The Pokémon Company announced quite a few things during its short but sweet Pokémon Presents broadcast on February 27. One of those announcements was for a brand-new digital version of the popular Pokémon trading card game coming to mobile devices later this year that’ll let you explore the card’s art in a more immersive way. It also appears to be going for the kind of quick-play appeal we see in Marvel Snap.
Titled Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, the mobile game is an app in which you battle, collect, and trade Pokémon cards. You can open card packs with satisfying animations by swiping your finger like Fruit Ninja to cut the plastic wrap, show off and swap out cards through a virtual binder of sorts, and rotate cards to get a full view of the impressive art that pops off the screen. But the real draw here are the “immersive cards” you can obtain. These cards let you dive into the artwork to explore an expanded scene of the printed illustration.
In the press release following the game’s announcement, The Pokémon Company said that Pokémon TCG Pocket will feature “streamlined rules” that are based on the classic battle system. These new rules weren’t specified, but based on the video, it looks like it’s offering something similar to the snappy gameplay of Second Dinner’s card game Marvel Snap.
For a hot minute there, Marvel Snap was the game everyone was talking about. A trading card game about assembling a deck of 12 Marvel heroes to beat your online foes, Marvel Snap took the gameplay of Hearthstone and streamlined it in a way that made it both approachable and exhilarating for newcomers to the genre. It also provided enough strategic depth to entice veterans who might’ve grown tired of everyone ripping off Hearthstone’s vibe.
With Pokémon TCG Pocket on the way, it seems the digital collectible card space is growing. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have a nailed-down release date yet, so it may be a little while before we get our hands on it. According to the press release, though, it’ll be “free-to-start” on Android and iOS devices whenever it releases.
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