At first glance the cards may not look very different to the standard Pokemon TCG affair. However, they have barcodes along the bottom and right edges. The horizontal strip can store 1296 bytes of data, the vertical, 2064 bytes.

Swiping one card will show up a Pokedex entry for that Pokemon, with stats and evolution information. The cards have to be swiped quite slowly across the reader in order to work properly.

Swiping two or three cards in sequence will download a small animation or a mini game.

Examples are one where Machop has to smash boulders raining down into the single screened level, 100 must be smashed in order to win the game.

In another game, Pichu must tug on the Hoppip balloons to stop them flying away. There are six balloons, once one reaches the top of the screen, the game ends. It is a timed game, and the record for longest time is displayed at the top of the screen.

The games can be quite addictive, they need little instruction so can be picked up and played instantly. Just right for travelling, which is what the GBA does best.

The animations involve Pokemon interacting with each other. It seems that the cards you swipe dictate the Pokemon that'll be in the sequence.

With over 250 Pokemon, and a card for each one, there can be many combinations with different things happening for each.

Nintendo's vision is that they can "distribute games in large quantities and cheaply on printed paper". They expect to deliver "Gaming experiences from a piece of paper".