Pokémon’s new mobile game will bring out the card collector in you

digitaltrends.com:

While the mainstream popularity of the Pokémon Trading Card Game has ebbed and flowed since its launch in 1998, it has always enjoyed a cult following. That’s earned it a spot at the top of the genre alongside games like Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh. It’s grown in popularity and complexity in the past 25 years, evolving from a simple card game that lived alongside the anime and mainline Pokémon video games to having its own obsessive fanbase, competitive scene, and world championship events.

Battling has always been at the core of the Pokémon world, but another aspect of the game has always reigned supreme: catching them all. And that’s exactly what Nintendo wants to get back to with its new mobile game.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, launching this October on Android and iOS, is all about opening booster packs and growing your card collection. Being a seasoned Pokémon trainer surely won’t hurt your chances of amassing an impressive card collection here, but the new app is all about making the card game approachable for newcomers and celebrating art.

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I went hands-on with Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket ahead of its launch and found myself in an absolute trance digitally opening pack after pack. Just be wary of complicated microtransactions that will be hard to fully ignore if you’re looking to collect them all.

Gotta catch ’em all (again)

Pocket fills a specific niche in the current Pokémon game landscape. It’s designed to be a friendly alternative to more competitive Pokémon titles like Pokémon TCG Live, the popular free-to-play Pokémon Unite. It also strays away from lore-heavy entries like the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Keita Hirobe, an executive officer at The Pokémon Company, tells me that the project is meant to be more welcoming.

“We’ve