Horse Computer and Video Games

I've only just got this game on Wii, so I'll give it a thorough review once I've played it a bit more.

So far it seems pretty good! You get to steer the horse with the Wii remote and nunchuck, but in a slightly different way to My Horse and Me. The movement of the horse and rider isn't quite as realistic either, but Horsez might be better for people who like games with a story to them, rather than just a jumping competition simulator by itself.

You have to take care of the horse as part of the game by cleaning out its box (with a hose... not how we do it in Australia, but I'm sure they do it somewhere in the world...), and by washing, grooming and picking out the horses' hooves. If you don't take good care of your horse it will become uncooperative (well, that's what it says. Personally I like to take good care of my horses, whether they be real or virtual, so I haven't seen it for myself!)

Review to be continued as I progress! :-)

Links below are (from L to R) for Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and Windows XP. Where is the version on Wii?? Sorry, but it doesn't seem to be on Amazon! If you're interested, perhaps you could try eBay.

This game looks like it might be an updated version of the game "Equestriad 2001" that I used to play (see review below). You compete at Badminton, Burghley, Adelaide and Kentucky, which are the four highest level events in the world today (four star level).

There are 36 customer reviews on Amazon, and most of them give it 5 stars. I read all of the reviews, and the only negative ones were from someone who couldn't figure out how to play it because they didn't get a manual, and someone who didn't have a DVD drive in their computer to put the game in...

Looks like it's pretty cheap on eBay, so I might have to bid for a copy for the PS2!

This game is a few years old now, but it's worth mentioning because it's a pretty good game, and can still be found on the internet.

My teenage cousin had this game a few years ago and she loved it.

At the start you get to pick which character from The Saddle Club you want to be out of Lisa, Stevie and Carole. Then you take your horse with you for a holiday on an island. The story is that you have to solve the mystery to save Willowbrook Stables from developers, and you do this by riding around all over the place finding clues.

There are also fun mini-games within the overall game, and keen horselovers will also love just riding their horse around the place. I personally thought it was a nice touch that you have to groom and saddle up your horse before you can go out and ride.

This is first horse game I ever owned, and you can tell how old it is from the title!

You can still find this game for sale on the internet, but I'd probably only buy it for an older computer. From reading a review of the game on Amazon, apparently the audio repeats itself with Windows XP, so you'd have to play it with the volume down.

There are a few neat things about this game. Firstly, one of the voices doing the commentary is Lucinda Green, one of the legends of eventing. The second thing is that the scenery, and quite a number of the jumps are actually based on real jumps from the world famous courses that you ride in the game.

The courses in the game are Badminton, Burghley, Kentucky and Sydney. If you recognise those names then you'll know how great this game is for anyone who has ever dreamed of being a world class eventer! The Sydney course has many of the fences from the Olympics, and after playing the game it was a bit weird for me when I got to walk the course at the real life venue a few years later!

The third thing this game has going for it is that you get to pick from a number of world famous riders and horses. They've even paid attention to the fine details such as the horses' markings and the riders' cross country colours.

As you'd probably expect, the graphics aren't fantastic, and the movement of the horses is really quite unrealistic with the horses suddenly leaping up very high in the air each time you jump. There are also small things that bugged me, like the fact that the riders' stirrups were always way too long for jumping!

There are some amusing cheats, such as a ballistic rider who goes flying over the jump at great speed whenever you mess up your timing and the horse refuses, and one that makes the horse's head really big.

It was a good game for its time though, with the main downsides arising from the fact that it came out in 2001. If that doesn't bother you, and you have a computer that will run it, then I definitely recommend this game as being worth a play.

We've had some great recommendations and reviews on our Guestbook. Here are the games that have been mentioned, so if you're interested just scroll down and check out the list of comments.

If you'd like to share your opinion on any horse computer or video game, then please do so!