in their digital form, it requires several screens to display the info, and it’s simplified. Plus, if you don’t know what any of the Pokemon TCG (trading card game) lingo is, you probably won’t ‘get it’ from the card descriptions anyway.
When you begin the game, you’re introduced into the card game with a very baby-ish holding-your-hand-the-whole-time-through tutorial that can be annoying beyond belief for the Pokemon TCG veterans but probably a blessing to the totally clueless. After about 5 minutes of tutorial, you’re given a Pokemon card deck of 60 cards and some extras. You’re then asked to venture through the world, battling and defeating opponents to become the ultimate Pokemon card master.
If you’re a total beginner, the hardest part will be totally picking up the game - the opening tutorial covers some aspects, but not everything. You can go back to that same place and learn everything through texts, but it sucks compared to hands on experience. Pokemon TCG veterans will plow through the first dozen opponents with ease, while the beginners will be struggling to beat the very first one. It can be extremely tough on the newbies, so keep that in mind.
However, after (or if) everything clicks and you’re very familiar with the game, the fun will pick up immediately. It plays like an RPG that uses a deck of cards to battle rather than creatures. You draw a card each turn starting with a hand of seven. You then must choose if you should use that ‘Trainer’ card in your hand (a tool, of sorts, with many varieties - for example, one Trainer may heal 20 hit points, while another may allow you to draw two more cards), or if you should energize your monster card in battle with an energy card and attack your opponent’s monster. Thing of course get much, much more complex than this - this is just a quick, overly simplified instance that could occur. Choices. Strategy. What makes role playing games fun. What this game manages to do well.
So you venture around, battling people. After you defeat someone, you are given a ‘booster pack’ - a pack of ten Pokemon cards. And here’s where the real strategy comes in. You can only have 60 cards in a deck, and only certain numbers of certain types. However, beyond those restrictions the deck is yours to totally customize - to build into an unbeatable deck.
Customizing your deck is half the game - if you come into a battle with the wrong deck you’re sure to lose (or at least really, really struggle). You have to choose the right cards - choose the cards that are strong against your opponents, the ones that don’t have a weakness to theirs. If you come into battle with a ‘fire’ Pokemon deck and go up against a ‘water’ deck, common sense tells you you’re going to fail, as fire is weak to water. However, come with a ‘fire’ deck and go up against a ‘grass’ deck and you’ll probably have the upper hand. It’s not always obvious what to do, though - for example, ‘psychic’ types are generally weak to themselves. So do you go into battles with ‘psychic’ types of your own, or do you choose another type to make it easier on both yourself and your opponent? There are multiple layers to consider in the Pokemon TCG and that’s precisely what makes it so addictive.
Card fans coming in hoping for the Neo Genesis cards, Ruby/Sapphire cards, Hidden Legends cards or whatever series they have out these days, will be terribly disappointed. Pokemon TCG is an old game, and hence has the old-school cards - Base Set, Jungle and Fossil. These three card sets were the first three card sets in the series. Old timers like myself who grew up with these sets (and generally left a set or two past these) will easily cry joy and will be able to get very nostalgic. Blastoise with Rain Dance Pokemon Power? Charizard’s mighty 100 damage Fire Spin attack? Ditto’s Transformation? This is the golden age of Pokemon brought back to life in your handheld. It’s awesome. The kids will cry foul (“What!? 100 damage is the highest amount of damage that can be done? 120 hit points is the maximum? There aren’t any Gold/Silver/Ruby/Sapphire Pokemon?”) but this game will easily be more enjoyable to the guys who played with these same cards (Base Set through Fossil) back when the series was popular. And that’s half the fun of Pokemon TCG - reliving the past in all it’s glory (and with less a mess, and no price for the actual cards excluding the game itself! No more paying five bucks for 11 cards!).
Two player mode is one of the most fun multiplayer Game Boy Color modes to come around in a good while. Playing head to head against a Pokemon TCG veteran is the game at it’s very best. No more artificial intelligence - if your opponent was good with the actual cards, he’ll be just as good in-game. The competitive feeling battling your friend is unparalleled if you dug the cards back when. It’s like a trip back to 1999, and I can tell you you’ll love every second of it.
The game doesn’t slip by without faults, though. The graphics are hardly better, if maybe worse than the regular Pokemon game’s on the GBC (Red/Blue/Silver/Gold) depicting stubby little Earthbound-ish guys walking around on dull, repetitive tiles battling enemies with Anime faces with cards that only barely represent the real card’s image. The sound falls in key with the standard Pokemon games, with light, poppy tunes that sound like they came fresh out of a Midi-making program and speed up whenever a battle takes place. Neither aren’t so much faults as they are disappointments - it’s nothing new or experimental, which would have helped.
Years after release this game is probably better than it was back when it came out thanks to the extended period of time since the sets in the game saw daylight. If you’re ready to bust out the decks one more time, you’ll be able to enjoy this trip back to Grade 7 and enjoy this game to it’s full potential (which it has a lot of). This is a fantastic way to remind yourself why you were hooked on it in the first place, and possibly even get you hooked on it again. If you played with these cards when you were younger (and enjoyed it), you have no reason to pass up this game. I can’t recommend this enough.