When the 3DS eShop closed back in March 2023, we were sad for a number of reasons. We were sad at the thought of losing the wonderful Virtual Console library. Sad at the prospect of never seeing the little orange bag mascot again. Sad at the understanding that we'd soon be returning to the silent eShop of the Switch without a background jingle in earshot. But most of all, we were sad that a whole swathe of gamers would miss out on the opportunity to play Pocket Card Jockey — a solitaire-based horse riding sim which several of us at Nintendo Life have described (without a hint of irony) as Game Freak's best game.
To be clear, not all of us were in the same boat. We awarded the original a 'Good' 7/10 back in 2016, but what was a stubborn mule for some was a prize pony for others.
A few months before the eShop closure, the Pokémon developer remade this 3DS gem for mobile. Apple Arcade's Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! launched in January 2023 with fresh three-dimensional visuals and a new control scheme to account for the drop from two screens to one, but apart from these nips and tucks, it was the same old weird, charming, and dangerously addictive game that we had adored back in the 3DS' hay-day. This was wonderful, of course, but it needed to come to Switch and after a year's mobile exclusivity, come to Switch it has.
We'll be clear right out of the gate: Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is a joy. Those who played the mobile version will find few changes here, but for those who haven't played since the 3DS days or who haven't played at all, this strange mix of solitaire and horse racing is a blast. It's a surefire way to put a smile on your face and we can see this one being a go-to method to while away the hours as the Switch begins to show its age.
For new riders (or if it's just been a while since you last saddled up), let's trot through the basics. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is, at its heart, a horse racing game. You pick a horse, give it a comical name, and then put it through its paces in a series of races to improve its stats and pull in the trophies.
Where it gets weird is how you control your pony pal: games of solitaire. If you want to race well, you'll need to clear stacks of cards within the time limit. Get them all gone and your horse will gain energy, listen to your guidance, and experience a mood boost; leave some on the table and things will quickly get ugly.
It's a combination that sounds strange on paper, but in practice, it just works. The rules of solitaire are slightly tweaked to ensure more rounds are won under the time pressure — just move up or down in numerical order without any consideration for card colour — and the act of riding the horse is simplified down to a series of 'Comfort Zones' which boost your horse's mood and energy accordingly.
Both elements of the gameplay are streamlined, to a certain extent, but that's not to say that there's no challenge here. Different racing divisions will come with a different level of competition, riding in a higher Comfort Zone ups the reward but also increases the risk with a tougher game of solitaire to complete, taking a wider line during corners avoids any unwanted collisions but also drains your horse's stamina for the home straight. It's a simple concept, but the gameplay loop hides depth aplenty.
The main objective (if you can say that a game like this really has an 'objective') is to win every race out there. Trophies are locked behind certain conditions (the horse's age, sex, etc.) and the process of getting back around to races and trophies that you missed is somewhat arduous, requiring either turning to a new horse or breeding one to meet the set conditions from your retired mounts. Trophy hunters may struggle to achieve 100% completion, but the promise of improving your horse's abilities and unlocking new skills in every race keeps things firmly on the 'just one more run' side of addictive gameplay.
So far, so 3DS. But Ride On! has a couple of new features that will be notable if you haven't played since the dual-screen days. At the forefront of the changes is a new control scheme which moves everything into one field of view. Much like the mobile version, track positioning, solitaire, energy storage, and the racing 'cutscenes' all take place on a single screen, whereas the 3DS original put the latter two on the top display.
Ride On! on Switch can be played fully with touch controls, if you're a fan of handheld play, with the inputs allowing for snappy card selection and pin-point precision with your horse's track positioning. Game Freak has also introduced a new Joy-Con / Pro Controller scheme to account for the console's hybridity.
This method relies on you jumping between cards with the left stick and selecting them with whatever face button you'd like before flipping from your reserve pile with the right stick. It's a little clunky and the on-screen arrow which designates your current position lacks the touch controls' fluidity when removing consecutive cards, but such is the struggle of translating touch inputs to the big screen.
Speed might not be the biggest hurdle in the first couple of races, but we found ourselves heavily favouring the touch controls for faster inputs in the more competitive derbies or racing in the game's online play — a mode that offers a surprisingly stable competition against a global component, albeit with a couple of extra buffering wheels to ensure both jockeys are at the same point in the race.
These buffers are dropped in the single-player mode, which runs pretty smoothly. We noticed the odd frame drop during animations when a large deck of cards is dealt, but this never intruded on the gameplay itself, fortunately.
The mobile game's visuals also make the jump over to Switch here, with new 3D horse and jockey models replacing the 2D original. It's not going to gallop onto anyone's list of best-looking Switch games in a hurry and we'd be lying if we said that we didn't miss the charming cutout approach of the OG visuals, but it is by no means harsh on the eye. The original stylings can still be found in the menus and post-race cutscenes, which helps soften the blow.
