Pokémon Trading Card Game (video game)

The Pokémon TCG seems to have garnered enough attention to have a video game based on it. The game is reminiscent of the various Yu-Gi-Oh video games, only with a simpler less "fate of the world" plot. Based on the actual TCG, it has cards from the early releases, as well as game-exclusive cards. It also came with a promo card that arguably might be a tad unfair in Tournament play. The game was released on the Game Boy Color and allows one to play against a friend, trade cards or use the "car pop" feature which gives rare normally inaccessible cards.

This game's plot is just Red/Blue's plot, but swap actual Pokemon for Pokemon cards. The Pokemon TCG starts you as off a young boy named Mark that is just starting out. You're given a choice of a starter deck that parallels the choice of the starter Pokemon in the Red/Blue games (fire, water, grass). You're taught the rules within the first 10 minutes of playing. You may "battle" NPC's that you meet and win booster packs from them. The main objective of the game is to defeat the 8 Gym Leaders... I mean Club Masters, and eventually the Elite 4, erm... Grand Masters. Upon completing the main objective, the player inherits 4 ultra-rare cards.

Tropes:

 * Artificial Stupidity: The AI, even at its highest level, doesn't understand a stall deck (Even its own on occasions, willing to mill itself to death). It will only retreat to dispel status effects or to save important Pokémon with Pokémon Powers.
 * Auto Pilot Tutorial: Your first match against one of Prof. Mason's assistants is played with stacked decks and instructions that forced you to play particular cards. Tool assisted speedruns have completed the entire rest of the game in the time it takes to finish the tutorial.
 * Featureless Protagonist: The player character portrait is shown as a bust portrait with young, tween-like facial features of ambiguous gender, an ethnically unclear anime look, and hair tied up in a bandanna on the forehead though it's clearly black.
 * Hyperactive Sprite: Everyone in the game walks in place in time to the music.
 * Joke Item: Most of the Imakuni? cards.
 * Remember the New Guy: If Mint is chosen as the Player Character for the second, Japan only, game, she is treated as though she was the hero of the first game.