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Pocket Card Jockey rides again on Apple Arcade in January

The 3DS cult hit from Pokemon developer Game Freak is heading to a new platform later this month.

Ozzie Mejia

January 3, 2023 1:35 PM

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Nintendo closed the door on a lot of digital 3DS titles when it shut down the handheld's eShop. Sadly, many of these games are now lost to the ages with no way to pick them up. However, at least one appears to have been salvaged for an entirely new platform. On Monday, Apple announced that Game Freak's Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On will make its Apple Arcade debut in January.

According to the description on the App Store, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On restores the gameplay of the 2016 original while also remastering its visuals to offer a more 3D presentation. For those unfamiliar with the formula, the main idea is that players are engaging in a horse race. However, the key to victory is in successfully playing solitaire, which charges up the player's horse for a successful race. Solitaire combinations, energy management, and special cards will all contribute towards success on the track. Outside of races, players can raise multiple generations of adorable ponies, making sure to breed happy creatures for a future career on the track.

Pocket Card Jockey was believed to be one of the many games lost forever after Nintendo shuttered the Wii U and 3DS eShops in 2022. With those storefronts now closed, downloading any exclusive digital titles is now impossible. If nothing else, at least there's a new lifeline for this cult hit from the Pokemon curators at Game Freak. Even one game being saved from digital oblivion is a cause worth celebrating.

Of course, that's not all that's set to come to Apple Arcade in the month of January. New titles include Episode XOXO from the team at Pocket Gems, Illustrated from developer Border Leap, and physics-based animal puzzler Squiggle Drop from the folks at Noodlecake. An Apple Arcade subscription is required to play any or all of these games. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On will come to Apple Arcade on Friday, January 20.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?