Eidos Interactive's Pony Friends, which came to the DS earlier this year, still holds down the crown for the greatest depth and variety in creating your own virtual horse, and customizing its look and accessories. But while Horse Life doesn't win against it in that race, it crosses the finish line wait out in front when it comes to actual gameplay. The simple foundation of tracing arrows and tapping circles implemented here to translate training and riding your champion thoroughbred is engaging, and hard to put down. It's a great use of the touch screen, and it will certainly entertain horse lovers for hours. At last, a horse-owning sim that gets the gameplay right. Let's hope it's not the last time.
Overall score: 7.6/10
WorthPlaying writes: "s it strange that I want to compare Horse Life on the DS to another DS title, namely Elite Beat Agents or Ouendan? Don't get me wrong; Horse Life isn't a music rhythm game and doesn't have much of a soundtrack at all, but I don't think I'd be alone in realizing that a certain aspect of the gameplay featured here was almost entirely ripped out of the control scheme that revolves around Nintendo's quirky male cheerleader title from a few years back. Is it properly applied here? Not really."
Gameplayer has gone live with their review of the intriguing Horse Life on DS, which they claim to be far better than what you would expect.
"Visually, Horse Life is quite stunning. These beasties aren't the easiest things to animate, yet there's no wonkiness here, with fluid 3D animations that never take you out of the action."
Strategy Informer writes:
"Is Dressage possibly the most boring sport on the face of the earth? I mean, no disrespect to the people involved with it, but I'm having a hard time actually thinking of something more uninteresting."
"With that out of the way, it should be easy to understand why there was a degree of trepidation going into Horse Life, a game that is, more or less, a three day equestrian event simulator, with a few added dressing up/taking care of the horse moments. What's somewhat less easy to explain is why this unease was immediately quelled upon getting past the first menu of the game."
"The dressing your horse up and making sure it's happy is kind of enjoyable, if a little repetitive. Making sure you have nice clothing – there's plenty to unlock – is also nice. Going for rides in the country to keep your horse's fitness levels can get a little boring once you've gone through all the tracks available, but that should take a while. And the steeplechase and cross country events provide a genuinely fun challenge."
So it's different than Horsez!?
Pony Friends FTW!