Pokémon Trading Card Game Live Preview: A New Way to Play the Pokémon TCG

ign.com:

Out with the old and in with the new! Pokémon Trading Card Game Live is an upcoming video game that lets you play the Pokémon TCG, replacing the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online client that launched in 2011. Live offers a fresh look, a first-ever ranked mode, and a new crafting system among other updated features. IGN attended a first-look demo of PTCGL with a group of press to get a look at the game in action on desktop. We’re going to share everything we learned, show off some new screenshots, and offer our thoughts on what we saw.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Live uses the same official rules as the physical TCG. If you learned how to play the Pokémon TCG back when it first came out in the ‘90s, then you’ll be happy to hear not much has changed. Sure, there are new card types such as Supporters and Pokémon VMAX, but the easy-to-learn/hard-to-master flow of gameplay remains the same with evolving Pokémon, declaring attacks, and taking six Prizes to win. For those who need a rules refresher or are learning for the first time, PTCGL offers a breezy tutorial that teaches you everything you need to know.

Cards are played by dragging and dropping them to their appropriate place on the board, with highlighted prompts helping to guide your hand. Though we didn’t get to try it out ourselves, playing cards seemed easy and fluid. Pokémon cards rise into the air to deliver attacks, and the board lights up with a neat flourish corresponding to the Pokémon’s elemental type. The presentation is flashy and clean, but also sparse and basic.

PTCGL offers improved visuals over PTCGO, to be sure, but so far it doesn’t feel like it pushed its innovations far enough. When comparing the PTCGL game board to other digital TCG games such as