Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

While I would have loved to see the addition of online elements that allow you to see your friends’ horses or compete against their best scores, this is still a phenomenal time killer of a game. The bizarre isekai story mixed with the adorable graphics and the occasional dark humor makes for so many elements I never thought I’d see in a solitaire or horse racing game, let alone an amalgamation of both.

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is an excellent, family-friendly game that tries hard not to become dull and succeeds. The presentation is smooth and logical. The pacing of the video game is nicely done. Where there are twists and turns, and different situations, the player will encounter throughout their path to greatness. Makes for a great game to pass the time, or to pick it up on the go whenever you feel the itch to play it.

Like its 3DS predecessor, Pocket Card Jockey takes a delightfully silly premise and uses it to create an oddly engaging and highly engrossing puzzle game. Its repetitive nature makes it a one-trick pony, but if it's a trick you click with it's difficult to put down.

I'm sure Pocket Card Jockey started out as a fun side project for the people at Game Freak that wanted a break from Pokémon. But what they delivered was a slick and cute hit, and hopefully, this time around it gets the attention it deserves.

From a really strange premise comes an incredibly addictive game: Game Freak has managed to combine classic solitaire with a strategically complex simulation of horse races, generating a gameplay that is fun and surprisingly deep.