Pokemon TCG Pocket Review: Just one more pack...

The Pokemon Trading Card Game has long stood as one of the pillars of the world’s most popular entertainment franchise. It’s seen numerous iterations and adaptations, including a handful of video game versions. The latest is Pokemon TCG Pocket, a mobile game that simplifies the mechanics and offers fans a new way to digitally collect their favorite creatures. It’s a fun way to experience the Pokemon TCG if you can overlook systems that strongly encourage microtransactions and other unhealthy practices.

Lay down your cards

While Pokemon TCG Pocket isn’t The Pokemon Company’s first attempt at bringing the beloved game to a digital platform, it is the first time that the game has been built from the ground up for mobile devices. The game’s greatest strength is simply how good it feels to rip a pack open and flip through the cards. There’s a lot of attention to detail here, too. For example, you can flip a pack around to open it backwards, as many players do in real life. When you pull the cards out of a pack, you can turn them to their side to take a glimpse at their borders, perfectly replicating the feeling you get when you get a peek at an upcoming card and can tell you’re about to pull something rare.

It’s this loop that initially drew me into TCG Pocket. The desire to open more packs and fill out my Pokedex (which only includes less than a quarter of the full Pokedex at launch) was bolstered by how gorgeous the cards look. TCG Pocket features both classic and original card designs, including the base set Kadabra and fat Pikachu. The game also introduces Immersive Cards, which feature expansive animated artwork that can be viewed by holding your finger down on a card. These animations are utterly gorgeous, and I hope many more cards get the immersive treatment in the future. For now, that privilege is exclusive to Charizard, Mewtwo, Pikachu, and Mew.

Pokemon TCG Pocket lets players open two free packs every 24 hours, with each pack containing five cards. However, there are a couple of ways to speed up the process. You can use Pack Hourglass, which is one of a mind-boggling 13 (yes, 13!) currencies in Pokemon TCG Pocket to reduce your pack cooldown. The less time left on your cooldown, the cheaper it will be to bypass. You earn Pack Hourglass from completing missions and leveling up. Pack Hourglass eventually becomes scarce, and you have to be cautious about when you decide to spend it. Of course, the game makes sure you’re aware that you can spend real-world money to buy Poke Gold and open packs with that.

Cards can also be acquired through Wonder Pick, which lets you snag a card that a friend or stranger recently pulled from a pack of their own. The catch here is that the cards are all flipped upside down and you must select one at random. You have a one-in-five chance of pulling the card you want, and in true shell game fashion, you’re always shown where the cards were located after you’ve made your selection. Wonder Pick has its own currency, which also replenishes over the course of multiple real-world hours, but don’t worry, Poke Gold is once again here to save the day if you run out of Wonder Hourglass. There is also of course a monthly subscription that increases your “free” daily packs and rewards.

It’s hard to not be cynical when Pokemon TCG Pocket is blatantly praying on our worst instincts, using a beloved property to nudge players towards spending real money to get what they want. It feels crummy when I open my 10th consecutive Charizard pack in hopes of getting a Starmie but instead receive my 12th Sizzlipede. Sure, one could argue that this dynamic also exists within the physical Pokemon TCG, but at least there’s the barrier of having to go to a store and manually open packs, and there aren’t over a dozen currencies to manage either.

As an adult, I know when to stop and put the game down, but I fear the sort of relationship a younger fan could develop with this game. It’s a genuine shame that I feel like a Pokemon game of all things should have some sort of disclaimer before you download it. It’s an all-too-common trend in the mobile space, and I could just as easily levy similar criticisms against games like Genshin Impact or Marvel Snap. In the end, these systems create delicious cash cows for the publisher but create diminishing returns for the player in the long run.

Decked out

Stepping off my soapbox, opening packs and collecting cards is just half of the experience in Pokemon TCG Pocket. Like with the physical game, you could be perfectly content with just collecting cards to show off to your friends and other players, but there’s also the option to take them into battle.

Battles in The Pokemon Trading Card Game are played quite differently than in the mainline Pokemon games, and TCG Pocket does an excellent job at simplifying the mechanics and making it easier for newcomers. As a child, I was confused by the numerous Energy, Trainer, and Support cards I’d pull from packs, but the UI and tooltips in TCG Pocket clearly lay out when it’s a good time for me to toss out a Professor Oak card, or if I’m about to end a turn without applying an Energy to a Pokemon. There are graphics that clearly indicate type weaknesses, and the move animations make battles feel a bit more lively.

I could see a hardcore TCG fan describing Pocket’s battles as a dumbed-down version of the original game, and they might even be right, but I like it. Battles go by quickly, which is perfect for the pick-up-and-play approach I have with mobile games. If you’re not an experienced deck builder, TCG Pocket will build a deck for you based on a desired type given your available cards. It’s a great way to skip the headache of deck-building and get to what players actually want to do. As you learn more about the game, you can go back and make specific changes to these decks and tune them to your liking.

Rewards can be earned from online battles, though Exp is only granted when you win, which feels unnecessarily cruel. Since Pokemon TCG Pocket is currently operating with only a fraction of the full Pokedex, the meta quickly shaped to revolve around a handful of powerful decks. If you run just a few online matches, you’re essentially guaranteed to run into the Mewtwo/Gardevoir combo, Pikachu EX, or one of the high-rolling Misty decks. It gets annoying, but I imagine the meta will even out once more Pokemon are added to the game.

Just keep pulling

I enjoy Pokemon TCG Pocket the most when I hardly play it at all. Logging in daily to do my free pack pulls and claim my free rewards is a simple and quiet life. However, the more time I spend in the app, the more frustrated I become with the game’s negative feedback loops and manipulative systems. I’ll undoubtedly check in for new events and the eventual Pokedex expansions, but as a lifelong fan of this franchise, it’s best that I keep Pokemon TCG Pocket at an arm’s-length.

This review is based on the iOS version of Pokemon TCG Pocket. Pokemon TCG Pocket is available for free on iOS and Android devices.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_