I’ve been waiting for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket to pop up on my phone for a while now. I know we reported that it would be arriving towards the end of October, but as it got nearer to Halloween with no arrival of the app, I started to get a little bit impatient. Imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up to see a message from the App Store telling me that my ‘pre-order of Pokémon TCG Pocket is available now’, followed by the exact same message from my friend Danny in block capitals.
The App itself is a stroke of genius for 90s kids like me, and I can already feel myself getting as addicted to it as I was Simpsons: Tapped Out and Family Guy The Quest For Stuff. From the moment the white title screen popped up followed by loading screens of swirling symbols, I was hooked. It took me back to the day that my mum took me to Argos to get my very first Pokémon Starter Pack, the day when my obsession with Pokémon became incredibly real. Who knew that shiny Machoke would one day have me excitedly swiping my screen to tear virtual packets and marvelling at shiny cards on my iPhone 15 Pro.
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Taking A Look At Pokémon TCG Pocket
For those of you who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, let me dive into what this App is. It’s essentially a digital version of the trading card game, the cards we used to and still collect from foil packets bought from newsagents or gaming stores. Instead of buying packets with your pocket money over the counter, however, you get the chance to choose from themed booster packs and build up a digital pokedex, taking your cards with you wherever you go.
One thing I will say before I go on is that there are in-app purchases available for those who want to ‘speed things up’ but it’s not necessary at all. Regular Pass users can open 2 packs of cards every day, whereas Premium Pass users can open 3. There are premium missions for Premium Pass users too, but there’s more than plenty for people to do without paying any money whatsoever, which is the route I’ll be going down for this article.
So, Regular Pass Members can open 2 packs a day, and that’s controlled by Pack Stamina uploading on a 12-hourly basis. You can complete missions to get hourglasses, each hourglass reducing that time by 1 hour. I have 30 so far and could definitely open another 2 packs today, but I’ve already opened some cool cards and used some hourglasses to open up another pack to level up… and I have lots of work to do, so I’m going to hold off doing more for now.
Opening Packs
Using your finger to tear open the packs is so satisfying – that’s the bit that has me looking at my countdown timer like I’m clock-watching during a school exam! There are 3 Genetic Apex packs to choose from initially with Pikachu, Charizard, and Mewtwo on them. My first Charizard pack brought out a shiny Exeggutor, and the others had some cool Pokémon from across the generations, all of which are now in my Pokédex after swiping up on the screen and registering them. There’s a real sense of excitement as you swipe through the cards in your pack too just like opening a real set, and you can flip them open to open from the back if you want to see the Shiny first.
As I’ve said above, Regular Pass Members can open two packs a day, and hourglasses can bring the time down by an hour for each one used. There are other ways to open packs too like completing missions, so the more you put into the game, the more you’ll get out of it.
Wonder Picks
Perhaps the most interesting feature is the Wonder Pick area, a section that allows you to have a chance at picking cards that other users have opened in their packs. Other people’s 5-card selections only stay around for a certain amount of time, but you can use a Rewind Clock to make a selection available again if it’s become unavailable.
It’s interesting to see what other cards people have picked, and you can use between 1 and 5 pieces of Wonder Stamina to ‘try your luck’ at getting a specific card. I used one piece of Stamina to try and get a Centiskorch and ended up getting a Heatmoor, so when I found a shiny Charizard, my favourite card of all time, that I could gamble 3 pieces of stamina on, I didn’t really think I’d end up getting it in my collection. I should have believed in myself more, however, because I’ve now annoyed my mate Danny twice this morning by showing it to him in my Pokédex, and you can see it in the picture above!
When you successfully play a Wonder Pick game, you can give the person who you picked a card from a gift that they can claim in the shop. You don’t actually take that card off that person, it’s just another way of getting more cards for yourself to add to your collection. And, like Pack Hourglasses, you can use Wonder Hourglasses to reduce the amount of time that you need to wait for your stamina to increase again. Each hourglass reduces the time by an hour.
Battling & Trading
Once you get to Level 3, battling becomes available. I’ve just unlocked the battle mode and have been working through the tutorial before writing this section. Everything is set out just like a real battle you might have across your dining room with your deck by your side, and I’m getting a massive throwback to playing the Pokémon Trading Card game on Game Boy Color, something that I’ve been revisiting on the Switch in the run-up to TCGP releasing on the App Store.
Everything’s bright and vibrant, and it’s easy to get to grips with battling opponents. You can play solo against the computer or battle other card collectors around the world, each bringing you items from missions in the Mission Menu.
Trading hasn’t been opened yet, assumedly because this is the first day that the app dropped for many of us. Still, I’m a big fan of the social element that this is going to bring to the table. One of the best things about Pokémon cards was that it brought people together, and even though there isn’t a physical card element here, the idea of Pokémon fans getting together once more and swapping digletts for abras to complete their Pokédex warms my 90s heart.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I’m loving everything I’ve seen from the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket App. I’ve only been messing around with it for a couple of hours and I’ve loved every second. It’s definitely something I can see myself logging into every morning to get a nostalgia hit. It’s not an app that’s continually pushing me to spend money either; it allows you to go at your own pace and just enjoy your own Pokémon journey, and I respect that. I’m going to stop writing now and keep on honing my skills, so if you see ‘SebDodo’ pop up, battle me!
