I've got to come clean, here. I'm not really into most horse racing games. I mean, I like the idea, but pretty much everything I've tried has been really stat-heavy and management focused. They generally seem tailored towards those who are heavily invested in gambling, and following the fine details of what makes a reliable bet, rather than those who just want to play a nice horsey game. There are exceptions. Obviously, I'm really into the horse stuff in the Zelda and Red Dead Redemption games, if I'm ever lucky enough to come across a Final Furlong cabinet, that's a great day, and for all the convoluted design elements that comprise Bomberman Fantasy Race, there's a really fun arcade horse racing game at the heart of it (even if the horses are cartoon kangaroos and bipedal rhinoceroses). For a straight-up good horse racing game, though, I've never found anything that could compete with Pocket Card Jockey.
Its premise is actually quite relatable for me. Your protagonist wants to be able to win horse races, but has no aptitude for it. They're better at card games. Through a deal with god, you're allowed to compete in horse races via the medium of quick-fire games of solitaire.
This isn't just a fun facade to put on the front of a card game, though. It's not like a licenced pachinko or pinball machine with funny animations. This is a horse racing game first, and a solitaire game second. You choose a good horse based on their natural statistics, develop their skills as much as you can in each race, and attempt to carry them through a career before they grow too old and get sent to the farm to produce offspring. Between each game of solitaire, you'll need to decide where best to line them up with the rest of the pack to maintain speed and stamina, while sticking close to the inside lane for oncoming corners. You're making decisions as a jockey, and relying on your abilities as a card shark to stay competitive.
The solitaire stuff is dead simple, but deliberately so. Cards are arranged randomly in the tableau in front of you, with you drawing cards at random from your deck. If your drawn card is one number higher or lower than the one on top of a stack, you can remove it from the game. Clear the board quickly, and your stamina loss will be negligible. Don't clear it in time, or run out of cards before all the cards are removed, and you'll really feel the impact. One bad hand can ruin an entire career, and you'll be struggling to make anything of your horse before it's time to move to a new one.
It's how frequently your focus is shifted that makes Pocket Card Jockey so addictive. In the heat of each solitaire game, your whole attention is on drawing the right numbers, and looking out for good sequences of cards to leave on the table for a big combo down the line. Then you zoom out, and you're back to the race, watching stats and trying to find the best place to set yourself. Then you zoom out further, and you're looking at your horse's career, trying to pick the best races to put them in, and buying items to boost their abilities. And you can zoom out further still, trying to make sure you've got a good horse waiting for you afterwards, and picking out good breeding pairs. There's constant distractions, but that sense of momentum never goes away. It's all headed in the trajectory of becoming a champion.
This is all well and good, but what really holds Pocket Card Jockey together is its charm. If you hadn't known already, this is a Game Freak joint. While they're, understandably, most known for Pokémon, I feel their true character comes through most in their independent games, like Jerry Boy, HarmoKnight and Pulseman. They're relentlessly creative, and have a history of consistently lovable titles with great art, music and writing behind them. Pocket Card Jockey is a surprisingly funny game, and can blindside you with its dialogue and characters, while maintaining a friendly, unassuming appearance. It isn't afraid to go full shonen anime for the more intense races, transporting your steed into a neon-filled techno dimension as you rapidly draw cards looking for a 7 to place on a board full of 6s and 8s. Something like this could easily become dry and predictable, but Game Freak have enough tricks up their sleeve to make sure you're always having a good time.
Pocket Card Jockey was initially a 3DS eShop game, and was later revived as the Apple Arcade mobile title, 'Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On'. That's the game that's been ported to Switch. There isn't too much to distinguish between the two games, with the bulk of content, including the script, horses and races, being pulled from that original 3DS entry, though the fully modelled 3D races are a flashy new tweak. There are some low-level changes to the ruleset beyond that, but after a race or two, you'll forget all about them. The real change is how the game has been reconfigured for a single-screen format, and subsequently, a home console. The sacrifices are comparable to Splatoon or Mario Maker's Switch sequels, without a second screen to provide useful information. It also plays a lot slower with a pad than a stylus, with a lot of the design clearly tailored towards a touchscreen, though you don't have to give that up if you're playing in handheld mode. The controls have been mapped quite carefully for those who do opt for the big screen experience, though, and there's a real satisfaction in flicking the right analogue stick to draw a new card. It's not a game that works as well here as it did on the 3DS, but they're trying their best.
