The best thing Game Freak has made that isn’t a Pokemon is getting a remake

3 min readJan 4

While Game Freak may be best known as the creator and maker of Pokémon, the developer has another beloved title. After ten years of hiding in the attic, a new version of the game is released where you breed horses and make them race by playing solitaire.

Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of Pocket Card Jockey. Released on 3DS and mobile back in 2013, it never found the same audience as its pocket monster siblings.

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On is an RPG that lets you collect and breed horses for competitions. Winning races is not as easy as unleashing your best short-legged horse and watching it run over the finish line. By racing you will face fast solitaire events. You know, the card game. I haven’t watched a lot of horse racing, but I suppose that’s what happens in real life.

The new version will come to Apple Arcade on January 20th and will bring with it the transition to 3D graphics from the original 2D models. I hope it will still be as great as the first game.

It looks like the nuts and bolts of this new version of Pocket Card Jockey will remain the same: single-player campaign, strategic track positioning, horse breeding, and power-ups on the track.

complicated horse

(Image credit: Game Freak)

When Pockey Card Jockey debuted in 2013, it found a lot of die-hard fans. See, it turns out that combining cards and horses is a powerful combination of sweet and hardcore strategy.

The repetitive nature of the game reminded some of Tetris, which is always a fan favorite, while the JRPG elements made for a surprisingly interesting narrative. The only problem might be the different goals of the protagonist. If you choose the male knight, you aspire to inherit your father’s orange farm. However, if you play the knight, the ultimate goal is to have children. While there’s nothing wrong with either of these endeavors, hopefully these twin goals can be revamped in the upcoming sequel.

an apple a day

For those of you excited about the remake, I hope you have an iPhone. Pocket Card Jockey will be exclusive to Apple Arcade and will remain behind a paywall. Apple Arcade is getting you a $4.99 / £4.99 / AU$7.99 monthly subscription, although it may be possible to purchase the game when it launches on January 20th.

(Image credit: Game Freak)

An Apple Arcade membership also gives you access to a range of games, but there’s nothing to take for granted, especially when you add up the price of all your subscription prices. If you really want to test Pocket Card Jockey for yourself, try our Apple Arcades free trial for the first month; Just remember to cancel before your time is up if you don’t want to continue with your subscription.

As it stands, this new version looks just as fun and addictive as the first. Hopefully, if it works well on Apple Arcade, Nintendo fans can see the horse-racing Solitaire hybrid come to life on the Nintendo Switch.