{"id":15114,"date":"2016-06-29T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T00:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=15114"},"modified":"2016-06-02T20:41:54","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T20:41:54","slug":"pocket-card-jockey-3ds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/29\/pocket-card-jockey-3ds\/","title":{"rendered":"Pocket Card Jockey (3DS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JOCKEY_BOX\"<\/a>Get ready for one of the weirdest game combos this year!\u00a0 Pocket Card Jockey is a cross between a fast-paced Solitaire game and\u2026horse racing?!?\u00a0 Yup, and not only is it one of the weirdest games this year, it\u2019s also one of the most addicting.\u00a0 So much so that after I downloaded the free demo on the 3DS eShop, I forked over the seven bucks it costs for the whole game!\u00a0 And I enjoyed it so much that I decided to review it, too!<\/span><\/p>\n

So in the game, you play as a horse racing jockey, but you\u2019re not very good at it.\u00a0 In fact, on your very first race, you fall off the horse and get trampled by dozens of hooves.\u00a0 Pretty dark way to start such a cutesy game, huh?\u00a0 But an angel appears (who looks a lot like your horse trainer), and says they\u2019ll bring you back to life and give you a special power that\u2019ll make you good at horse racing.\u00a0 You say you\u2019re good at Solitaire, so the angel gives you the power to play it to help you win horse races!\u00a0 And that\u2019s the game\u2019s backstory.\u00a0 Right from the get-go you can tell that this game has a lot of Japanese quirkiness to it (horse racing is actually pretty popular in Japan).\u00a0 But if you think about it, the game isn\u2019t so weird if you consider there are lots of mobile games that combine Solitaire and another sport, like Fairway Solitaire (which is golf themed).\u00a0 In fact, if Nintendo starts making more mobile games, I bet Pocket Card Jockey would be a good candidate for a port.<\/span><\/p>\n

So anyway, after picking and naming your horse from different sponsors, you\u2019ll enter them in races.\u00a0 You\u2019ll play quick, fast-paced rounds of Solitaire and if you do well, your horse will have more energy and be in a better mood.\u00a0 Between rounds of cards, you can do things like position your horse on the track (handy if you want to save stamina on the turns), pick up cards that can help you level up and gain skills if you play them in the next round, and move your horse to win in the final stretch.\u00a0 It sounds complicated, but it really isn\u2019t, and the game explains everything in great detail as you play, so it\u2019s easy to figure out.\u00a0 Controls are easy to learn, too, as everything is touch screen and stylus based.\u00a0 Between raced you can buy items and puzzle pieces from a shop with your earnings from winnings.\u00a0 These items can give you an edge in the next race.<\/span><\/p>\n

After racing, your horse will gain experience and level up, depending on if you picked up special cards.\u00a0 They may even learn special skills that can help you out.\u00a0 After racing when the horse is 2 and 3 years old, you can enter them in more races after that to help you earn more money.\u00a0 But after 4 years you\u2019ll need to retire your horse out in the farm.\u00a0 But you can breed horses you\u2019ve raced on the farm, and their offspring may produce even stronger horses that\u2019ll help you win more!\u00a0 There are other things you can do in the game besides that, but since this is a rather informal review, I\u2019ll leave that for you to discover.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game does have a few problems, though.\u00a0 Mainly the slow progression and abundance of luck involved.\u00a0 You could do well on your Solitaire games, only to lose to higher level horses or get in a bad position on the track that you can\u2019t get out of.\u00a0 Plus, it takes a while to breed and level up horses fast enough for the harder races, so you have to be patient.\u00a0 When you start a race you\u2019ll play a special round of Solitaire where you must clear out the best bottom card in a short amount of time, and if you blink, you\u2019ll miss it.\u00a0 Starting was the hardest thing for me in the game, but if you get a horse with a \u201cFast Start\u201d skill, it\u2019ll make things a lot easier.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

But even with those problems, the game is so addicting and fun that you probably won\u2019t even mind them.\u00a0 The game has that \u2018just one more race\u2019 aspect to it.\u00a0 Plus, the graphics are really cute and it has that quirkiness in games that I just thrive on.\u00a0 There doesn\u2019t seem to be as many weird Japanese-y games like there used to be, so I was glad to see that this one ended up so fun.\u00a0 There is a free demo of this on the Nintendo eShop that you can try if you like, and all your progress in the demo can be transferred into the main game if you decide to get it.\u00a0 And I recommend that you do so!\u00a0 It\u2019s a fun little gem!<\/span><\/p>\n

One more thing.\u00a0 This game was developed by Game Freak, makers of Pok\u00e9mon.\u00a0 They slipped in a few funny Pok\u00e9mon references in the game.\u00a0 Like when you get a new trophy, text splashes on the screen that says, \u201cGotta Get \u2018em All,\u201d and some of the horse names are Pok\u00e9mon moves and other references.\u00a0 You know how race horses have funny names.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found Volt Tackle, Bullet Seed, and my favorite: Bulba Soarer.\u00a0 Let me know in the comments section if you find any others!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"JOCKEY_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pocket Card Jockey is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Comic Mischief.\u00a0 While you do get trampled and die at the start of the game, the violence is still pretty cartoony.\u00a0 Strong reading skill and number recognition is needed, as everything is text-based, and the fast-paced Solitaire gameplay requires quick number value responses.\u00a0 Even though the game is about horse racing, there is no simulated gambling involved.\u00a0 No betting, just horse racing!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get ready for one of the weirdest game combos this year!\u00a0 Pocket Card Jockey is a cross between a fast-paced Solitaire game and\u2026horse racing?!?\u00a0 Yup, and not only is it one of the weirdest games this year, it\u2019s also one of the most addicting.\u00a0 So much so that after I downloaded the free demo on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15116,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15114\/revisions\/15116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}