Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! review – saddle up for eccentricity

Game Freak/Apple; iPhone
The cult 3DS game has been refreshed for smartphones and the combination of card game and horse racing is as weird and addictive as ever

Ten years ago, Pokemon programmer Masao Taya had the idea of combining a solitaire card game with a horse-racing sim and somehow, instead of sending him home to bed, developer Game Freak let him make it. The result was Pocket Card Jockey on the Nintendo 3DS and its cult success has now led to a new smartphone version, which takes the weird concept and quite literally gallops with it.

You play as an aspiring jockey, looking to work your way up through the ranks by competing in a series of progressively more challenging races. To win, you need to be successful in a series of solitaire rounds (using the simple Golf variation of the game), clearing the screen by matching sequences of cards. The closer you get to a completely clean slate, the more energy your horse gets for the next few furlongs of the race. You also need to manage their position in the pack, using a resource named Unity to guide them between opponents or to get them nearer the inside edge when going round a corner. It's also important to conserve stamina for the final stretch where you get direct control over your ride, using a whip to boost their run as you gallop for the finishing line.