Game Freak, the studio behind thePokemonfranchise, is porting one of its other games from the Nintendo 3DS to Apple Arcade in the form ofPocket Card Jockey. Many ofPokemon’s biggest fans aren’t familiar with the studio behind the series. They attributePokemonto Nintendo,Pokemon’s publisher. ButGame Freakis a private studio andPokemonis just one of its many projects, albeit the one that requires most of its time and resources. Game Freak is continuing to give its other properties love, though, with this Apple Arcade port being its next endeavor.
Mobile games have, coincidentally, not been a major focus for Game Freak over the years. Even thoughPokemon, and many of Game Freak’s other games, have been handheld-console releases, mobile has always been outside the company’s focus. Over the past decade, Game Freak has insteadreleased games includingHarmoKnight,Tembo the Badass Elephant,Giga Wrecker, andLittle Town Heroon other platforms. There is one game, however, that Game Freak believes fits well on iOS.
RELATED:Old Game Freak Guide From 1985 Shows What the Company Did Before Pokemon
In 2013, Game Freak released a game namedPocket Card Jockeyon Nintendo 3DS. An iOS and Android release followed a year later, though both releases were exclusive to Japan at the time. Western ports were eventually released in 2016, but only for the 3DS version ofPocket Card Jockey. It left a question whether the horse-racing card game could have found a larger audience if it had been released worldwide on iOS. That’s a question Game Freak now plans to answer.
Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!has been announced for release via theiOS platform’s Apple Arcade subscription serviceon January 20. The new version ofPocket Card Jockeywill feature updated 3D graphics for the racing portion of the game, but will otherwise keep the rules of the original game. In other words,Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!remains a solitaire game at heart, with a meta-experience revolving around horse breeding and racing.
No context has been provided for why Game Freak is deciding to bringPocket Card Jockeyback, 10 years later. It’s probably as simple as Game Freak pitched the idea to Apple Arcade, and it was approved.Pocket Card Jockeywill hopefully find an audience on iOS that it wasn’t able to find on 3DS.
Game Freak’s independent projects have slowed to a crawl since the2019 release ofLittle Town Hero. It has been entirely focused onPokemongames since then, which is understandable given the franchise’s leap to open-world experiences. PerhapsPocket Card Jockey: Ride On!’s release on iOS on January 20 indicates Game Freak has more independent releases coming in the relatively near future.
Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!is coming to iOS via Apple Arcade.
