Stage 1: Impressions |
Stage 2: Analysis |
Stage 3: Evaluation |
Atari's My Horse and Me is just one of those games that you expect to throw to the kiddies and walk away. Surely, one could assume, the game is filled with cuteness, horses and all things that make little girls whine for a real pony. That much is true of My Horse and Me, but those who also assumed that this game would have easy controls and a simple interface would be dead wrong.
As a change of pace, I enlisted a little help from my seven-year-old and 11-year-old daughters for this review. At the end of each Stage, they will sum up their play experiences in the hopes of shedding a little light on how this game's intended audience will enjoy, or not enjoy, this title.
Phenomenal, cosmic horses... itty bitty living space.
More odd than the real-life photo on the game's cover is the fact that this game requires a Nunchuk along with the Wii Remote. This does not translate into the kind of easy controls a little girl would expect. Upon working their way through a maze of a menu, players will find themselves very confused on how to control their horses. The single control scheme requires that players hold the controllers in front of them using A to accelerate and B to brake, and a strange combination of raising or lowering the Wii Remote or Nunchuk to steer. The developers intended to replicate a rider holding the horse's crops, but it adds nothing in the way of simplicity.
Luckily - or unluckily for those trying to tear through the game quickly - an extensive training mode will teach the player how to turn, run, and jump. There isn't much else to the controls, but later on players will find the tracks nearly impossible to maneuver without mastering every aspect of these controls, so paying attention to each exercise can be of benefit.
After completing training mode, players can perform with their horse in a competition. While gamers may find it very difficult to maneuver, the early stages are very forgiving. After placing in an event, various upgrade for both the player character and horse will become available. Some of the additional items make sense, like new clothing for the rider, while others have no basis in reality - full skin and hair color change for your horse, for example. That's a lot of dye!
Creepy, dingy buildings. Every little girl's dream come true!
Stay tuned to Stage 2 while we explore this game a little deeper and find out if any further interaction will be galloping her way.
Stage 1: Impressions |
Stage 2: Analysis |
Stage 3: Evaluation |
