Giovanni's Team Rocket Headquarters 2001

By now, you would have probably heard about the Poke'mon Trading Cards, but did you know there was a Gameboy version of it? The Gameboy version is like Gold and Silver etc. only instead of a team of Poke'mon, you get to carry around up to 4 different decks with you (a deck is a collection of 60 cards that you can battle with. The comprise of Energies, Trainers and of course, Poke'mon). You have to go around challenging duels with the 8 Club Members (like Gym Leaders) and earn the 8 Master Medals. Also, there is a Challange Cup, wich is on when you get the 3rd and 5th Master Medal. The Challange Cup is where you battle 3 opponents to win a Promo card. They will also be held at random times after you get the Legendary Poke'mon Cards.
         After each battle, the person you battled will usually give you 2 packs of 10 Poke'mon cards. There are 4 different types of packs: Collousium, Mystery, Evolution and Laboritory. Each pack contains different types of cards. Thre are 226 cards to collect, including 18 special cards that can only be found in the game. Also, a number of Promo cards have been included that can only be found in Japanese (like Lilypad Mew, Flying Pikachu etc.) and the rare Japanese card Mew from the Fossil set can be found in boosters.
          If you want to increase your card collection, just find Imakuni? After you battle him, he will give you 4 packs, one of each type. On the 3rd and 6th time you beat him, he will give you a very rare and stupid Imakuni?
promo. It reads: Your
Poke'mon is now
confused. Imakuni wants
you to play him as a basic
Poke'mon, but you can't.
A strange creature not
listed in the Poke'dex, he
wanders the earth asking
children 'Who is cuter,
Pikachu or me?'
          There is a function
called Card Pop.
It lets you and a friend with
the game generate new cards.
Sometimes, you
or your friend will get either
a special Venusaur or Mew
promo. Once you
have card popped with a
friend, you cannot Card Pop
with them anymore.
          Once you get all 8
Master Medals, you can go the the
Poke'mon Dome and challange the
Grand Masters to a duel. Once you
have beaten all 4 of them, you will
get the 4 legendary cards. The masters
use 4 different types of decks that use the
4 legendary cards, Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos
and Dragonite. Obtaning these cards are the main objective of the game.
          Some other features of te game let you trade cards or battle with friends through a link cable. Sometimes, Dr. Mason (the Prof. Oak of this game) will send you an e-mail, which will have a pack (or sometimes 2) of cards attached. There is also someone called Ishihara, who sometimes will trade you some rare Promos for some relitivly common cards. Also, just like in the other games, you have a rival called Ronald who will show up a few times. Beat him, and he will give you a Jigglypuff promo or Super Energy Retreival.
          A good thing about deckbuilding in the game is that in Dr. Mason's lab, there are deckbuilding machines. After you get each master medal, you can activate a computer that lets you build a ceck that relates to that club or medal. There is also a Deck Save Machine so you can save your decks there and go on to build more decks.
          Unlike the other games, you can battle the same person over and over again. This means you can go to a weaker person to test out a new type of deck and still get the booster packs. Deck building is easy too. You don't have to go flipping through a folder or shoebox for those cards you want, they are already sorted into type, making any deck modifications really easy.
          This is one of the best Poke'mon games on the market, and is very easy to learn and play. Great for the little kids who still don't understand the rules of the cards.
I give it a rating of 9/10 as there are none of the newer sets, but it still provides an entertaining past time that helps with deck building.