Pokemon TCGhas been going strong for over two decades now, having debuted in the UK and US back in 1999. Ever since then, the design of these cards has largely stayed the same, barring some layout and color changes on the front of cards in certain sets. The back of the cards has remained the same ever since 1999 though, and that’s despite them having a pretty glaring error that you will never be able to unsee after reading this article.
Most of you reading will know what the back of aPokemoncard looks like, sporting a slightly open Poke Ball on a blue background. However, the design of that Poke Ball has actually been wrong for the past 25 years, as it’s actually opening up from the wrong side. Check out any English language Pokemon card from the past two decades, and you’ll see that the clasp for the Poke Ball is attached to the bottom white side when it’s actually attached to the top red side in pretty much every other form of Pokemon media.
Thankfully,the recently announced mobile game Pokemon Trading Card Game Pockethas actually fixed this long-standing issue (thanksGamesRadar), as can be seen ever so brieflyin the game’s announcement trailer. Pause the video at the 40-second mark and move around a few frames, and you can see that the Poke Ball on the back of these digital trading cards has the clasp attached to the top red portion of the ball. You can also see a more detailed comparison down below, shared by Twitter user Tahko.
We don’t know whether this fix will transfer over to the paper version of the game, but it seems unlikely from a practical point of view. Every other Pokemon card in the US and UK has the same back, so introducing new ones with new backs will allow players to know which cards in their decks are coming up with just a glance. It would give people using new cards a slight edge in battles, so we’ll probably be stuck with the goofy Poke Ball for the foreseeable future.
At least we don’t have to see it in Pokemon TCG Pocket, which is coming out at some point later this year. We don’t know exactly when, as Nintendo and Creatures didn’t give us a release date during the game’s announcement trailer, but we should be getting a specific release date some time soon if plans are to launch the title in 2024.