Be honest with yourself, though. Are you really going back to play your 3DS on the reg again? If you are, good for you. I'm sure you'll enjoy the original. For the rest of us, we're much more inclined to turn to the Switch when it's time to play a game, and it's great to have Pocket Card Jockey as one of our selectable games. It's welcoming, cheap, compelling, and sessions can run from five minutes to all day, depending on what you're willing to put in to it. Look at my top five favourite games, and you'll see that four of them are available to play on the Switch. In a robust library of all-time classics, it's really great to see Pocket Card Jockey come into the fold.
Its premise is actually quite relatable for me. Your protagonist wants to be able to win horse races, but has no aptitude for it. They're better at card games. Through a deal with god, you're allowed to compete in horse races via the medium of quick-fire games of solitaire.
This isn't just a fun facade to put on the front of a card game, though. It's not like a licenced pachinko or pinball machine with funny animations. This is a horse racing game first, and a solitaire game second. You choose a good horse based on their natural statistics, develop their skills as much as you can in each race, and attempt to carry them through a career before they grow too old and get sent to the farm to produce offspring. Between each game of solitaire, you'll need to decide where best to line them up with the rest of the pack to maintain speed and stamina, while sticking close to the inside lane for oncoming corners. You're making decisions as a jockey, and relying on your abilities as a card shark to stay competitive.
The solitaire stuff is dead simple, but deliberately so. Cards are arranged randomly in the tableau in front of you, with you drawing cards at random from your deck. If your drawn card is one number higher or lower than the one on top of a stack, you can remove it from the game. Clear the board quickly, and your stamina loss will be negligible. Don't clear it in time, or run out of cards before all the cards are removed, and you'll really feel the impact. One bad hand can ruin an entire career, and you'll be struggling to make anything of your horse before it's time to move to a new one.
It's how frequently your focus is shifted that makes Pocket Card Jockey so addictive. In the heat of each solitaire game, your whole attention is on drawing the right numbers, and looking out for good sequences of cards to leave on the table for a big combo down the line. Then you zoom out, and you're back to the race, watching stats and trying to find the best place to set yourself. Then you zoom out further, and you're looking at your horse's career, trying to pick the best races to put them in, and buying items to boost their abilities. And you can zoom out further still, trying to make sure you've got a good horse waiting for you afterwards, and picking out good breeding pairs. There's constant distractions, but that sense of momentum never goes away. It's all headed in the trajectory of becoming a champion.
This is all well and good, but what really holds Pocket Card Jockey together is its charm. If you hadn't known already, this is a Game Freak joint. While they're, understandably, most known for Pokémon, I feel their true character comes through most in their independent games, like Jerry Boy, HarmoKnight and Pulseman. They're relentlessly creative, and have a history of consistently lovable titles with great art, music and writing behind them. Pocket Card Jockey is a surprisingly funny game, and can blindside you with its dialogue and characters, while maintaining a friendly, unassuming appearance. It isn't afraid to go full shonen anime for the more intense races, transporting your steed into a neon-filled techno dimension as you rapidly draw cards looking for a 7 to place on a board full of 6s and 8s. Something like this could easily become dry and predictable, but Game Freak have enough tricks up their sleeve to make sure you're always having a good time.
Pocket Card Jockey was initially a 3DS eShop game, and was later revived as the Apple Arcade mobile title, 'Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On'. That's the game that's been ported to Switch. There isn't too much to distinguish between the two games, with the bulk of content, including the script, horses and races, being pulled from that original 3DS entry, though the fully modelled 3D races are a flashy new tweak. There are some low-level changes to the ruleset beyond that, but after a race or two, you'll forget all about them. The real change is how the game has been reconfigured for a single-screen format, and subsequently, a home console. The sacrifices are comparable to Splatoon or Mario Maker's Switch sequels, without a second screen to provide useful information. It also plays a lot slower with a pad than a stylus, with a lot of the design clearly tailored towards a touchscreen, though you don't have to give that up if you're playing in handheld mode. The controls have been mapped quite carefully for those who do opt for the big screen experience, though, and there's a real satisfaction in flicking the right analogue stick to draw a new card. It's not a game that works as well here as it did on the 3DS, but they're trying their best.
Be honest with yourself, though. Are you really going back to play your 3DS on the reg again? If you are, good for you. I'm sure you'll enjoy the original. For the rest of us, we're much more inclined to turn to the Switch when it's time to play a game, and it's great to have Pocket Card Jockey as one of our selectable games. It's welcoming, cheap, compelling, and sessions can run from five minutes to all day, depending on what you're willing to put in to it. Look at my top five favourite games, and you'll see that four of them are available to play on the Switch. In a robust library of all-time classics, it's really great to see Pocket Card Jockey come into the fold.