The Game Boy’s Pokémon Trading Card Game is still unrivaled 25 years later

theverge.com:

ThePokémon Trading Card Game for the Nintendo Game Boy Color wasn’t designed to evolve with the tabletop game it was based on — let alone the rest of the sprawling multimedia franchise it’s a part of. For those who weren’t there when it first dropped almost 25 years ago, the Pokémon Trading Card Game might not look like much today compared to some of the titles Nintendo Switch owners can download. But even now, after all these years, the Pokémon Trading Card Game’s still one of the most engrossing entries in the series and an unparalleled introduction to the world of pocket monsters.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has never been the most technically complex tabletop experience, but it can be somewhat difficult to get into in 2023 if you haven’t kept up with the game since its 1996 debut. At its core, matches still consist of two players facing off with 60-card decks and trying to secure the most prize cards possible by knocking out their opponent’s pokémon team. Because weaker pokémon cards have fewer hit points and are easier to knock out, players must evolve them while equipping them with enough energy cards to pull off powerful attacks of their own or play the right kinds of trainer cards to keep their monsters from fainting.

Between all of the different card orientations, damage counters, coin flipping, and designated card piles that can become a part of any given match, the Pokémon Trading Card Game can look a bit chaotic. But the game starts to make much more sense both structurally and stylistically when you realize how its mechanics are all modeled after different facets of pokémon battling in the mainline games like Red, Blue, and Yellow.

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Serious bugs aside, digital platforms like Pokémon TCG Online and