Digital card games like Marvel Snap have seen a lot of success in recent years with short, satisfying matches that you can finish in a few minutes. The mobile release of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket almost seems like a direct answer to this trend. From uncomplicated card text to simplified rules, it axes much of the complexity of the original Pokémon TCG while still wrapping it up in an addictive collection loop that looks to have players checking their phones daily and maybe even spending real-world money on microtransactions to get more cards.
After spending a little too much time opening booster packs and battling friends and randoms, we can say TCG Pocket is as predatory as a Pidgeot stalking a Caterpie and more mesmerising than a Swoobat using Attract. On the collection side of things, at least.
TCG Pocket adopts quite a few mobile game tactics to capture your attention and never let it go. When you first sign up, you’re presented with a pack of Pokémon cards to rip open that automatically gifts you a rare EX card. These are more powerful versions of certain Pokémon Cards. This kinetic, satisfying process requires you to swipe your finger across the pack to open it. After opening dozens of packs, we haven’t tired of it.
From there, TCG Pocket introduces the Wonder Pick system, which allows you to select one random card from the pack of another player (and sometimes a friend if you’ve added them). Don’t worry – you don’t steal their card. Rather, it gives you a chance at nabbing a rare card another player pulled. You can see what cards you've pulled before you pick the pack, too. The first time you do this, TCG Pocket also makes sure you get the rare no matter what, which just entices you to keep trying further down the line.
Then, much like getting slammed with a Hydro Pump, TCG Pocket floods you with Pack Hourglasses – a currency used to unlock more packs – from completing simple beginner missions. Normally you can only open a pack every 12 hours, but these beginner missions will ensure you have about 20 to open within the first hour or two of play as each Pack Hourglass removes one hour from that timer. In these packs, you’ll likely pull a handful of rare cards and you’ll be riding as high as a Rayquaza.
But this isn’t the norm. Once those are gone, opening booster packs become a lot less frequent, and that pull to spend real-world money to open more hits hard, especially when faced with multiple different in-game currencies to keep track of.
By our count, there are 10 different tokens to collect along with a paid premium pass. You've got the Pack Hourglasses that we've also mentioned, but there's also Wonder Hourglasses, which let you reduce the time it takes to recover Wonder Stamina and dive into more Wonder Picks. Shinedust is used to buy a cosmetic called 'flair'. There are also Shop tickets, which you can use to purchase items in the in-game store. We've only named a few here, and as you can see, it's a bit overwhelming.
Marvel Snap hit the ground running with its consumer-friendly approach (before they slowly eroded it away with increased monetisation). With the weight of the Pokémon brand behind it, TCG Pocket isn’t pulling any monetisation punches. We wouldn't say it's aggressive but the game does slow down to an unfriendly crawl if you're not able to spend the money on Poké gold, which is also used to recover pack stamina or buy items from the shop.
If you can look past all this and have patience, opening packs, pulling full art cards that pull you inside them to show off a little Pokémon diorama, and putting together binders to show off your favourites to friends satisfies much the same way doing so decades ago in the schoolyard did. A lot of the art is stunning, making it a delight to pull something particularly rare or to just enjoy some cute little designs. Despite our qualms with the game's currency structure, we look forward to logging in each day to open a of couple packs.
As for the battles, there are too many changes from the original TCG to list here, but everything has been hugely simplified. Most notably, playing decks are much smaller and energy is awarded each turn rather than players drawing energy cards from the deck. TCG Pocket also pares down card text dramatically with most Pokémon only having an attack or two with some easy-to-parse effects.
At launch, there is no ranked ladder or rewards for battling other players other than a minuscule amount of experience, though a rather robust battle tutorial does grant a sizable chunk of the aforementioned currencies. So they're worth diving into.
These quicker matches are a double-edged Doublade. On one hand, they’re easy to jump into – perfect for a handful of matches a day and a good starting point for beginners. On the other, you’ll know whether you’re going to lose or not within the first turn or two if you don’t draw your key cards and your opponent does, which can be discouraging.
We can’t count how many times we went up against an opponent with a Moltres EX that instantly began farming fire energy for a Charmander – and eventually a Charizard EX – while we languished, praying we’d draw our Dragonair so we could get our powerful Dragonite rolling. We quickly learned to retreat if our opponent started strong and we lacked our win condition because with simplified cards we had no recourse for a comeback.
The heavy monetisation also makes TCG Pocket somewhat pay-to-win unless you re-roll your account to open the initial glut of packs over and over again until you pull meta standard cards (yes – that’s a thing. We tried it ourselves).
