Pokemon Trading Card Game

"Good Game, GREAT way to learn the CCG"

This is my first review.. So please give me some slack on anything I did wrong.. but.. onto the review..

The Pokemon trading card game, is really a great game to play, its fun, and really easy to learn, even if you have never picked up a single card from the Card game.

Graphics 8/10
The graphics on the Pokemon game you have to split into two sections, the actual Card game play and the Overworld view. The Overworld view (Where you travel from club to club and the travel around in the clubs) They are simplistic, very kiddy like, very much like the regular Pokemon game. The people looked scrunched, and the environment is very simplistic looking, but for every minute your out walking, you will spend 5-10 minutes playing the actual Card game itself, which brings me to the Card game itself. The Card game, I was really surprised by the way they got the actual pictures down from actual Cards, they are really well drawn and really good looking. Overall I was impressed how they got all those card pictures onto that tiny Game boy Cartridge. The animation of the Game, basically gets the job done here as well, coin flips look like coin flips, and attack animations on the cards are real basic, like a fire attack, you see a little swirl of fire, or a little punch for a fighting attack. Its basic, but like I said, it gets the Job done.
Sound 5/10
This is what brought the game down from being a 9 the sound in this game..If you don't mind not listening to the attack sounds of the game, turn the volume down. The music is not well done in my opinion. They could have put music from the Original Pokemon Game and it would have been much better. The music is just not that good, some of it really grates my ears. They could have put a little more effort or like I said, put the music from the Original game and it would have been much better.
The sounds of the game, they are average at best, real simplistic, but once again they get the job done here too. If you attack with a fire attack, you hear a little flame noise burning, or if you use a beam attack, you hear a laser sound, basically, you attack with water, you hear a water noise, a punch sound, you hear a jab like sound. They are nothing spectacular but.. like I said they do get the job done and are good enough provided the simple GB cart.
Gameplay 10/10
WOW! This game is so simple to learn and so easy to play, even if you never played the CCG before! The book explains everything in real easy words. And even if you throw the book aside and just start to play, There is a real good tutorial that tells you the basics of the game and it takes like 5 minutes to do. And you will pick up the more ''Advanced'' Rules (Paralysis, Poison, Confusion, and Retreating) real quick. There is also an online glossary that can tell you everything you need to know about the game quickly and easily. You can also always take the tutorial again, but you won't have to do that, the game is easy enough to learn that you won't have to worry about it. As for deck construction, which I don't really like to do, at all, there are ''Deck Machines'' that if you have the right amount of cards, will build the deck automatically, there are also theme deck machines that once you beat one of the Club members (Grass, lighting, science, water, rock,fighting, psychic and water) You get a medal and you unlock more deck themes from the deck machine. Whenever you beat an opponent, you get 2 booster packs with random cards, so you can easily make decks quickly even if you don't use the deck machine.
Overall 8/10
This is a real fun game, for people that want to learn how to play the game, and for players of the card game itself. Its got good graphics, tremendous gameplay, the only thing holding the game back is the poor sound quality. But.. If your a Pokemon fan, or a CCG fan, this game is well worth every dollar you put into it. Go and buy it now. :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/00, Updated 04/14/00