New Mobile Pokemon Dueling Board Game Hits The Market

Pokemon Go is still one of the biggest mobile apps in the market despite record-setting losses in users. Now, a new Pokemon title has made an appearance called Pokemon Duel. The premise revolves around fighting other users through a system similar to checkers, except instead of differently-colored tokens, trainers use iconic Pokemon critters.

The game is free to download and play, The Verge reports, and is available for both Android and iOS devices. Unlike its explosive cousin, there’s no need to get out of the house to play Duel. More than that, the game also exhibits surprising complexity and depth despite the initial impression of superficiality.

Gameplay wise, the setup is basically like that of chess or checkers. Both players have a side and the goal is to get one piece onto the opponent’s starting line. There are six pieces to control in the game and these pieces can be built and customized in order to have certain characteristics that can give them an edge over the opposing team. The user who reaches the other side first is the winner.

As simple as the system may sound, it actually brings a lot of the element of strategy into the game. For starters, both players need to keep offense and defense in mind at the same time. While trying to reach the other side of the board, which is relatively small, they also need to keep on thinking about keeping their opponent from reaching theirs.

With regards to its financial prospects, there is a huge wall that it needs to climb before it comes anywhere near what Pokemon Go has been able to achieve, CNET reports. The augmented reality game app by Niantic Labs has been downloaded over 500 million times and still maintains millions of users all over the world. In 2016, the total revenue generated by the game surpassed $950 million.