It seems that Nintendo really brought the thunder with today's Nintendo Direct, with announcements of new games, release dates, DLC updates, and more making it a very packed forty-one minutes. One of the things that seemed to get a little bit ignored in all the hype was the announcement that Game Freak's Pocket Card Jockey would be brought over to the west.
Pocket Card Jockey appears to be a rather bizarre release that will be combining horse racing with solitaire to create a unique racing game. Essentially, players will play through a normal game of solitaire on the bottom screen, while the race is taking place on the top, with successful moves propelling your horse further up. It appears that there will be some light RPG elements in place, too; players will be able to level up horses and each horse will have special characteristics and abilities that determine how it performs. It all looks very interesting and it's set to hit the eShop sometime this May.
What do you think? Will you be picking this up? What do you think of the concept? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Comments 50
sounds bizarre but im definately interested!
Not really into it. I kinda expected Detective Pikachu to show up there.
Forgot to mention there's breeding. So yeah... This game happened...
This is one of the weirdest things I've seen, so it's not surprising it's gotten overlooked, it was like a tie-died t-shirt at a black tie affair.
Would have fit right in at last year's E3.
It's... Interesting...? I don't know how to play solitaire anyways.
I'm really surprised they ended up localising this. I'm a little intrigued, that's for sure, but not sure if I'll get it or not.
this looks oddly interesting
Dr. Kawashima's prescription has made me a huge fan of solitaire, so this is very interesting. A slow-paced card game and horce racing seems like a very hectic combo, though.
Hmmm maybe I'll like it
Isn't this game like, hella old? I remember playing a demo back in 2014 on the Japanese e-shop. It's fun enough, but nothing so deep that it would take two years to localize.
@Tsuchinoko That's how low we are in priority to you guys in Japan.
This game looks crazy enough that it just MIGHT work.
I want to like this game (I love the little horsies!), but I am not good at (or really like) solitaire.
@Detective_TeeJay ha!
Remember back to a simpler time, when people thought that Shovel Knight had a chance in Smash Bros? March 2016. We still don't have SK in Japan!!
@Tsuchinoko Name 3 other things we have that you don't. Go ahead.
Are you really going to say Nintendo doesn't prioritize Japan over the rest of the world?
I don't generally buy digital games on console but I think I'll make an exception for this one...I love horse racing and I like solitaire. There aren't many horse racing games out there (for the west anyway) so I'll take what I can get.
So... North America? Europe?
Looks interesting. The breeding element surely adds a lot of content to this.
@Tsuchinoko and that's a shame, Shovel Knight is an amazing game.
How peculiar. I look forward to trying it out.
I'm going to keep an eye on this, seems like it could be fun
Umm...okay? Such a strange concept.
day 1 buy coz it's Game Freak game on nintendo system.
@Detective_TeeJay first off, no I didn't say that. Second, I can do three first party, a lot more with third party games:
1. Star Tropics
2. Star Tropics II
3. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (this one eventually did make it to Japan years later, but only as a digital release, and only as a very high point item exclusively on Club Nintendo for a very short time before it shut down).
Japanese love their horse games and their card games, this probably did really well over there.
PS Nintedo really should buy Kairosoft, they would realy be able to up their 3DS content with stuff thats loved in Japan & the west.
The idea sounds so absurd it could even work.
@Tsuchinoko Days of Ruin was always a weird one ...they had the Japanese build of the game...it had to be translated for the other regions...why cancel it? I get that it was WAY different from the rest of the Nintendo Wars games but that always seemed odd to me. Best I could come up with was WWII being a reason.
@Ryu_Niiyama it wasn't WWII, because there have always been shooters and war and espionage games in Japan, and in recent years games like CoD have a niche fan base here. I think that around that time, post 9/11 (and with Japan being sort of involved in America's " war on terror" there was a lot of sensitivity about those subjects here. It might have just been a case of bad timing more than anything else. If made now I doubt there'd be an issue, but it's never gotten a real release here.
@MadAdam81 yeah, I don't get it, but horse racing is popular here. Totally random.
But can I give my horses goofy names like Mine That Bird, Notacatbutallama, or ARRRRRR? (Those are actual names of real racehorses)
When Bill said "train and breed ponies", I thought he was going to say "train and breed Pokémon".
This was a pleasant surprise during the Direct and one of the only games that I look foward to.
@Tsuchinoko How'd horse racing get popular over there? I understand baseball getting popular, and I like watching horses race (gambling on them is also fun, but I'd lose my shirt if I did), so I think I understand.
By the way, the DS/Wii era could've been the death knell for IS's tactical games in general. So many flops...Radiant Dawn, Shadow Dragon, New Mystery of the Emblem, Days of Ruin, BWii...
@Crimzonlogic http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Notacatbutallama
I like his odds.
I would play this just for the art style. Resisted it on my jpn 3ds but may give it a try here.
Never thought they would localize it. Hopefully Picross 3D 2 won't take this long.
@Socar That game looks like it requires a lot of work to bring it to the West and it's yet to be seen how well it performs in Japan. So I'm not surprised it wasn't mentioned.
I might ask for this for my birthday, we'll see what the review says.
sounds strange and I have no idea how to play solitaire! but would definetly consider it if its a reasonable price
Jesus christ, nintendo... If you want me to give up just say it!
This was the most interesting game shown in the Nintendo Direct. I'm not even joking.
Actually, I am waiting for Soliti Horse since September 2013? This was presented around the time, when Game Freak shared few words about their Gear (Harmo Knight was created thanks to it).
love it - yes please!! I think the idea sounds great and could be a lot of fun!
This game looks really weird. :s
As ridiculous as the whole concept sounds, I will likely get this game Day One. I can't for the life of me explain why other than the fact it's from Game Freak and solitare. Let's just hope in the localization process they do not remove the breeding aspect (nudge to all of you Fire Emblem Players).
@sinalefa Were have you been? Everything ok? I know I post on here way too much but 10 days is a long break for you. There were about a dozen release dates released yesterday, I need help w/ my calendar.
@rjejr
Just a bit busy at work lately. And no date for Rhythm Heaven, of course. At least Starfox is not delayed while Uncharted 4 was.
Thanks for worrying though
@sinalefa Glad to hear you're okay, I thought maybe you did something drastic like went out and bought an Xbox One and now were in hiding.
It snowed again today, next week spring weather begins and maybe I can stop being so mental.
I hope this is in 3d...
So far I like the demo but no 3d is almost a deal breaker for me. However if it comes out at 2.99 or less I might get it but it does seem neat.
The demo is pretty awesome - would totally buy this game about R100 or so.
I just wish we could get rid of the talking tutorial horse. He's more annoying than Clippy from Microsoft Office. He's unskipable, so the only way I could tolerate him was to read his lines with Christopher Walken's voice.
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