Original Pokemon TCG Sees Celebratory Re-release…In Japan

Soon, Japan will see the Pokemon Trading Cards they grew up with circulated once again.

Man, Japan gets everything cool. Not only do they get the awesome semi-transparent Nintendo 2DS systems themed around the original Pokemon games, complete with a map, stickers, and a DLC code for Mew, now they’re getting a re-release of the original Pokemon TCG cards to celebrate Pokemon’s 20th anniversary in 2016, as Polygon reports.

The reprinting is a single set, not individual randomized packs, and comes with 60 cards, a manual, and a coin. The cards feature the same art and design as the original cards from 1996, though it’s safe to assume there will be some marking distinguishing them from the originals, so it’s no good trying to pass your holographic Charizard off as an older version. The set comes out on February 27th.

Hopefully we’ll see these cards head west, perhaps later in the year, but if not, there’s still plenty to look forward to in 2016 from Pokemon. February 27th will see Pokemon Blue, Red, and Yellow release on the Nintendo 3DS eShop worldwide. Pokken Tournament will debut on the Wii U at some point, as will Pokemon Go on mobile. And surely we’ll see a brand new main series Pokemon title sometime that year, too.

As for other fancy Pokemon merch, we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that we get at least a few of the awesome offerings that Japan does, or maybe some unique releases of our own in the west.