It took me 18 hours to get a Haunter!

After a couple of my friends decided to get out of the Pokemon TCG, opponents became scarcer. I went to the Pokemon League and found one battle the whole day. So, what to do? A couple of months later, Pokemon TCG for the Game Boy was released, partially solving my problems. I'll tell you why I say partially later in the review.

The game itself is quite good. The graphics are fairly good, especially for a card game. Animations, some of which are really cool, illustrate each attack. And if you want to save time, animations can easily be turned off. The music is decent, if repetitive. As for the sounds, they're nothing to go crazy over, but nothing to sneeze at, either.

You start out with a modest deck from a professor equivalent to professor Oak. After a practice round, that is. Your goal: to defeat the eight Club Masters around the island in which you live on. Then, go and see if you can bet the four Grand Masters, and your rival, Ronald. This is just like the 8 Gym Leaders and the Elite Four (and your Rival) in Pokemon. Some people also consider collecting every single card a goal, too. Speaking of cards, all of the cards from Base Set 1, jungle, and Fossil are in the game, with a couple of exceptions: Base Set Electrode, Fossil Ditto, and all non-holos from Jungle and Fossil. However, several promos and several Game Boy exclusive cards, like the Legendary cards which you try to inherit from the Grand Masters.

Pokemon TCG for the GB has it's flaws, however. First of all, all CPU opponents have more or less the same strategy, only they have different decks. Secondly, the Challenge Hall (a place to win promos, and one of the most fun areas in the game) is hardly ever holding a Challenge Cup. Most of all, there are only a few people who trade cards, and they only trade once (or a few times). And they only want a certain trade, e.g. aLapras for a promo Arcanine, or the like. So, it may take you 10 or 20 or 330 hours to get the ONE rare card you want... and only ONE copy, too! In real life, you could go to a store or a friend and get that card easily. Also, the CPU opponents don't understand all of the nuances. For example, an opponent used Gloom's Poisonpowder on my Mysterious Fossil. As any good player would know, the Fossil can't be poisoned and took no effect.

Yet, it does have several strengths. All opponents, save your Rival, will challenge you for rematches (unlike pokemon), and there are several GB exclusive cards, like i mentioned before. Plus, you don't need to spend $300 (although you may need to spend 30 hours) to build your "ultimate deck". plus, you don't need to find a friend to play.

Everything in the way of play mechanics is hunky-dory. Everything is smooth, with the possible exception of Metronome and the new mulligan rule-- no extra 2-card draw. By the way, Clef. Doll and Myst. Fossil have their discard power under POKEMON POWER. Everything is quite easy to get to.

The great things about this game are the great replayability and the light touch. You can play opponents as much as you'd like, to earn more and better cards, and play harder opponents, and it spirals around. It's all a cyclone of great fun. I reccomend a buy to anyone looking for a fun, light game. It offers tons of fun and replay value. This game almost never gets stale!!!

As a final note, this game is even better with the Game Boy Color. The one-player game is the same (besides color), but the two-player game is different. Instead of just being able to battle, you can trade cards, deck designs, or do Card Pop! Card Pop is where the ID #'s of your two games combine, and each gets a free, new, sometimes rare of ultra-rare, card! Two, a Venusaur and a Mew, can only be achieved thru Card Pop.

The Pokemon TCG for the Game Boy offers enough to definitely be worth a buy, or at least a rental.