Game Freak may be best known as the developers of Pokémon, but in an early 2023 surprise, one of the studio’s few non-Pokémon games is getting a refreshed new release for Apple devices. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, a remake of the 3DS title Pocket Card Jockey, is coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV via Apple Arcade on January 20th.
Pocket Card Jockey is a “solitaire and horse-racing hybrid,” Game Freak writes on the game’s App Store listing. “Focus your mind and clear cards with subsequent numbers in quick succession. The more cards you clear, the better your horse’s mood will be—which helps them charge energy during races!”
I’ll admit that I’ve never played the original, and I don’t completely get it even after watching a video on the game’s App Store page or a trailer for the original. But in 2016, my colleague Andrew Webster said that once you get the hang of its weird concept, the game becomes “near-impossible to put down, because you just know you could do better next time.”
Currently, Pocket Card Jockey is only available via the Nintendo 3DS eShop. But with that digital storefront shutting down in March, this new version is arriving just in time to let new players discover the game even when they can’t get it on the 3DS anymore.
Apple also announced some additional titles heading to Apple Arcade, its subscription service that already offers access to more than 200 games. Episode XOXO, a new entry in the interactive storytelling game series, will be available on Friday. Illustrated, a new puzzle game that “blends” word and jigsaw puzzles, will be released on January 13th. Squiggle Drop, a physics puzzler, launches on January 27th. And Apple Arcade titles including Angry Birds Reloaded and Jetpack Joyride 2 are getting new content updates in January.
