Pokemon Trading Card Game

"Nintendo could have done a lot more than this, but it is still really fun."

This game was really underplayed and thus is very underrated. Some of the main reasons for this are that the graphics of the game are not even as high quality as the graphics of the original games, and another part is that the card game did not catch on quite as much in the US of A, and this game did not have very much advertising backing to it. Also, it was more difficult than the originals and a little harder to get into. However, it is still a pretty good game, in my opinion.

Gameplay: 9/10.

Yeah, it is really that fun. This game is not lacking in gameplay at all. There is plenty to do and it is all fun. A pretty decent amount of cards to collect, which will take quite awhile to do. Also, there is several events that can happen at any point in the game, which makes it pretty fun to go around and check to make sure you are not missing a huge tournament or an opportunity to trade for a rare card. Even after you beat the game, they keep holding challenge cups randomly, in which you can earn one of the promotional cards that you possibly missed earlier in the game. So, I really liked that about the game. I really like how they keep the game a little bit interesting even after you beat it, by opening the challenge machine and still holding random tournaments. They did a better job of keeping it interesting after the game than the original Pokemon games did, in my opinion. The only thing about this game is that there could have been more cards to collect, which would of made it more fun, and the opposing card players could have been a -bit- harder. However, these were really just about all the cards that were released at this point, and they fixed both of these problems in the sequel (that was not released in the US of A).

Also, there is a pretty good amount of strategy involved. You really need to think about your deck and who you are going up against in order to have long-term success in this game. It is pretty difficult to go through this game with a single deck unless it is really good, which is unlikely since you start out with some mediocre cards. You really need to switch things up and use a lot of different cards to get through things, usually, which is another big plus. So, yeah, I really liked that.

Another thing I really liked about the gameplay is that you can go to the gyms in any order you want, so that you can go beat the gyms that would be easier to the type of deck you start out with early in the game. I like the flexibility and options they give you here.

The control is pretty good, but how could you screw that up in a game like this?

Story: 6/10.

Not much of a story here. It is pretty similar to the story in the original pokemon games. You want to be great, get all of the cards, and beat the pokemon trading card game masters or something of that sort, to get the legendary cards (the three legendary birds and dragonite). The legendary cards are kind of bad anyways, but whatever. This game amazingly made the story more childish than the previous, but oh well. Haha.

Graphics: 5/10.

The graphics are pretty bad here. They look worse than even most early Nintendo games. People walk in place constantly, the coloring is silly, everything is grainy, and it just does not look that good. The animations in the battles are pretty bad, as well. They could of done SO much better here. There is no excuse not to put the money into it and make this game the right way for being such a huge success-- I have no idea what Nintendo was thinking. There is a lot to be desired with the graphics.

Sound: 8.5/10.

Yeah, the sound is pretty good. The only reason it is not a 9 is because the sound effects in battle are terrible. The music in this game, however, is really good. I loved listening to it the entire time, and there were not even that many songs. They even had cool ending game songs for the last few battles, and I think Ronald had special themes as well. All of the music is catchy and really good in this game. I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall: 7.1/10.

This game was really enjoyable, but was destroyed by crap graphics and bad advertising. This game could of brought a lot more to the table, but it is still really fun. If you like pokemon and / or card games, try this out. It does not have the depth in strategy of something like Magic or even Yu-gi-oh, but it is still pretty good.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/09/09

Game Release: Pokemon Trading Card Game (US, 03/31/00)