The Pokémon Company announces Pokémon Co-Master for Japanese smartphones

By Mike Epstein Published March 11, 2016

The Pokémon Company will publish Pokémon Co-Master, a figurine-powered board game for smartphones in Japan this Spring, the company announced Thursday.

Made in collaboration with Japanese AI-maker Heroz, which specializes in digital versions of board games such as Shoji and Go, C0-Master will be a free-to-play online board game where players use Pokémon-themed tokens: According to Kotaku, the game will feature some form of Pokémon’s core RPG elements, including training and battling. The name, “Co-Master,” refers to the fact that both players will receive strategic aid from the game’s AI, though it isn’t exactly clear how they will work together.

Recommended Videos

The game will not be published by Nintendo directly — The Pokémon Company is a co-owned subsidiary of Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures — and will not be a part of the company’s slate of smartphone games. Nintendo announced in 2015 that it planned to release five smartphone apps by April 1, 2017. The first of them, the Miiverse-style chat app Miitomo is on track to launch in Japan March 17. Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima told investors its second smartphone app will “not be a communications device” and would feature an IP “very well known to everyone” during an earnings report in February, 2016.

Pokémon Co-Master is the latest in a seemingly ever-growing list of games set to come out during the Pokémon series’ 20th anniversary year. Last month, Nintendo re-released Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in North America, and announced a pair of fully fledged sequels, Pokémon Sun and Moon, will hit stores worldwide this holiday season. Nintendo and Tekken publisher Namco Bandai will also release their Pokémon-centric fighting game, Pokkén Tournament, March 18.

Pokémon Co-Master will come to iOS and Android in Japan in Spring, 2016. There are currently no announced plans for an international release.

Former Associate Editor, Gaming

Michael is a New York-based tech and culture reporter, and a graduate of Northwestwern University’s Medill School of…

Topics

Gaming

Why do I keep playing a game that I hate?

Moltres and Zapdos cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

It’s 9 a.m. when my morning alarm goes off on New Year’s Eve. I quickly shut it off and then jump into my usual morning routine: doing a round through my most used apps before getting out of bed. But my first instinct isn’t to look at the weather, check my social media notifications, or read the news. Instead, I open up the one app that I know I’m going to spend a chunk of my day complaining about: Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.

Since its release in October, the free-to-play card collecting game has taken up more and more real estate in my head. What started as a harmless curiosity has since grown into an infuriating obsession. I fiddle with it constantly as if I’m using a digital fidget toy. When I don’t have packs to open, I aimlessly scroll through my card collection. I’m in multiple Discord chats where friends screenshot photos of the same few cards that every player can pull.

Gaming

Pokémon Go’s Community Days are getting a price hike

Togepi, Pikachu and Eevee in a field

Pokémon Go started out really good, and then it became great. But it's not all sunshine and Ho-Ohs. The monthly community days -- special events for catching Pokemon that you might not encounter otherwise -- have received a price increase from $1 to $2.

It's particularly frustrating news for fans given the event's history. Originally, Community Days would bring Pokémon Go players out of the woodwork to flood parks or other areas. It was a fun way to get out of the house, be a little social, and catch some cute critters -- usually for the first time in Shiny form. But now, most of the storylines have been removed from the events, and the time frame has dropped from six hours to three, according to Eurogamer.

Gaming

Pokémon’s free mobile card game is nostalgic fun, but watch your wallet

A trading card battle on mobile.

What's sure to be mobile gaming's next big thing is here. Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is out now and it brings the classic tabletop deckbuilding game to your phone. It's a free app that lets players open booster packs, collect cards, and play a streamlined version of the card game. On top of that, it's full of social hooks and ways for players to show off their favorite cards. It's about as much of a slam dunk as you could imagine for a mobile game, to the point where I'm surprised it's taken The Pokémon Company this long to make it.

Nostalgia is an easy path to victory, but does that make for a good game? Based on my time with it so far, I can see some immediate appeal that's sure to keep me logging in consistently for at least a few weeks. It's the kind of free download that comes with a big red buyer beware, though. This is a game designed to vacuum up money in ways that can feel a bit uncomfortable. If you're the kind of person who gets impatient anytime you're presented with a timer, download it at your own risk.
Gotta collect 'em all
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket essentially looks to capture the full experience of the Pokémon trading card game and stuff it into a mobile app. In that sense, it's a success. As soon as I boot it up and create my account, it quickly throws a five-card booster pack my way that I tear it open by swiping the screen. All the excitement I felt as a kid doing the same with real packs flooded in instantly. Just as I did back then, I find myself marveling at the art. Classic cards from my youth appear here, including the elegant Hitmonchan card I treasured as a kid, but I'm just as enamored with the art I've never seen. When I pull a card that features a top-to-bottom art spread showing Digletts burrowing through the card, I'm hooked.