Pocket Card Jockey Demo Impressions

What do you get when you mix horse racing with Solitare? The answer is, of course, Pocket Card Jockey for the 3DS. Nintendo released a demo for this unique game this week and I tried it out. What did I think of the horse card game’s demo? Read on to find out!

Pocket Card Jockey is a very strange game. When I saw the footage for it during the last Nintendo Direct, I thought that it looked awful. I had no interest in it. And yet, when a demo was released this week, I thought I might as well download it and see if the game is better than it looked. As it turns out, Pocket Card Jockey looks like it could be one of the most unique games on the 3DS eshop.

Pocket Card Jockey (created by Game Freak of Pokemon fame) has you playing as a rookie jockey who wants to make it big. Unfortunately, he’s not any good at racing! But an Angel comes around to help him and suggests combining Solitaire with horse racing. Wait a second…what?! Yes, you heard me an Angel suggests that if he wants to get better at racing, he’ll have to use Solitaire to do it. This very strange mix of horse racing and Solitaire seems more complicated than it actually is. The tutorials might even get you a little mixed up, but if you know Solitaire, then you should be alright. This game might not be a game for Solitaire newbies though. This is not a slow paced game of Solitaire. There are time limits for most of the Solitaire matches.

As you play Solitaire, your horse is racing on the top screen. You play Solitaire on the bottom screen with your stylus and there are other uses for the stylus too, such as directing your horse. The better you are at playing Solitaire, the faster your horse will race! As I said, the game sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Its also a game you have to play to believe in. The graphics for the horse racing are pretty simple (but also cute). The mix of two different genres: cards and horse racing, may seem odd and/or uninteresting to some people! The demo will either get you addicted or turn you off of the game.

I found the demo to be very addictive. The Solitaire plays well and the horse racing elements are unique and almost rpg-like. There is also a way to breed your horse with another horse to make new horses that you can race. I haven’t run into that part of the game yet. I’m not sure if its even in the demo. I haven’t finished the demo yet. This is a pretty long demo and you can save your progress and come back to it. Your final progress can be transferred over to the actual game too!

There is currently no North American release date for Pocket Card Jockey. The game comes out in Europe on May 5th. I think it won’t be too long till we’ll see it in North America too. The demo really surprised me and I’d be very interested in playing more of this game. I’m not sure how much the game will cost in North America. I would say if the game is around five or six dollars that would be fair.

You can download the Pocket Card Jockey demo from the 3DS eshop right now! Please give it a try, especially if you like Solitaire, and let us know what you think of it in the comments!