Horsez
Score: 60% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Lexis Numerique Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 2 Wirless Genre: Family/ Simulation/ Themed
Graphics & Sound: I never went to military school, but I also never felt the urge to play a handheld game that was similarly themed. Horsez has all the charm and personality of being sent off to boarding school. The look of the game is very basic, but well done. There are many times during the game they use close up images of the horses body parts so you can care for them, and all of these look clean, clear and well done. The music is monotonous and distracting from the game. When you enter the shop portion of this game, you are greeted with a loud rock theme. I felt like I was shopping at Hot Topic or some other teen store. It was very out of place for the boarding school theme.
Gameplay: Horsez starts out with you walking through the door at the training academy. You choose your name, your horse, and their name, and then you sit through screen after screen of text as the Principal lays down all of the ground rules for the academy. After you sit through that lecture, you are then taken to the main menu which consists of the Adventure mode, Foal mode, player profile, and of course, save. The Adventure mode is the main portion of the game where you earn your tokens; these come into play for shopping. After more screens full of text, you are greeted by a warm and fuzzy screen where you set up your daily schedule. Scheduling out every second of your day just screams fun to me, NOT! You are given four blocks of time to fill per day. There are eight sections you can choose from to fill your day. These sections basically translate into a series of mini-games that you play to gain experience. You also shop and interact with your fellow classmates from this scheduling menu. Balancing all of your activities is the key to success. The Foal mode lets you purchase, train and care for a new foal. Play mini games like the Adventure mode to gain skills for your new foal. Keep them fed and groomed to raise a well-rounded horse.
Difficulty: Horsez is not a warm, fuzzy or nurturing game like the other members of the Petz series from Ubisoft. There is a lot of on-screen text that is thick and and unrelenting to get through. The mini-games in the Adventure mode have many obscure and unintuitive aspects to them. These mini-games are hard to understand and obscure in their purpose. The thick, monotonous text, the obscure mini-games and the deviation from the cute and fuzzy virtual pet theme makes this a difficult and frustrating game for kids and their parents alike. The kid who does makes it through the game without help would feel a great sense of accomplishment. Of course, they would be a robot that enjoys the thrill of schedules and repetition.
Game Mechanics: So, I have gone on about my troubles with the mini-games in Horsez, so let's lay this out. One of the first mini-games in the Dressage class has to do with trotting. You tap targets as they appear on the screen, yet there is no command or timing that is obvious for the player to see. It is only after reading the instruction book that you get some clue as to what to do, and even then, it is pretty obscure that you draw the pattern the random dots form. You have no way of knowing this unless you read the book and can comprehend the instructions. This game just reeks of frustration and is not what many have come to expect from the series. I will give them props on a complex game; the only problem is it isn't being presented as a boarding school simulator, which is exactly what it feels like.
-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
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