Balancing also tips in a more player-favourable direction compared to the 3DS version. Those with memories of unfairly lost races and stupidly overpriced items need not fear, the Switch has taken the same tweaks as its mobile counterpart to keep things on the right track.
Bar these nips and tucks, Ride On! is the same charmer that we saw on 3DS. The writing is still top-tier stuff and had us once again chuckling at its universe of wacky horse owners and jockeys despite it being the third time that we had seen the dialogue in action. Oh, and the music (the music!!) is still packed with more bangers than a hot dog stand — the backing track to G1 division races remains a highlight of intensity.
Conclusion
Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! does not come to Switch with a swathe of bells and whistles or make a host of changes to Game Freak's weirdest mash-up. It's a simple port of the Apple Arcade version — which, in itself, made very few changes to the 3DS original — but with a game this great, that's no bad thing. Sure, not much has changed since 2016 (even less since 2023), but this charming hybrid card-racer is absolutely worth taking for a ride wherever you can. Giddyap.
Comments 47
Looks like I'll have to dip in this time. I never bothered getting this on 3DS, but the concept is quite unique and GameFreak apparently is capable of producing A-grade games, instead of subpar ones.
At this point even 3DS ports have performance hiccups on Switch? Sheesh ...
I am glad to see the writing get a mention here... the story and characters are incredibly charming. The main character is delightfully oblivious and upbeat, and the other characters are great too.
In relation to the technical hiccups, for anyone worried... there is a slight hitch when dealing the cards sometimes, and maybe a slight delay when horses are being shunted, but these are cutscenes... no impact upon gameplay from what I have seen.
This game is a real gem. Ridiculously addictive.
I've still never played this somehow. It's hard to get excited for a game that looks kind of stupid, even when you know it's actually good. That's why I didn't play Hades for so long.
"To be clear, not all of us were in the same boat. We awarded the original a 'Good' 7/10 back in 2016, but what was a stubborn mule for some was a prize pony for others."
And this is why having a policy of writing "we" in reviews is bad and leads to confusion.
It's worth noting that if you're using Joy Con or Pro Controller, the Dpad is a lot snappier than the sluggish analogue cursor when you're playing the solitaire sections (as you'll just snap between the card options instead of dragging a cursor to them).
@cchhaasseerr It's not a 3DS port, the game had a complete graphical overhaul to go from 3DS to Apple Arcade, which is the version Switch got. It's practically a full remake.
And for what it's worth, I personally haven't noticed anything significantly slow down at all. There's even a speed up button that I've never clicked off.
Who needs Switch 2? Check in on me in 2026...
@dartmonkey
To be honest, Gavin, I was hoping that you would review this, so that the game would receive the 12/10 which it deserves! 😆
shame it's not on Android.
@Fiskern Similarly, I wish reviewers would stop trying to force some kind of false objectivity into their reviews, and acknowledge that, ultimately, their review is their opinion, and write accordingly. (I'm not targeting anyone specific here.)
@Fiskern
nobody did it better than EGM review crew back in the day. every game had 4 reviewers, with one at the top having a longer write up, and 3 supplemental shorter reviews, and 4 individual 0.0-10.0 scores . the games with very divisive scores were always the most interesting!
I played this last year and completed my trophy case. It took around 130 hours through the course of a few months. It really is lovely in alot of aspects. I love all the weird characters and their strange backstories.
Biggest issues at hand would be that this game is VERY luck based. It might border along the line of being a “luck simulator” where you can master your skills, but still take hours to progress, because you picked up the Queen instead of the Ace.. Also, some of its mechanics aren’t really well explained.
Downloaded the demo at the weekend and enjoying it so far. Hopefully someone like LRG might pick it up for a physical release?!
So it does have some significant upgrades after all
This one slipped past me on 3DS so I tried the Switch demo and honestly I wanted to like it so much more than I did.
I liked the core mechanics of do Solitaire to make horse run, move horse to zone to set difficulty of next cards, boost at the end stretch. And the humour was excellent.
But it all started to get much more complicated and confusing by the third race. I didn’t feel like I had time to learn things properly, maybe the main game is better paced? That combined with the generally ugly visuals (honestly the transition to HD and 3D was not kind) and UI all over the place… by the end of the demo I was solidified in this not being for me.
I’m still glad to see it live on though. I hope lots of people get a kick out of it returning but anyone new to it, try the demo to be sure.
@Kyloctopus thank you for saying “luck simulator”. My problem with the original was I didn’t feel I was progressing even though I played a lot. I tried the demo, it is good. But in a weird way, this game is too luck based and too addictive for me.
So glad this came to Switch. My wife LOVED the original game. She was thrilled when I showed her the game was available. She rushed to download it and spent the evening thoroughly enjoying the game. Great that it's multiplayer. Our kids might enjoy this too and want to play against her. Awesome.
