Pokmon Trading Card Game, originally released in Japan as Pokmon Card GB (???????G B Pokemon Kado Ji Bi?

) is a video game adaptation of the original tabletop tradi ng card game of the same name, which in turn was based on the Pokmon role-playing video game series. Developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo, it was i nitially released in Japan in December 1998, with an English version appearing i n North America in April 2000 and in Europe the following December. The title fe atures digital version of cards from the first three sets of the trading card ga me originally released in English by Wizards of the Coast between 1998 and 1999, as well as exclusive cards not available outside of the game. A second 2 GR???! in March n to the Game Boy Color game, Pokmon Card GB2: Great Rocket-Dan Sanjo! (???????GB Pokmon Card GB2: Here Comes Team Great Rocket!?), was released in Japan 2001. The game was not released in North America nor Europe. An additio sequel is the ability to choose the gender of the player character.

Pokmon Trading Card Game is a video game simulation of the original tabletop coll ectible card game with role-playing elements similar to earlier titles in the Po kmon series. Players control a young boy and must travel around the game world in teracting with non-player characters and challenging them to card battles using 60-card decks.[3] During gameplay, the player must defeat eight Club Masters, ea ch with a different deck representing one of the game's elemental card types, al lowing them to face four Grand Masters and earn the right to inherit four powerf ul Legendary Cards. A total of 226 cards exist within the game, which include ca rds from the first three sets of the real-life game, as well as exclusive cards not available outside of the game.[4] The player is given the opportunity to cho ose one of three starter decks at the start of their journey, each containing Po kmon cards revolving around the three possible starting creatures from Pokmon Red and Blue. As players defeat opponents, they are rewarded with booster packs cont aining a random assortment of additional cards they may use in their deck, with up to four separate decks able to be saved at a time. Up to two players may interact with each other using the Game Boy Color's infrar ed linking capability to battle or trade cards.[5] As players trade with one ano ther, they are given access to a special feature called "Card Pop!", which allow s them to obtain cards that would otherwise be inaccessible in the main game.[6] Development Pokmon Trading Card Game was developed by Hudson Soft and originally released in Japan in December 1998 under the title Pokmon Card GB (???????GB Pokemon Kado Ji Bi?) one month before the tabletop version debuted in English.[7] In September 1 999, Nintendo of America announced that they would be releasing an English versi on in North America with the proposed title of simply Pokmon Card.[8] Though init ially planned for release the following winter, the game, now known under its fi nalized title of Pokmon Trading Card Game, would be pushed back to April 2000, wh ich website IGN attributed to the company wanting to focus their efforts on the upcoming Pokmon Stadium for the Nintendo 64.[2] The following February, the game made an appearance at the 2000 Toy Fair in New York City as part of Nintendo's " Pokmon 2000" interactive line-up along with Pokmon Gold and Silver.[9] An exclusiv e tabletop version promotional card from Wizards of the Coast featuring the Pokmo n Meowth was included with the game. Although Pokmon Trading Card Game features most cards from the first three sets o f the collectible card game, two real-life cards are absent from the Game Boy Co lor version: Electrode from the base set, and Ditto from the Fossil. The cards w ere excluded as it was difficult to translate their tabletop effects to the vide o game engine, but they are replaced by game-exclusive cards of the same Pokmon ( the Electrode card was later made available in Japan via an online card shop). T he game features cameos from President and CEO of The Pokmon Company Tsunekazu Is hihara as "Mr. Ishihara", and musician Tomoaki Imakuni under his stage name Imak uni?.[10]

Censorship The game received a ban in Saudi Arabia because it supposedly promoted Zionism. Accorded Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the Pokemon video game and cards have symbols that a re "the star of David, which everyone knows is connected to international Zionis m and is Israel's national emblem".[11] Pokmon Trading Card Game sold 607,193 copies in Japan by the end of 1999, becomin g the 20th most-bought console game of that year in the region.[13] It would go on to sell an additional 1.51 millions copies during its first year in North Ame rica,[14] and received mostly positive reception from critics, earning an 81.36% average score from aggregate review website GameRankings.[12] GameSpot referred to the game as "a faithful and amusing adaptation of the collectible card game" calling the gameplay "addictive", but found it to be overall less satisfying th an the original Pokemon role-playing games, stating that its goal of "collecting all 226 pieces of paper" just doesn't satisfy like "catching 'em all" can and d oes."[4] Others, such as IGN called the game "a blast to play" and that it offer ed mostly the same experience as the tabletop version "without the clutter or co st", yet acknowledged that the video game adaption could not fully replicate the original given the finite amount of cards available. Though the website found i ts main story to be "simple and basic", and gameplay to be largely luck-based, i t ultimately declared that "whether you like or hate those darn Pokmon... if Nint endo keeps making Pokmon videogames of this quality, those creatures aren't going away anytime soon."[3] GamesRadar ranked it the 50th best game available on the Game Boy and/or Game Boy Color. The staff called it an "excellent addition to P okemon's Game Boy catalog."[15] In a 2009 retrospective of Pokmon spin-offs, IGN retained their high praise for t he game, stating "It was really kind of ridiculous how awesome this game turned out to be...if there was one spin-off [we] could ask Nintendo to reintroduce, it 'd be the TCG game."[16] Sequel Pokmon Card GB2: Great Rocket-Dan Sanjo! (???????GB2 GR???! Pokmon Card GB2: Here Comes Team Great Rocket!?), released March 28, 2001,[17] is the Japanese-exclusi ve sequel to the original Pokmon Trading Card Game, also for the Game Boy Color. Like its predecessor, the game was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nin tendo, and was first announced in January 2001 by Japanese website WatchImpress. [18] It includes new enhancements, such as the ability to choose the gender of t he player character, a training mode to help new players, a Deck Diagnosis to ra te the effectiveness of a player's deck, and a new group of antagonists known as Team Great Rocket.[18] The game features all cards from the original game, alon g with new cards from the fourth set, Team Rocket, as well as cards originally e xclusive to Japanese vending machines and the Pokmon Trading Card Game Instructio nal Video Intro Pack, bringing the total number of cards to 445. Like the previous title, players must travel across the game world challenging n on-player characters to simulated battles using rules adopted from the original tabletop version. All locations from the original are present, along with a new setting known as GR Island which contains its own Battle Masters for players to encounter. By defeating a total of 16 Battle Masters on the old and new islands, players may challenge the game's final boss, King Biruritchi. Though an English release in North America was deemed "likely" by website IGN in 2001, the game h as not been made available outside of Japan.[18]