Pokemon TCG Pocket packs can be opened every 12 hours, meaning the chances are, if you want to capitalize on pulling as many cards as you can, you’re opening one in the morning and one in the evening.
Now, that’s all well and good. That is until you’re lying in bed or sitting in a dark room (given it’s either early in the morning or at night) and are blinded by the searing white light from the game’s main menu, profile page, battle screen, and card collection.
Don’t be mistaken; Pokemon cards are meant to be colorful and are supposed to stand out, but for many players, the UI doesn’t need to make that much of a statement. The statement is behind the beautiful Rares or Full Art cards, not the buttons you need to press to get there.
In fact, it’s become a point of frustration for most of the community, with hundreds taking to social media to rant about the bright layout. One designer and fan of the game even took the matter into their own hands, sharing their idea for the dark mode layout on the Pokemon TCG Pocket Reddit.
One look at the design, and it’s easy to wonder why The Pokemon Company chose the eye-blistering white background in the first place.
While the community praised the “amazing” format, others worried that the developers “won’t add dark mode like they did with Pokemon Go; since they’re following the same UI design that is used in Pokemon Go, it seems that they want it to fit together for ease of use.”
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As they mentioned, the likes of Pokemon Go and even Pokemon Home don’t have a dark mode, with all their UIs boasting similar designs, so it makes sense to see Pokemon TCG Pocket following the same glaring color palette.
With all that in mind, there are a few reasons why the community is right in demanding dark mode. As previously mentioned, the first is to allow players to open packs every 12 hours without being blinded when it’s dark – nothing is brighter than a phone screen at night.
On top of this, there’s the notion of accessibility. For some, bright white lights like this give out headaches or migraines. The blue light emitting from the phone is enough to bring on headaches, and they can last for the entire 12 hours while you wait for the pack (I myself suffer from these). So, having a dark mode means less piercing light, fewer headaches, and more time for me to surf the internet for the best packs or how to get the one Starmie ex I keep missing out on.
So, will The Pokemon Company ever introduce dark mode to Pokemon TCG Pocket? There’s no word yet, but given that thousands of the community are calling for it (and rightly so), hopefully, it’s only a matter of time before our eyes can finally rest in darkness.
