The Pokemon Go TCG Set Could Be The Coolest Expansion Since E-Readers

thegamer.com:

The Pokemon Company announced a Pokemon Go expansion for the Pokemon Trading Card Game this week, and though we’ve only been given very few details, I’m excited by all the possibilities. There’s so many cool ways that Pokemon cards could integrate with Pokemon Go, from AR functionality and wild encounters to gifts and other in-game items. It’s never wise to get your hopes up about the potential of a Pokemon game, but I’d love to see the TCG make the most out of this crossover.

All we know about the Pokemon Go expansion right now is that it’s coming this summer. The trailer published on Pokemon’s website reveals the pack art, which features Mewtwo, Pikachu, Professor Willow, and several other Pokemon in cities, neighborhoods, and against the background of the familiar Pokemon Go in-game map. It certainly has the look of Pokemon Go, but it doesn’t tell us much about what makes the expansion special.

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There’s a lot of cool things Pokemon could do with this set. Using Pokemon Go’s augmented reality features, there could be a way to interact with the cards virtually. You could use your phone’s camera to bring the Pokemon on the cards to life, or even to turn the cards themselves into 3D environments you can look around in. Nintendo has done something similar before with the AR Cards that came with the 3DS, which would produce 3D models of Mario and Kirby when you pointed your 3DS camera at them.

If AR integration isn’t in the cards, figuratively and literally, there might be some other ways to interact with them via QR codes like the ones that come in normal Pokemon TCG packs that give players digital packs to open in Pokemon TCGO. Instead of giving digital packs, the Pokemon Go