Horse Life

"A very good horse game for the DS."

There are quite a few horse games on the Nintendo DS and they have been almost uniformly below average. Horse Life is a shining gem amongst DS horse games. It combines training, competition, care, and a dash of... rhythm game... to produce the best portable horse experience on the system.

GRAPHICS (7/10)
Most of the game is done in 3D and pretty good 3D considering the DS's capabilities. There are a couple of visible seams here and there and things can be a little blurry but the horses are detailed and animate well. Backgrounds and trails can be a little sparse and repetitive. Menus are pretty nice looking but really could have used a bit more polish. Character portraits during dialog, however, a very nice and the map screen is very pretty.

GAMEPLAY (9/10)
Gameplay in Horse Life is interesting. You get to participate in pretty much any horse-based activity you might want. During each 'day' in the game you can do five activities. These include: visiting your horse in the pasture, training, riding in the forest, cleaning the horse and/or stall, and participating in competitions. There are other activities such as going shopping, looking at your trophies, and changing clothes that can be done anytime but don't count against your five a day activities total.

The main goal of the game is to win competitions. At the beginning of the game you select the gender of your rider (Major kudos to the makers of Horse Life for including boy riders!) and what type of horse you would like. You can customize the horse a little but not as much as in some other horse games. Before you can enter competitions you must train your horse to perform the actions it will need to succeed in the various competitions. Once you have completed all of the training activities in a certain group you can enter the corresponding competition. There are four levels of training and competition. Each competition has three events (dressage, jumping, trail riding) and a final event where you must do all three in order. Winning earns you money to spend on new gear, food and treats, care items, and bonus items.

Riding your horse is... in a completely unexpected but shockingly well thought out and functional mechanic... like playing a rhythm game. It reminds me quite a lot of Elite Beat Agents, if you are familiar with that game. Circles appear on the screen that must be tapped in a certain order or followed as they move along a path at a certain speed. Each type of jump or dressage figure has its own unique pattern. Higher points are scored for doing this with good timing and accuracy. You tap different parts of the horse or rider to speed up or slow down and speed needs to be taken into consideration when performing tricks and jumps. The entire game is controlled with the touch screen. Admittedly, you have no control over the direction in which your horse moves and the game automatically leads you around a fixed course or down a path. This might make some people shy away but you will be busy enough tapping and following circles that you won't really miss fine directional control.

Other activities, like cleaning your horse and petting it are done in a more traditional manner. These activities can, admittedly, get repetitive. Fortunately, one of the goals of cleaning the horse or stall is to complete the activity as quickly as possible and you won't have to do it nearly as often as in many other horse games. These activities are necessary as well as your horse needs to be clean, happy, and fit to do its best in competitions.

MUSIC (2/10)
The music is about as basic and unvaried as it gets. Fortunately, it's very easily ignored and neither loud nor obtrusive. You'll probably be playing with the volume turned down anyway. Horse sound effects aren't bad.

CHALLENGE (5/10)
Read my challenge score as one for adults or those experienced with video games. The game does start off pretty easy but as you progress to the more advanced competitions the challenge does increase quite a bit. A younger player will find more challenge here. There is also some mild resource management in the game when it comes to buying higher grade feed for your horse and care items.

REPLAY VALUE (7/10)
Horse Life is not a short game. There are many things to learn and lots of competitions and trail rides to enjoy. Additionally, there are a large number of items to unlock and it will take considerable time to earn the money for them and make them all available for purchase. There is even another breed of horse to unlock. The game can be played through a second time with a rider of the opposite gender and/or with a completely different horse.

PROBLEMS
Horse Life does have a few gameplay bugs and annoyances that need to be mentioned. First, the tutorial text for any given activity or area must be gone through again whenever entering a different area. For example, whenever you enter the gear shop you will have to sit through the shopkeeper's introduction again. Fortunately, this dialog can be spend through with a few taps of the stylus but it still gets really annoying. Why the tutorial dialog gets repeated every time you go to do something is beyond me. Eventually, you will find yourself snarling, "I know what the stall is for! Geez." The pasture activity has a few problems as well. Half the time your horse will completely ignore you no matter how many times you call it over. Thankfully, if you can't get its attention going to the pasture doesn't count against your daily activity total. Giving your horse a treat is tricky too and there isn't a tutorial for how to do it properly like there is for everything else. Sometimes I can get it to eat a treat but most of the time I mess up and my horse gets mad.

CONCLUSION (7/10)
Despite its problems, Horse Life is the most fun and highest quality horse game available for the Nintendo DS. If you want a game that is both fun and gives you the experience of caring for a horse, riding, and entering competitions then this is the game for you. This is also a classy horse game that takes horses and their care and training seriously while keeping it fun. I took a chance on buying this game and am very pleasantly surprised with it.

RENT or BUY?
Definite buy if you're a horse games person.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/07

Game Release: Horse Life (US, 11/06/07)