The planetary success of the Pokemon franchise tends to overshadow the fact that Game Freak made plenty of non-Pokemon games over the years. While the company’s track record unrelated to pocket monsters tends to be a bit hit-and-miss, the 2016 Pocket Card Jockey for the 3DS is one of the most universally praised games from that bunch. Its interesting blend of timed solitaire challenges and horse racing mechanics earned both rave reviews and a cult status among the fandom.

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Masao Taya, the director of both the original game and Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! has now confirmed that the latter could be ported to the Nintendo Switch in the future. Speaking to Polygon, Taya said his team is currently focused on refining the gameplay experience on Apple devices, adding that Game Freak will “think about the next step” once they gauge the initial reaction to the new game.

In the meantime, the Japanese developer plans to put out a number of updates for Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, containing both extra content and quality-of-life changes. Speaking of which, the new version of the game already introduced some notable improvements over the 3DS original. 3D race scenes are arguably the most significant addition, though fans of the 2016 title also praised the introduction of new stamina recovery cards which streamline some of the most convoluted gameplay aspects of the previous game.

Pocket Card Jockey wouldn’t be the first Game Freak title to release on both the Switch and iOS as that precedent was already established with the 2018 action-adventure Pokemon Quest. But while Pocket Card Jockey might eventually get ported to Nintendo’s hybrid console from mobile, Pokemon Quest was developed for Android, iOS, and the Switch simultaneously. In fact, it first debuted on the Switch in May 2018 before making its way to smartphones and tablets a month later.

Existing 3DS owners can still buy the digital version of the original Pocket Card Jockey for $6.99. But that won’t be the case for much longer, seeing how Nintendo previously announced plans to shut down the 3DS eShop come late March 2023.

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is available now on iOS and macOS devices via Apple Arcade.

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Source: Polygon