Game Freak, the developers behind the Pokémon franchise, brings a brand new Nintendo 3DS game that combines solitaire with horse racing. And before you scoff at the idea, Pocket Card Jockey mixes the two in a fun and interesting way that any 3DS owner should check out when it becomes available May 5.
But how does Pocket Card Jockey mix two seemingly unrelated activities into hours of gameplay? It combines the fast-paced action of horse racing with the simple strategy of solitaire, while injecting elements of traditional RPGs to make a unique experience.
Players start their Pocket Card Jockey adventure as a new jockey learning the ropes of horse racing. But in this world, solitaire plays a huge role in these races as you play rounds of the card game to affect your horse’s performance.
While this sounds simple enough, the game has layers of strategy in almost every aspect of the races. There are time limits to each round, the type of horse you have, its stats, its characteristics, its skills, how fast you finish a round, how many mistakes you make, the mood of your horse and where you place your horse on the track all affect the race and how you place.
Even listing all of that, I’m sure I’m missing some nuance to the racing. That’s just how deep the gameplay is.
While the rules are a lot to take in, Pocket Card Jockey does a good job of explaining the rules and strategies you can implement in the tutorial, though to be honest you’ll forget most of it. You’re better off just diving in with the basics and learning the ropes that way.
After several races, you’ll piece together what you need to do and what you personally feel comfortable doing. For example, are you one who wants to jump out in front of the pack early and maintain your lead, or stay back while conserving your energy for the homestretch?
Before you know it you’re competing in various races against different opponents. However, Pocket Card Jockey is interesting in that there is no way you can win 100 percent of your races. The horses you start with are too low leveled and you just won’t build your strategy fast enough to maximize each race. It’s something I personally had to get over as I would go on losing streaks and become frustrated with the game but oddly enough, the difficulty didn’t turn me off from playing, but instead made me want to compete more and more until I become a pro. But be prepared for some frustration, especially early in the game.
One of the knocks against Pocket Card Jockey, and a big reason for the difficulty of the races, is that there’s a lot of luck involved. There are so many factors involved and with multiple AI you’re competing against, it seems that anything can go wrong for you.
Another drawback to the game is the random selection of horses involved in each race. More often than not, my horse’s level and stats pale in comparison to the other horses. That would be fine if there was a way to grind your horse’s level up.
In Pocket Card Jockey the only way to gain experience is by participating in races and collecting EXP Cards along the track. That would be fine if there wasn’t a seemingly finite amount of races your horse can participate in. The more you win, the more races you can participate in during the calendar year. Once your horse reaches a mature age, lose three times and you’re forced to retire it. If the races weren’t so luck-based this would be a minor problem, but this game really tests the player’s patience as they trade wins and losses.
So how do you combat this? Theoretically, you’ll have to breed new horses, which will lead to stronger horses with better stats. Again, this mechanic tests the patience of the player but is something that I loved to explore and if you’re a Pokémon fan you can appreciate the breeding/raising aspect of Pocket Card Jockey.
As much as the gameplay can be frustrating and based a lot on luck, I couldn’t help but continue to get into race after race. When my horse was ready to retire, I just jumped on another. And when you do win, it really feels earned.
I’m also very impressed by how deep this seemingly simple game is and with Nintendo’s emphasis on mobile lately, this could easily be ported onto mobile devices.
Nintendo 3DS owners should definitely try out Pocket Card Jockey, you’ll be surprised by how much fun you'll have.