There’s no “unfairly” lost races on 3DS. Solitaire is a game of chance, and so you’ll sometimes have to play through a bad hand. That’s central to the moment-to-moment tension AND the overarching gameplay, that some horses will have luckier careers than others. The last thing I want to hear is that the game now skews it so all horses above a certain stat threshold will win.
Add that to the downgrade from 2D to 3D visuals, and from 2 screens to 1, and from a nice handheld to a clunky drifting one… I see no point to this port of you can play it on 3DS.
This was not on my radar and I missed it on the 3DS, so really great that it's come to Switch. I ended up really liking it. The demo, too, is pretty substantial and lets you get a good feel for the game.
That all said, I have a few big gripes about it:
In short, it is incredibly fun, but there are a lot of thoughtless design and game elements that severely detract from the experience. It could be a A+ game, but it's just not polished. I would give it a B- at the highest.
Played the demo and wasn't a fan at all. The solitaire got in the way. If the solitaire was removed and instead you just button mashed or some aort of combos to gain speed, that would have been better. No one wants to play a game of cards between racing horses, just like no one wants to race horses between playing cards. It's just a poor game all-round.
@Broforce If they replaced the solitaire with button mashing I wouldn't be playing.
I was a fan of the 3ds version. When this was announced I immediately went to the eshop. $20, no thank you. I'll just keep playing my 3ds version.
@Uncle_Franklin Well it is, with emulators. You could even emulate the crApple version if so inclined.
@PBNightmare
It's $15 and is much better, and much easier to understand than the 3DS version. Just so you know.
Price is too high, I agree.
I'm waiting for sale for now, but it did feel, look and play much better.
@msvt I'm in Canada not the USA. It's $20 here.
I tried the 3DS demo and it wasn't for me, but it's cool to see an eShop exclusive re-released and not lost to time.
I love playing this, it seems better than the original 3DS game to me. I do notice the frame drops in the bigger views of the race, bit it's still exciting and fun to play with fantastic music and writing. Had no idea how happy I'd be to play this on Switch!
I bought it and I love it for having a moderately challenging yet strangely calming mindless touch control game on your switch for bite size downtime times.
@PBNightmare
oh, yeah. Good game, but definitely too high
@IsThis5or6
to the crimemobile!
@Broforce If this was a button masher, then it wouldn't be unique.
@Pillowpants Like Arceus and Pokemon Violet?
This is the last game I purchased on the eshop, and love every second of it (even if sometimes you lose races and don’t understand why) But it feel like it will lose the charm on switch, the dual screens and stylus were perfect for it. Its like “The world ends with you” where the original, was technically worst, but practically better. Anyway if you don't have a 3DS its a must buy, awesome game (and ‘Dare to dream” the song of the first race it’s just amazing)
My 3DS touch screen actually has a little circle carved into it from rubbing the stylus on the horse power icon so much. This game may be the most addictive game ever, and I don’t even want to know how many hours I dropped into it. I’m quite surprised how well it works with a controller, but I worry about my future now that it’s back in my life on the big screen.
The demo was quite enjoyable, but this'll have to wait as my budget has already been set for Unicorn Overlord.
@calbeau yeeeeeah. Man I'm going to just savor that one.
@Broforce bruh did You really just complain about a game where playing solitaire is the main mechanic? The game is literally called pocket CARD jockey.
Also “no one wants to play a game of cards between racing horses” clearly people do if the comments on this article and the original reveal trailer have anything to say about that.
Missed this on the 3DS. I may well now download for the Switch due to good reviews from reliable reviewers and fan following, lol. Due to games budget issues it'll have to remain on the wishlist for now. Cheers for the review.
@cchhaasseerr woulde be fun to see a @digitalfoundry analysis on this;)
Will eventually give this a try for sure, such a weird but interesting concept that luckily seems to be overall well executed and happy to hear that the Switch version is great!
Agro and Epona aint got nuthin on these horsies.
This game's release on Nintendo Switch honestly makes my last minute purchase of the game on Nintendo 3DS (before the eShop shuttered) meaningless!
@swoose
This version is much more balanced... tons less luck, lots better explanations, snappier, brighter, more character overall. The 3D upgrade looks awesome on OLED and imo almost like a sequel over the 3DS version.
A bit high priced but a very worthy update.
How does the online aspect work? I haven’t seen any reviews comment on the online multiplayer…
This isn't free-to-play is it?
checks site
Okay good...well, demo, maybe I'll take a look at it. I never did mess with this when it first came out way back then.
@JimNorman Have to ask, is the name Sensitive Ken a nod to Sad Ken, the three-legged blind horse that Eddie and Richy bet their shirts (and a Falklands veteran's wooden leg) on in Bottom?
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...