For this week Dennis takes over Throwback Thursday, and he throws all the cards on the table with Pokémon: Trading Card Game for the Game Boy Color.

It is crazy how your brain remembers stuff that happened years ago. Of some things you have no recollection whatsoever, and other memories are vivid. Does it mean that they are important memories? If so, then Pokémon is an important part of me, because the thing that I remember after many many years is that I was standing on the soccer field warming up for a match. I heard some friends and teammates talk about that cool new cartoon on TV. They were talking about creatures in the sewers and electric beings and things like that. The cartoon was of course Pokémon, and the specific episode they were talking about was “Sparks Fly for Magnemite”, the one where Ash catches his Muk. I started watching the show after this conversation, and a lifetime fan was born.

The most obvious game to talk about would be Pokémon Blue, the game I got for Christmas 1999 and which I played for 200+ hours. But instead I will choose my favourite spin-off game, Pokémon Trading Card Game, which was released in Europe in December 2000. The game is based on the still popular Wizards Of The Coast card game, and contains the first generation of Pokémon including Mew. The game ships you off on an adventure to beat 8 club leaders, defeat the 4 Grand Masters and your rival. An expert named Dr. Mason gives you your first deck based on Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle, and the ultimate goal is to collect all the cards in the game. Sounds familiar? Despite these similarities to the main series, the core gameplay is different as it is similar to the real card game. After a (rather tedious) tutorial, you collect your deck and start going after those medals. Every club hosts a number of trainers and the club leader, and it will come as no surprise that these use a specific type of Pokémon cards. In the card game, super effective hits deal double damage, so the best thing to do would be to seek out the gym that is weak against your starter deck.

My copy of Pokémon: Trading Card Game. Coloured cartridges where special back then, and this one had a nice black one. Also, you got a promotional holographic Meowth card in the box!

The game contains 228 cards, of which 226 can be collected in-game by defeating trainers and collecting booster packs. The last two cards, a special Venusaur and Mew, can only be obtained by Card Popping (it sounds more dirty than it is), a feature which gives two players a random card when they connect through infra-red. You can build and save your own decks, or you can use the PC to create pre-built decks if you have the available cards. Further the game has some quirky cameos, such as for example Imakuni?, a character who looks and acts as if he can shout “Kooloo-Limpah!” any second now. Apparently this guy is based on Tomoaki Imakuni, a musical composer and artist who made music for the anime and also promoted the TCG. Who knew?

I personally love digital card games, because it gives you the option of playing a very addictive and tactical game without the need to spend tons of cash on real cards and boosters. Although in all honesty I did buy two real decks and some booster packs because of this game. But it is a shame that the game never got the sequel it deserves. Japan got a Pokémon TCG 2, but it never came out in the West. We can nowadays play the game on iOS and PC, but I still long for a game made for a Nintendo console. With other titles such as Yu-Gi-Oh! getting frequent updates, and a two-screen system which is perfect for card games, it is a shame that no DS or 3DS versions are released.

This game was released at the end of 2000, more than 15 years ago. The big question is: Does it hold up? Is this game still playable? I would say yes, it has survived way better than for example the main series (Red, Blue and Yellow, who are getting a Virtual Console release soon). The game does not feel as slow and menus are easier to navigate than in R/B/Y. The sprites of the cards and the battle animations are good, and the gameplay is great and feels like the real deal. The game is available for €4,99 on the 3DS Virtual Console if you want to check it out, unfortunately without the multiplayer options and Card Pop options (sorry completionists!). But most of all this game makes me hunger for a new Pokémon TCG on a Nintendo console, and think back to the days where the best part of the day was the airing of a new episode of the Pokémon anime.