Pokémon Trading Card Game out now on iPad in Canada

Finally, you can enjoy some Pokémon card battling with that piping-hot dish of poutine.

The Pokémon Company International has unleashed its most effective attack on Canadians (as Kotaku first spotted). The Pokémon Trading Card Game is now available for the iPad on the iTunes App Store in Canada. The app enables you to collect, manage, and fight with a digital version of the blockbuster trading-card game. This is the first official Pokémon game to make it to a non-Nintendo device — although The Pokémon Company has previously released non-game apps on iOS and Android prior to this.

The card battler is due out for iPad worldwide soon, and we’ve asked The Pokémon Company when gamers in the U.S. and elsewhere can expect to get their hands on it. Of course, The Pokémon Trading Card Game is playable for everyone on PC and Mac right now, so you don’t have to wait at all if you want to play on one of those platforms. You can even continue your desktop game on the iPad when you’re ready.

This trading-card game is free to download, and it gives you a starter deck to help you get right into the action.

Here’s what the description on the App Store has to say:

“Have fun learning and mastering the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online! Practice against the computer or go head to head with your friends or other players from around the world. Unlock cards and decks as you play to build up your collection and make truly unique decks. Your decks and card collection are stored as a part of your Pokémon trainer Club account, allowing you to switch between iPad and desktop with ease.”

If you’re wondering if all this means the next Pokémon role-playing game will debut on an iPad or iPhone, you can forget about it. Nintendo, which holds the rights to make Pokémon video games, only owns a third of The Pokémon Company along with developers Game Freak and Creatures Inc. While the Pokémon holding company is doing whatever it wants with the card game, Nintendo is likely going to keep one of its biggest franchises on its own consoles.