At the same time, if you’re less competitively inclined, we enjoyed hunting for specific cards to make certain types of decks work. Our favourite Pokémon is Cubone, for example, and we managed to pull two full-art Cubone cards. While we only have one Marowak EX – two are necessary for a competitive deck – we enjoyed battling with our skull-wearing crybabies all the same.
Conclusion
All told, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket's collection loop is heavily monetised with about six too many currencies to keep track of, but the kinetic feeling of opening packs and pulling gorgeous cards of your favourite Pokémon transcends most of the annoyance that the monetisation causes. The battles, on the other hand, function as a great baseline for newcomers but currently lack the competitive or strategic edge to invest a lot of time into them. In this way, Pokémon TCG Pocket mirrors the real-world TCG as the collection aspect once again proves much more appealing than battling despite reworked mechanics.
Comments 50
My friends and partner and I have been really enjoying it. It’s easy, stress free, and I personally feel zero reason to spend money. The cool card effects when you get a “good one” really surprised me as well!
To be completely honest, I vowed not to play mobile games any more, due to them being designed to be monetized dopamine triggers, which I think is very unhealthy. It looks like this game is no different. Even though I was kind of willing to give it a go, but I can't because the Dutch government bans games like these from the Play Store.
I can't even seem to access the battles
The monetization will be reason number 1 why I won't be getting this, ew. The game could be the greatest ever, but that kind of practice will always be the worst.
I don't understand the hate in the battles, they are fun to me, and I keep discovering different strategies everytime I face people. It also make the collection more fun since it give a practical value to the cards.
Thanks for the review, it gives a good idea of what this is all about. I'm sure as a kid I would have loved collecting those beautiful virtual cards.
Any idea how many cards are there in total? - just curious!
It's honestly wild to complain about the monetization, considering that in real life I should spend 7+€ for every pack I open up, while here I have 2 of them for free every day.
I’m really enjoying my time with it. I was worried I would hate the 20 deck battles but I actually love it and it makes deck building fast and simple and fun for me. The presentation of the cards is wonderful
What I did experience of it I liked,
but it completely crashed my phone.
I'm one of the few plagued with crashes that won't even start the game. Bummer
Will you do a review on Pocket Camp Complete?
I'm having fun with it, and learning the basics through the Game Boy game a few months back has come in pretty handy. Obviously it won't be quite as fun going forward as the currency grind slows down and I get more and more duplicates, but hopefully each new set will come with another burst of free pulls to keep things exciting.
@Yalloo Like 225 currently
@Yalloo It's about 260 so far (including promos) but they so far have only added one set (about 230 cards) and clearly will add more in the future but remains to be seen at what rate.
So far in two days I have amassed about 80 unique cards without spending anything. I am also having a lot of fun learning how to play the game - the basics are pretty simple and it does a good job teaching you. It does seem however that playing online it all depends on how good your deck is so I am way behind.
Doesn't seem to be available in the European app Store? (Netherlands)
Pretty happy with it, since the UI is a lot cleaner than, say, Pokemon Unite. I'll just be opening a couple packs a day and that'll be it. I like that the daily missions don't actually require playing. I'm kinda tired of games having daily missions, tbh.
The art's nice, I enjoy a simplified take on the TCG, and the shop prices are so insane that I never have to feel tempted to shell out money.
$120/yr for an extra pack of digital cards a day is hilarious.
Mobile devs design a game without 10 different in-game currencies challenge (impossible)
@NielsNL in Italy it's available, so it's probably a regional thing.
I'll download and try this soon. I just want to collect the cards; a lot of the recent TCG arts look amazing, and this is much cheaper without actually buying them. I can patiently wait to open a couple free packs a day. I've gotten by without putting a cent into Pokemon Go for this long. I doubt this'll be any different.
@NielsNL I'll wait for someone from your region to confirm for sure. But based on discussion I've seen elsewhere, I think this is unavailable in The Netherlands and Belgium due to video game anti-lootbox laws.
@Zaruboggan @Ooccoo_Jr Thanks guys, have fun with it 🙏🏻✌🏻
I played through the tutorial and then deleted the app and threw my phone in the garbage.
I love it,have been opening like 30 packs or more since release without spending a single cent.
It's easy, nice design and runs great on my phone.
Can we get actual Pokemon spin-offs please? The Switch in it's 8 years only got 3 real ones, and only one of those was original.
If anyone wants to add me there, my ID is 1572-2861-8340-3602
Really wished it would just allow you to use the cards you have...
@NielsNL QooApp
Yeah, the cons absolutely don't apply to me either as I'll just keep on getting the free stuff every day and won't particularly stress over the battles (and also have the old GBC games for those) - it's also worth mentioning that trading should be coming at some point as there's a currently unavailable section for it despite what the deck says!
Little impressed that Nintendo Life pulled off some gacha strategies via rerolling.
