Mary-Kate and Ashley: Winners Circle

"There's a girl I know. I thought she was alright. Until she made me play this."

Before I start to review this game, I want to make one thing very clear. I am male, but I am not a sissy. The reason I played on this game was mainly because the girl who owns it was giving me a hard time because I wouldn't play on it. I also don't give a damn about licensing. I get tons of stick off my friends because I think that 'The Lion King' is one of the best games released on the Mega Drive. If they decided to make a 'Night of The Living Dead' game that was like it, and I said that that was an excellent game, then they wouldn't say anything. A game should not be immediately declared as rubbish because of it's license. It should be based on it's content. Sadly, in the case of Winner's Circle, if people automatically say it's rubbish, then they wouldn't be wrong.

I played this and Crush Course. Of the two, this is the better one, but that isn't saying much. Since this is a horse riding game, there is no story, so I can hardly rate it on that part.

The graphics are actually quite good. They aren't amazing, but there are very few games with half decent graphics on the Game Boy Color. The tracks are colorful and look good, and the horse design is very good, but the character and costume design are poor.

The sound is moderate, but could be vastly improved. The tunes are fine, but the sound effects consist of beeps, beeps and more beeps.

The controls are terrible. When turning your horse, it takes a long time to respond and when it eventually does something it only turns a slight bit. This results in vigorous tapping of the D-Pad, and eventually, the Game Boy may end up out the window. The jumping is also extremely poor. The response is fine, but the game tries to help you by stopping the track markings at the point where you are supposed to jump, but the majority of the time, it is way out, and you end up crashing into the steeple.

The game's major problem, apart from the controls, is that it's just dull. The game consists of jump, turn, jump, turn, jump etc..., and that's it. It's just boring. It doesn't make things harder, by having a jump straight after another jump. The distance between each jump gives you plenty of recovery time and they are evenly spaced, so so you'll know when the next one is coming.

The other problem is that the game is fairly sexist. I have played a lot of Acclaim games, and the majority of the company are male. The slogan they use for the Mary-Kate and Ashley games is 'Real Games For Real Girls'. When selecting your preferences before the race, the main focus is on the clothes they wear. In most racing games when you get to choosing your vehicle or, in this case, horse, the game piles you with loads of stats. In Winner's Circle, there is very little difference between each horse due to the lack of stats. This implies that women are stupider, which is definitely not the case. If you don't believe me, then start comparing. This could just be an accident that Acclaim have made. It probably is, but it could also be Acclaim showing their sexist side. If it is, then it's a shame, because they generally produce good games. Turok, Shadow Man and the upcoming Vexx are examples of this.

FINAL SCORE

Graphics: Quite good, but could improve the looks of characters. 8/10

Sound: Good music, but annoying beeps instead of proper sound effects. 6/10

Gameplay: OH MY GOD! WHAT DID THEY DO! Get a monkey to do it. No, even a monkey would do better. 1/10

Lastability: It won't last long, but it isn't anything to do with the length of it. It's the dullness. 2/10

Buy or Rent: If you have to play it, then rent it first, but I wouldn't do either.

Overall: Horse racing isn't the most popular sport in the world, and this doesn't do much to help that. It probably isn't easy to do a horse racing sim, just look at G1 Jockey on the PS2, but someone could make a better attempt than this. 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/02, Updated 08/20/02