Pokemon Review: Pokemon TCG Online,contains none of Nintendo's creative spark or craftsmanship

By Ankita Ghorpade Oct 09, 2014 12:30 PM EDT

For two decades, fans are rooting behind Pokemons and have been doing everything in their power to catch all of them, but those wily minxes over at Nintendo keep dreaming up new Pokemon for us to chuck our balls at.

At first, all we had to worry about were catching the virtual Pokemon, but then the wildly successful Pokemon Trading Card Game came along and brought our favorite 'mons to the real world. Now things have come full circle with Pokemon TCG Online, a virtual version of the tabletop game that trades real cards for virtual decks, terrible graphics, and an underwhelming game experience.

As a Pokemon trainer, it's our job to train our Pokemon so you can be the very best, like no one ever was. As a Pokemon TCG duelist, it's our job to get cards, spend real money, and get more cards. You'll battle other players or the computer; entering leagues in the hopes of ranking up and earning more cards. It might happen that me and my opponent have one monster on the field at a time, with a bunch of five additional creatures you can swap in during your turn. You'll equip energy cards to each pokemon to enable their attacks, and use support cards to gain special advantages like drawing extra cards or healing your Pokemon. One can lose if his/ her lead pokemon gets knocked out or if he/she loses six pokemon throughout the course of the game.

Everything works, technically, but none of it feels very satisfying. Pokemon TCG Online lacks much of what makes other popular CCGs, well, popular. The abilities of most Pokemon are fairly straightforward damage-dealers, many of which rely on luck more than skill.

Pokemon TCG Online, however, contains none of Nintendo's creative spark or craftsmanship; outside of the licensed cards this feels like a cobbled-together flash game hoping to make a quick buck. If you want to play Pokemon on the go, play the real games, play the card games, or play a game you've made up in your head, but do yourself a favor and don't bother with this free-to-play pile of Trubbish

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