Monday, November 11, 2024

Little Things, Little Packages: TCG Pocket

There's been a bit of hubbub in the Pokémon TCG realm in the past couple of weeks, and it's something that I ought to cover, moreover since I'm now also a part of it. And that's what I'll be doing for a few days ahead while things are still fresh. The hubbub concerns the newest member of the TCG family, which was previewed earlier this year and now has come to fruition, offering a simplified virtual experience to the cards in a portable (and indeed, little) form. No doubt it's the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket - hereinafter, TCG Pocket - and it's now available to greet many prospective players.

While the game was released just at the end of last month, it was actually beta-tested over the course of that month for select groups of players, and the test seemed to work out pretty well, given that the release proceeded. It too was received pretty well, especially by my TCG fellows, who also downloaded the game and started playing; there were also a few other friends even without apparent connection to the TCG who also started playing (and led me as such), which gives further affirmation to the reception of the game.

As for the "little" part of this, the gameplay (the battle part) is definitely smaller than for the common TCG counterpart, though a discussion of this would have to be made separately - as in, not now. The card-collecting part is still done through opening booster packs as well as other methods, and they're little things that mean a lot; still, they do have not-so-little intricacies and need to be covered separately as well. Then, there's plenty of yet other little aspects that also just beg to be discussed later.

Like the common TCG, there are also expansions, though there is currently but one: Genetic Apex. There are also over 250 unique cards for it available, so it's not exactly a little thing by any means, though its package is still "little" in a way. Future expansions will definitely make things not so little, though perhaps still not quite on par with common TCG, so this may be one "little" aspect that will persist as the game flourishes. 

It is said that sweet things - and little things - come in little packages, and the newly released TCG Pocket encapsulates that somehow well, at least in its current and initial incarnation. How much of it can remain "little" as the game expands remains to be seen, but even having a few things remain "little" may be a wonderful thing, as does having a playable implementation of the TCG in a package of such scale, as offered by this game.

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