The first pack of Pokémon cards I ever opened was from the original Base set, released in the UK during 1999. (You know the ones which now go for hundreds of pounds on eBay?) It was a gift from my Dad and fully defied my Mum’s ‘No Pokémon cards’ rule. While she had accepted my new-found obsession with its yellow mouse, she believed the cards were a waste of money since there was no guarantee which ones I’d get, and completing my collection involved buying an awful lot of packs. Unfortunately for us both, she was right.
Back then, my whole existence revolved around what treasures each Blastoise-decorated packet held. As soon as I ripped open that first packet, I was hooked. And yes, collecting trading cards is an expensive hobby. (These days, I focus primarily on collecting promo cards. I may never own property, but I will own a Black Star Venusaur eventually.) All of which is to say, if you haven’t gathered already, I’m a firm member of the target audience for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, the upcoming mobile version of the Pokémon TCG, especially with its focus on collecting the cards themselves.
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Pokémon TCG Pocket offers you the chance to open two booster packs for free every day and, having played it during this year’s Gamescom, I can happily say the process of opening packs is quite satisfying. It begins with selecting the design you wish the booster packs to have. In the case of Genetic Apex, the first card set for TCG Pocket, your choices are between three classic Pokémon – Charizard, Pikachu and Mewtwo. Afterwards, you’re taken to a circle of boosters where you scroll from pack to pack until deciding which one to open.
The catch, however, is you need to build up Pack Stamina to open packs – and this can take up to 12 hours. Let’s say you open your first pack at 8am, for example, which then means you can’t open your second until 8pm passes. This does create the worry you’ll miss opening your second daily pack either due to opening the first too late in the day or simply from forgetting. Want to avoid this by speeding up the process? Well, there’s an item which will do just that. You only need to spend some of your real world money on it, because TCG Pocket wouldn’t be a mobile game if there weren’t microtransactions – but we’ll get to those later.