Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket preview: this might be the biggest game on mobile

Could this virtual version of the beloved trading card experience hit the heights of Pokémon Go?

Pokémon TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

There’s nothing quite like opening a fresh pack of cards. In Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, a trading and battling game heading to iOS and Android devices on October 30, that simple act is profoundly satisfying. 

It’s essentially Creatures Inc.’s way of making sure you open more. And you know what? It works, annoyingly. To be fair, the developer has been running the real Pokémon TCG since 2003. That’s over two decades of dialing in on your lizard brain’s pleasure receptors.

In my hands-on I drag a finger across the screen to deftly slice the top off a foil packet emblazoned with a scowling Mewtwo. I can whip it off quickly or take my time and savor it, with each speed producing a corresponding sound effect. Such is the responsiveness, I can even fumble and mess it up.

Pokémon TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

There’s the option of swiping the card to flip it over and open it from the back, just to add a bit more tactility, and for fans of delayed gratification, you can save up to ten packs and open them simultaneously with one mass flick of the finger. Thwift.

I’ve never seen more convincing virtual cards than in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. Each one has the appropriate thickness down to a hundredth of a millimeter, and the only element giving away it’s made from polygons is the subtle, slightly unfortunate jagged edge around the card when you look closely.

The art itself is sublime, with each of the current roster of 226 cards having a number of variants. There are eight tiers of rarity. Where the standard rarity uses the actual art of the card’s real-world counterpart, other cards get creative. 

Gorgeous ‘full art’ cards have no border, with the likes of marine reptile Lapras or legendary fire bird Moltres taking up the entire frame, while ‘immersive cards’ let you zoom into a living scene. An ultra-rare Pikachu card invites you into a moving forest full of bounding Ponyta and fluttering Pidgey. Cards come alive in ways they can’t do in real life.

Pokémon TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

You can also apply your own effects to cards. Place them on backdrops of glass and bubble, and add flair in the form of smoke, stars, flames, and sparkles. A rare, holographic Raichu mounted on metal with a parallax effect when you angle your phone screen is something to behold.

One pack contains five cards, and you earn a pack free every 12 hours just by logging in. That’s two packs a day. However, you can also reduce the time between packs by one hour if you buy a special hourglass item. Purchasing a premium pass, currently priced at ¥980 in my preview build ($7/£6), gives you a third daily pack.

Simply, this is a game that wants you - begs you - to keep opening cards. When you log in, your next pack is front and center. You even get rewards for opening them, which leads to you being able to open more.

With all this card excitement, it’s easy to forget there’s an actual game under here. To earn cards - and the currency needed to buy them - you’ll need to fight. Battles resemble a streamlined version of the physical Pokémon TCG. Decks reduce from 60 to 20, and benches go from five to three. 

Pokémon TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

Instead of Prize Cards, games are won or lost using a points system. You’ll need just three points to win a game, and like the physical game, you’ll get one point for knocking out a regular Pokémon or two for a Pokémon EX. Energy cards are removed. Instead, you generate energy automatically upon each round. TCG Pocket’s cards have HP bars, too, so it’s easy to see how much damage you’ve been dealt and, equally importantly, how much of your health remains.

You can battle the AI, or take on opponents either locally or online. There’s even an auto-battle option, which I’m told you can use to grind out wins and earn currency. That sounds like it could be abused if Creatures Inc. doesn’t watch it closely.

The amount of currencies takes time to get your head around. For example, there’s something called a ‘special shop ticket’ that lets you buy accessories, such as custom card sleeves and playmats, and there’s also an ‘event shop ticket’ that lets you buy limited-time cosmetics. The ‘emblem ticket’ currency, meanwhile, lets you buy fancy new emblems for your profile, while ‘shine dust’ is obtained by trading in duplicate cards.

That’s on top of other meters to pay attention to, like ‘wonder stamina’. This recovers over time, and governs how often you can use your ‘wonder pick’ to open a pack and choose one of its cards, placed face down, to keep forever. ‘Wonder hourglasses’ can speed up wonder stamina recovery, and you can also use a ‘rewind watch’ to take your ‘wonder pick’ again.

If all that all sounds a bit confusing, you’re not alone. The convoluted mix of currencies and countdown meters does threaten to suck the joy out of the whole experience, revealing too much of the monetizing machinations at work.

Pokémon TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

The overall aim is, of course, to collect ‘em all. You can use your Pokédex to see what you’re missing, and earn more currency by completing themed collections, like an all-grass-type team. From there, you can create customized collections with binders and covers. There’s one decorated with Eevee’s various evolutions frolicking in a garden.

Right now, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is mostly comprised of first-generation Pokémon, but you can guarantee more are on the way. Creatures Inc. says it’ll release new expansions regularly, with over 200 new cards featured in the first, titled Genetic Apex (A1).

It might not get you out and about like Pokémon Go, but you can’t deny the pure appeal of realistically slicing open pack after pack of beautifully designed virtual cards while sitting comfortably on your backside. 

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket launches on iOS and Android Wednesday, October 30, 2024.