Having been asked to write about my favourite game I did the customary thing and trawled through back issues, noting the difficulty every person seemed to have with picking a favourite game. For me, no such dilemma exists. The Pokémon Trading Card Game has taken me from a childhood interest to an adult infatuation, from a quiet corner of the UK to Australia, the USA and all over Europe.
At its heart it is a remarkably simple game. You play Pokémon cards, you attach energy to said Pokémon and when you have enough energy you attack, doing damage which will KO a Pokémon when the damage equals their hit points. Of course, a trading card game that has lasted for over 20 years (the base set saw an English-language release in January 1999) needs far more than the basics and it’s this evolution in gameplay that keeps the game on my mind for almost every minute of every day.