Not really the type to do that and just work with what I got.
So far though, the game doesn't sound as flexible or as friendly as YuGiOh master duel.
This is entirely what I expected and I'm happy with it.
I just want to collect the cards and I'm not in a grand rush to do so.
So I'm fine at best getting the premium pass once in a while and just taking what I can get.
A gatcha only really needs to allow you to reasonably play without paying to be fair and you open at least two packs a day without even doing anything.
It's a neat little card collector game with a PvP attached to give you something to do with your collection.
First 24 hours was great, I got to open a ton of cards for free!
But day 2 now and I’m already feeling “meh” about it. 1 pack every 12 hours isn’t very exciting so, not sure how much longer I’ll keep it up for free. The battling is alright though. At least there’s something to do other than open packs.
Pokemon TCG are real life gachas. Why the complaint, then?
I find it to be pretty boring honestly. It's just opening packs and playing very casual and uninteresting matches with other players. I'll stick with the real game
I'm having a blast collecting digital cards to appreciate the artwork for free on my phone! Free booster packs each day, so what's not to like? It's my ideal kind of phone game that excels at just 10~ minutes of play each day, for those pesky lunch breaks.
Plus the special cards that let you immerse yourself inside of the artwork is worth the download alone, every Pokemon fan needs to experience that!
While the game itself comes with all the inevitable pitfalls of a TCG with a hyper-competitive scene (ie: you either keep up with the meta or get your for-funsies homebrew deck steamrolled eighty percent of the time) I'm here for the gorgeous art all day long.
@Savage_Joe Because video game gachas are typically friendlier these days
@Samalik I was addicted and spent thousands of dollars on a Saint Seiya gacha game. Video game gachas are friendly, all right… to those on the receiving end of the money.
@Samalik It's more like Duel Links both in terms of the simplified gameplay and limited cardpool. And the horrible grind and monitization, of course.
@Savage_Joe Because you played a licenced gacha game, which basically assume you are already a sucker for the ip they bought out. So yeah, like mainstream gaming, they are something to avoid. Even worse in the case of gacha games because they always get shut down fast due to being a cash grab
If you play an original one like Nikke or Blue Archive, you are more likely to be treated fairly, because the lifeblood of original gacha IPs is loyalty. They don't have anything else to go off of until AFTER they get popular. And because of that, they are far more competitive with each other than they are with the consumer.
the issue is kids will play latest stumble guys fad etc they can have fun spend nothing. pokemon needs new audiance and kids and shops are ditching it
I prefer they make a Pokemon TCG game on the Switch/next console please. With a story mode.
For me good idea think I would appeal to youngsters as a 39years old collector nothing beats the real thing open a packet and finding a full art card. My duplicate I swap with my daughter she collects them to . Maybe iam old fashioned
0/10, no N pfp, end of review.
No thanks. I'll be playing the original Pokemon Trading Card game for nostalgia.
@Savage_Joe
For me personally, it is because the real life version was fun and didn't seem like work. You pay money and get random cards to collect, battle with, or trade (the same features as the video game and theme of the anime). All you have to do is learn the mechanics of the actual game play part, where the fun is.
I haven't finished the tutorial yet, but I already feel like this is an economy simulator and not a card game. I don't want to learn about how to exchange different currencies and how to take advantage of timers and dailies. All of that stuff is work and doesn't feel related to Pokemon or to fun. The actual game part looks to be watered down to the point where there is no strategy at all, which takes the fun out of the only part that could have been fun.
The beautiful face of the app will likely not save it, at least for me. Admittedly feeling a little grumpy, because I was excited for this game.
Fun game. Hope they eventually print physical versions of some of the currently exclusive cards.
@Savage_Joe Sounds like a you problem frankly. There is such a thing called restraint. You can really only blame if yourself if you can't tell yourself "no."
@Milk_ To you, I'll say this: it's just a game. Sometimes you don't need to min/max one. I'd be burnt out too if I were you, but good thing I'm not, because I'm not burnt out. I'll open packs every time I remember to open any, and I'll be happy. Some of y'all are just so...intense.
@Xeraphis The point of my comment was I am not into min/max, but it seems that is all the game offers, so it turned me off. The actual game part is barely there. 90% of what you do is work with the game’s economy. Opening packs is part of that. There isn’t much of a game at all, just busy work. I want to relax and have fun. For some people doing busy work is fun, but for me it is not, it is tedious. I don’t want something intense. I don’t want something boring. I want to have fun.
As someone with a rather unhealthy addiction to collecting Pokemon cards, I thought this would be great. But I don't like what data the app collects and shares, so it's gonna have to be a no.
Mobile Game of the Year!
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