Pokémon TCG Pocket – for virtual collectors (The Pokémon Company)
A new virtual version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game is out next month, and it mixes beautifully animated cards with a shockingly expensive subscription.
At the Pokémon World Championships in Hawaii this year there was a definite buzz, and long queues, not just for the Pokémon Center and its exclusives but for a sneak peek at the new mobile game Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket – the latest attempt to recreate the hugely popular card game as a mobile app. Large screens displayed packs being furiously slashed in the style of Fruit Ninja, as spectators and competitors tried to get one of the converted animated immersive art cards.
These special cards are almost like an episode of Pokémon Horizons in their own right, with beautifully animated scenes that highlight both the Pocket Monsters themselves and their environment. Fans’ hearts melted and you could instantly tell that The Pokémon Company was onto a winner. Even the non-animated exclusive art cards, featuring Pokémon such as Sabrina and Articuno, made competitors wish they could instantly start using them in competition.
During the tournament closing ceremony, it was confirmed, by The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara, that Pokémon TCG Pocket will launch on October 30. But I wanted to know more and already Reddit was awash with speculation about microtransactions and how these new digital card packs might reflect the physical card game meta.
Luckily, I was able to attend a sneak preview earlier this month, where I discovered that the game is not, as many fans had assumed, a reworking of the existing Pokémon Trading Card Game Live app but a new game that’s more about aesthetics than competitive mechanics.
Battling takes a back seat in TCG Pocket, since at its core it is about building and managing an animated card collection. Players who log in regularly are rewarded with the excitement of opening at least two booster packs daily (one every 12 hours) and an option to reduce wait times through in-game rewards like Pack Hourglasses and Poké Gold – which, as everyone suspected, cost real money.
Each digital TGC pack contains five cards from the first digital card set, called Genetic Apex. Genetic Apex booster packs are available in three variants – Pikachu, Charizard and Mewtwo – and each of these Pokémon has an immersive card to look out for. But as much as I was initially mesmerised by the intricate animations, holographic borders, and simulated card thickness I can’t help but wonder how TCG Pocket will compete with and replicate the physical act of collecting in the long term.
Pokémon TCG Pocket – it’s all about building a collection (The Pokémon Company)
These packs heavily reference the first generation of Pokémon and re-use TCG artwork for some decent nostalgia of the base set onward. Featuring over 200 cards and three unique pieces of pack artwork, the set uses diamonds at the bottom of the card to designate rarity. The lowest rarity …read more
Source:: Metro
