Pokémon TCG Live had its global release June 8 and it has been great! They did an amazing job bringing the physical card game to a digital format. The game has a tutorial at the beginning which teaches you how to play the game incase you are new or need a refresher course. You can also skip the tutorial if you know the basic mechanics of the game. There is a casual mode as well as a ranked mode. Each player has a full body avatar that they can customize to their liking. My favorite part though is how they captured the rarity of the cards in a digital form. The common cards are just plain with no visual effects. The higher rarity cards however have a ton of bling and shine to them. All the different rarities are present in the game.
They look super beautiful with all the shiny animations you see on the cards. It really makes you want to collect and get the highest rarity cards as in real life. You can acquire more cards by purchasing packs with your premium currency crystals. The great thing about this is that you can't actually spend real money in the game. The crystals can be earned by just playing the game and completing quests and leveling up. You can also earn additional rewards by scanning QR codes or entering codes from real life Pokémon TCG products.
The gameplay itself is fun and very animated. From shuffling your deck to playing cards and attacking. Everything is exciting and flashy. Deck building is super easy too and the game gives you several prebuilt decks to use or edit. You can also create your very own brand-new deck as well. Deck building is as simple as dragging and drop cards. When you get the maximum number of duplicate cards you will get a crafting currency. This currency can be used to craft individual cards that you need for your decks. Overall, I had a great experience playing Pokémon TCG Live and highly recommend to any Pokémon fan.