Soapbox features allow our individual writers to give their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this piece, Ryan explores the idea of a reload of Pokémon TCG video games and why now might be the perfect time for such a release …
Considering how many Pokémon games there are, and how well The Pokémon Company still holds every last cent of its worldwide fans, it’s quite surprising to realize that the official Pokémon trading card game has never been adapted. video game forms twice – and even then one of them was exclusive to Japan.
While the ideas may not always be for me, I would appreciate using Pokémon in new and interesting ways – like an app that helps kids brush their teeth – but we’m talking about a series that’s not afraid to to recycle not old ideas or fans care about them or not. There was a great eleven Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, and between main series entries, remakes, spin-offs and mobile titles, fans of the franchise are used to seeing a small handful of new Pokémon experiences each year.
So why is the Trading Card Game format – an already established game in its own right that has shifted a staggering 30.4 billion cards over the past twenty-five years – so little used? Would a new video game based on the card game make sense? Would it generate the insane revenue levels the company would expect and help it even change more physical maps? The answers to the latter questions are ‘probably’ and ‘quite possible’, but I would argue that there has never been a better time for the Pokémon gods to try.
Since you’ll probably hear numerous times over the next few months when new products hit store shelves, this is Pokémon’s 25th anniversary. A ‘very special’ celebration year has been teased (Katy Perry is already on board, to begin with) and because you know how much The Pokémon Company would like to revisit the past, you can be sure there will be a few nods to where the series begins to be thrown into the mix. Indeed, on an appropriate topical note, some iconic Pokémon cards are being re-released as part of the fun.
Suddenly, a whole community of players who gather at clubs or game shops to play and trade can no longer do so
That’s a good enough reason for a recharge of TCG per se, but the commemoration obviously falls at a strange time with the COVID pandemic raging; While video games actually flourished due to people staying indoors, the Trading Card Game is a completely different story. A potential drop in sales aside, trading card games shine the brightest in social environments – the one thing that currently cannot exist. Suddenly, a whole community of players who gather at clubs or game shops to play and trade can no longer do so, and going to a store to get some boosters is not exactly the same jolly journey as not earlier.
Now, TCG Online – an official and ever-expanding digital version of the game that can be played on smart devices – almost mark all the subjects. In TCG Online, you can fight opponents with digital decks you built yourself, buy new maps to add to your digital collection, and even use codes of real, physical map packs to add even more. It’s a wonderfully accurate recreation of the game and certainly works as a substitute for the real thing, but it’s missing something, and that something is a magic video game.
Let me quickly insert a line or two about the thing that inspired me to write this piece in the first place: Pokémon Trading Card Game for the Game Boy. One of the two video games based on the TCG that appeared on the console was released in 1998-2000, depending on your region, allowing players to build their own decks consisting of cards from the first three cards of the rights Trading Card Game. From there, you assume eight clubs to defeat their masters and earn medals before embarking on a version of Pokémon’s classic Elite Four setup. Once you are best certified (like no one ever was), you can go fight and trade with friends who also have a copy of the game on their Game Boy.
I’ve played it again over the last few weeks, and although the nostalgia helps, I’m really fallen in love with it again as well as the Trading Card Game itself. Achieving goals to get booster packs in the game – no purchase required – is super fun, and drawing a digital version of the shiny Blastoise card I still have in a folder today has made me happier than some rules game code should ever. It has a decent plot, NPCs to talk to, a complete collection of cards to unlock through skill and gameplay rather than via additional purchases, and it’s all playable on a Nintendo console. It feels right.
So let me introduce you to the idea of a new Pokémon trading card game for Switch. Just like the main games, players can start as beginners, but this time with a single card while traveling to become the best card player the world has ever seen. Tickets from the series’ past are all correct and present – can you imagine getting that Shiny Charizard that everyone wanted, but now, in 2021? – and once you finish the story of the game, you can continue to play online against all your Switch friends.
Now, you have something that feels like a celebration of the 25th anniversary, which helps players enjoy the game safely online, will attract new players to the physical game, and can happily launch for a console that looks like it’s again ‘ make a franchise that appears on it. Now it really is do mark all the subjects, and I get excited at the thought of the idea.
Usually I would end by saying something along the lines of “you know, it’s never going to happen, so do not get too excited”, but it’s really not out of the question. For one thing, Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution – A Switch game that allows you to collect more than 9000 cards from the series’ history and play scenes from its anime – does just about everything I talked about here, but only for Konami’s collectible card game. And if New Pokémon Snap can eventually brings back a series that was last released twenty years ago, why should a ‘New Pokémon Trading Card Game’ not follow suit?
Please, Pokémon dominate. Let it happen!
Are you a fan of the Pokémon trading card game? Want to see a new, updated game for Switch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.