I would like to thank Game Freak for bringing my Switch out of retirement. Not for Pokemon, but for their actual best game. Freed from the void that is "Apple Arcade", Pocket Card Jockey finally reaches a current audience that'll actually play their game. Well, with Game Freak's reputation in the gutter, maybe that's less likely as of late, but I'll take whatever Ws I can get here. Horse racing and solitaire sounds like a very "peanut butter and tuna fish"-tier combination, but it's executed seamlessly. There's a careful balancing act between the horse racing and the solitaire, their systems constantly feed back into each other.

Solitaire is simplified down to matching your current card with one that's one step higher or lower off the play field. Here's a quick refresher on how to count, if you need it. There's an inarguable aspect of luck in not knowing what cards are coming next in the deck, but in Pocket Card Jockey, solitaire is about playing proactively. Chain together cards to clear out large chunks of the field in one swoop, leave certain cards alone so you have a higher chance of being able to make use of the next card you draw, that sort of thing. It's about working around the luck. Frantically dancing up and down the field, clearing out entire waves of cards, it's a feeling like no other. Also, perfectly clearing out the field in a Level 3 zone gives you Super Unity, which causes the dopamine receptors to fire on all cylinders (and turn your horse into an invincible card vacuum).

In between rounds of solitaire, you get a chance to move your horse. There are bonus cards you can try to pick up that accelerate your horse's growth, but you're ideally aiming for the one of three comfort zone levels. Higher levels mean harder games of solitaire, but significantly better rewards. Leftover energy not used in movement can be manually converted into "motivation", a culmination of your performance during a race. Movement can be the most luck-based part of the whole game if your motivation isn't high enough. You can try to lead your own horse to water, but if there's another, more motivated horse in your way, you can probably forget about trying to get your horse to drink. The other horse's movements are also completely unpredictable. You're given all the information necessary to make an informed move, but sometimes The best you can do is watch the comfort zone radar and pray.

Game Freak carries over their Pokemon breeding expertise by letting your horses mate, having offspring inherit stats and beneficial skills. Yep, skills. Some of them affect your horse, but most of them directly benefit your solitaire games, like one that gives you a larger card stock, or another that yoinks the last card off the field for free. With careful planning (and a bit of luck), you too can raise your very own super horse! I kinda fell out of grace with nicknaming Pokemon (along with disowning the franchise in general), but I love nicknaming my horses. The in-game names are absurd, so I don't feel too bad about letting my gamer brain let loose. Hold on, I gotta check in on Robert Cop and Doctor Meow; oh my lord, it's a filly, and she's cracked.

Game's got Pokemon-tier music courtesy of a certain primary Pokemon composer, Go Ichinose. He brings us bangers that sound like a classy gambling parlor in fast-forward, with some funky jams, and a JRPG final boss theme (minor volume warning). Again, horse racing and solitaire. The art style is simplistic, with thick, rounded edges. Everyone manages to have a distinct design, including the variety of unique horses. Love their stubby legs and huge noses. Gotta raise 'em all and fill out my Horsédex.

Anywho, G1 trophies are the main macguffin, and you get a new story scene after collecting a certain amount of them. To see the ending, you need most of them. To see the credits roll, you need all of them, which is definitely a tall order. I wasn't sure that I was up to the task of doing it all again, but I managed to do it anyways. It's really hard to put this game down! The Switch version also has a few much-needed QoL changes, like letting you put your current horse on hold to raise another, and having your funds all be drawn from the same pool. On the 3DS, winnings were tied to each horse's owner, which was absurdly inconvenient. The UI during races has more info to parse than the 3DS version while still being perfectly readable at a glance.

The one big thing holding this game back is the Switch itself. No, it's not because the game is poorly optimized (it kinda is) or that the Switch is underpowered (it is, but that's irrelevant here). The real issue is that using the touch screen is still the most natural control scheme for this game, but the Switch doesn't share the one-handed form factor of the 3DS (or an Apple device, for that matter). You thought Kid Icarus: Uprising gave you hand cramps? Try holding a Switch with one hand for extended periods of time. The button controls they implemented for this version work, but they're not ideal in a pinch. You're certainly not beating any speed records while playing like that. Buying a mesh stylus and playing in handheld is basically the only way to go, in my eyes.

I know a lot of people have recently gained a gambling addiction through games like Buckshot Roulette and Balatro, but Game Freak has done me one better(?) by causing me to relapse on an addiction that started eight years ago on my 3DS. People are about to sleep on this game again, and it's gonna keep me up at night. Pocket Card Jockey is just a taste of what Game Freak can do when divorced from Pokemon, something we always need more of.