A game that has much potential, but falls short.

I was raised around horses. My father was a professional horse racer for the better part of his adult life. His father owned a racetrack here in Oregon and that is where my father learned to ride. He attempted to pass this love on to me at a young age, and after nearly tearing my face off in a horse-related accident I vowed never to touch the stinky, vile creatures again.

Your view from your horse is simplistic and easy to understand, keeping your focus on the task at hand.

So when I was asked to review My Horse and Me I thought that this would be another chance to get back on the horse in a way that will keep me out of the hospitals and keep my wife out of the arms of another man. When I took one look at the package I thought to myself "I'm probably the last person anyone would expect to be playing this". Now I realize that there won't be many people that will be playing this game. It’s not that it’s a bad game; it looks like a good game that ran short on time during development and was shipped anyway.

I give W!Games a high-five for making a game that isn’t the same thing that everyone else is making. Originality counts for a lot in my book and they really made a solid effort at making a believable horse game. They even went as far as to get the first ever approval from Federation Equestre Internationale which is no easy task as they take their licensing approval very seriously.

I’ve played some games that weren’t good simply because the developers made hasty decisions and attempted to jump on the bandwagon in hopes of a quick buck. Then I’ve played games that weren’t good simply because the developers hadn’t fallen into their own yet, and that is where I feel My Horse and Me lands. You really can see the potential that the team has, they just haven’t hit that vital niche’ that is so important in this industry. The level of detail is decent enough, and the stages may get monotonous but are pretty in their own way.

The game has you train and compete in equestrian jumping competitions. Caring for your horse, practicing with it and learning the maneuvers is fun for a while, but the real joy is supposed to come in competitive horse jumping arenas. Once in competitive mode things seem to get old quickly. The arenas seem to change very little from one match to the next and the lack of variety in nearly all avenues of the game make it bland. Like a cookie that just didn’t get enough sugar added.

I see where a game like this could actually be formed and re-shaped into something with high replay value if more time was spent with focus groups than watching competitions. Finding out what players want out of a game like this could go a long way. I do understand that the horse jumping competitions aren’t exactly the X-Games and that this is a sport of prestige rather than thrills and adventure, but I do think that they could have found better way to keep the gamer a little more involved with the game.