The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Pokemon I can't be the only person in the world who's a bit confused as to what Pokemon is, or how come it's become so unbelievably popular. Watching the cartoon one Saturday morning, admittedly with a hangover, did nothing to solve the mystery.

Once they launched a card game, I thought I'd take a look, because I can cope with card games (with or without a hangover)

For £7.25 retail, you get a 60 card deck, 10 glass beads in two different colours, a special hologram card and two rule books. Two rule books ? - Yep - two rule books.

I suppose the contents justify the price, and as you would expect, coming from Wizards, the quality of the printed cards is very good. The artwork and print quality are very good.

The game itself is two player. Each player plays with a deck of 60 cards. These cards are shuffled, and each player deals themselves a hand of seven cards. The top six cards are put to one side as prizes.

Each player needs to have at least one Pokemon card in his starting hand. If he has none, he shows his hand to his opponent, shuffles and deals himself another hand. The opponent takes two extra cards. This process is repeated until both players have at least one Pokemon in their starting hands.

Each player chooses a Pokemon from his hand, and puts it into the Arena. The game then begins.

Each turn, players take a card, play cards from their hands, and then attack with their arena pokemon. The turn ends after the attack.

Cards that can be played include more Pokemon (which are played on the 'bench' behind the arena), Energy cards (Which power attacks), mutation or evolution cards (Which upgrade your Pokemon to bigger and better pokemon) and so on.

If the attack is successful, damage is dealt to the opponent's Pokemon and indicated by placing beads on the card. Once the damage exceeds the Pokemon's Hit points, he is toast, and must be replaced by another from the bench. Each time you toast an opponent's Pokemon, you gain one of the prize cards to place in your hand.

There are two ways to win. Either by winning all six of your prizes (by beating six Pokemon) or if your opponent has no Pokemon ready on the bench when you toast his arena Pokemon. There is also the chance that you might run out of cards which also signals defeat, but this rarely happens.

Evaluation

It's tricky to know who this is aimed at. I suspect existing CCG players will find it a bit too simple, and thus lacking in depth, which is a shame, because it is a good game which gets away from a lot of the needless complexity of some CCGs. For me - well, I hate two player games, but if it was multi-player, it would be a winner.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Pokemon starter deck
Author: Wizards of the coast Category: CCG Company/Publisher: Wizards of the coast Line: Pokemon Cost: £7.25 Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Martin Bailey on 11/17/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Anime	Pokemon I can't be the only person in the world who's a bit confused as to what Pokemon is, or how come it's become so unbelievably popular. Watching the cartoon one Saturday morning, admittedly with a hangover, did nothing to solve the mystery. Once they launched a card game, I thought I'd take a look, because I can cope with card games (with or without a hangover) For £7.25 retail, you get a 60 card deck, 10 glass beads in two different colours, a special hologram card and two rule books. Two rule books ? - Yep - two rule books. I suppose the contents justify the price, and as you would expect, coming from Wizards, the quality of the printed cards is very good. The artwork and print quality are very good. The game itself is two player. Each player plays with a deck of 60 cards. These cards are shuffled, and each player deals themselves a hand of seven cards. The top six cards are put to one side as prizes. Each player needs to have at least one Pokemon card in his starting hand. If he has none, he shows his hand to his opponent, shuffles and deals himself another hand. The opponent takes two extra cards. This process is repeated until both players have at least one Pokemon in their starting hands. Each player chooses a Pokemon from his hand, and puts it into the Arena. The game then begins. Each turn, players take a card, play cards from their hands, and then attack with their arena pokemon. The turn ends after the attack. Cards that can be played include more Pokemon (which are played on the 'bench' behind the arena), Energy cards (Which power attacks), mutation or evolution cards (Which upgrade your Pokemon to bigger and better pokemon) and so on. If the attack is successful, damage is dealt to the opponent's Pokemon and indicated by placing beads on the card. Once the damage exceeds the Pokemon's Hit points, he is toast, and must be replaced by another from the bench. Each time you toast an opponent's Pokemon, you gain one of the prize cards to place in your hand. There are two ways to win. Either by winning all six of your prizes (by beating six Pokemon) or if your opponent has no Pokemon ready on the bench when you toast his arena Pokemon. There is also the chance that you might run out of cards which also signals defeat, but this rarely happens. Evaluation It's tricky to know who this is aimed at. I suspect existing CCG players will find it a bit too simple, and thus lacking in depth, which is a shame, because it is a good game which gets away from a lot of the needless complexity of some CCGs. For me - well, I hate two player games, but if it was multi-player, it would be a winner. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Pokemon starter deck