Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

Genre: Card Game (Solitaire) / Sports (Horse Racing)

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Wireless / Online)

.

Review:

When I reviewed Pocket Card Jockey on Nintendo 3DS, I never imagined that Game Freak, the makers of the mainline Pokemon games, would ever bring back this oddball blend of Solitaire and Horse Racing. Yet here we are, with what appears to be a remake of that game, released on Apple Arcade in 2023 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2024.

The premise of Pocket Card Jockey remains the same as before in this release – players take the role of a jockey who is so miserable at their life’s passion, horse racing, that in their very first attempt to train a horse they get kicked to death. An angel gives the jockey a second chance, but only on the condition that they win the derby. However, humbled by their recent buffoonery, the jockey isn’t exactly confident that this goal is attainable, so they’re given a a bit of a leg up, in that their performance on the race track will be tied to their skill at something they are decent at, playing Solitaire.

What can I say, sometimes videogame plots are weird.

The gameplay in Pocket Card Jockey uses the Card Game of Solitaire (specifically Putt Putt Solitaire, a variant of Golf Solitaire) as a way to determine your success or failure on the race track – do a good job and clear the board of cards within a (pretty generous) time limit, and your horse will be energized and enthusiastic, ready to outpace the competition. Do poorly, and they’ll struggle.

In between rounds of cards, you’ll be given an opportunity to change your horse’s location in relation to the other horses on the track – the center of the pack is the best place to build energy, but it will also make for more difficult Solitaire games, and there are also advantages and disadvantages to being on the inside and outside of the track. Add on top of this some RPG elements as you manage your horses in the long-term and you have a good blending of these two very different game genres.

As I said in my review of the Nintendo 3DS game, it surprisingly all works quite well, although given the bizarre blend of genres, your mileage may vary (or perhaps “horsepower” may be a better term to use?).

for this remake, a number of changes have been made, from small QoL changes (you still can’t pause the game directly, but you’re not given an automatic loss if you exit out to the Nintendo Switch home menu using the home button, effectively pausing it), to graphical changes, to new control options, to new multiplayer functionality.

Let’s talk about the presentation first. Where the original game was strictly 2D, Ride On! brings the gameplay into 3D, while still retaining the original game’s simple, cartoony art style. This means you have very simple-looking cel-shaded cartoony 3D characters. Far from impressive, but cute all the same. There’s still 2D art here too, with the static cutscenes using 2D character art. There’s absolutely nothing impressive here, but it’s an improvement all the same. These visuals are backed by a lighthearted and energetic soundtrack befitting a horse racing game, though I can’t say that I found any of the music especially noteworthy or memorable.

As for the controls, the Nintendo Switch release of this game retains the touchscreen controls of the original and the mobile versions of the game when you’re playing in handheld mode, but also adds gamepad controls. Personally, I think the gamepad controls for selecting cards feels a bit clunky, but it does work, and when playing in handheld mode you even have the option of combining touchscreen and gamepad controls, which is nice. Overall, this is a pretty good home console port, as far as the controls are concerned.

Overall, I don’t think Pocket Card Jockey is a game that will appeal to everyone, but it is nevertheless a solid game, and I’m glad to see it’s not trapped on the Nintendo 3DS platform anymore, or on Apple Arcade, for that matter. Plus, the new features and presentation make this the best version of this game we’ve gotten thus far. Players who enjoy Card Games and are looking for something a bit different should give this one a look, as there’s not really anything else like it on the market.

tl;dr – Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is a remake of the Nintendo 3DS game that blends together the two very different genres of Solitaire Card Games and Horse Racing, yet it oddly manages to work surprisingly well, with new options and features and a new presentation that make this the best version of the game released thus far. It’s not likely to appeal to everyone, but for players who enjoy Card Games and crave something out of the norm, this is one horse well worth betting on.

Grade: B

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Driving/Racing/Sports Game

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}