One of those rare games that both alienates and welcomes players at the same time.
In the beginning, you are introduced as a girl named Ginger, who is anxiously awaiting her first week at the local Horse Academy. As one can imagine, the Academy fits the stereotype of "only rich people can afford to ride horses", which is disappointing at best. As you arrive at the academy, the Headmaster of sorts informs you that unless you score well in every element of your course work every single week, you will be kicked out of the academy.
You have six weeks to go from horse newbie to equestrian champion, and the work will not be easy, especially if you have no prior knowledge about these animals. The game immediately throws you into your weekly schedule, where you can choose different options for your classes throughout the day. These range from cross-country training and dressage to simply cleaning your horse and chatting with friends.
As for particular classes, the cross-country training is decent enough. You simply control the speed of your horse as you follow a linear path and tap the stylus when you want to jump over obstacles. Unless you tap the stylus at precisely the right time, your horse will stop, throwing you from the saddle. Do this enough times and your grade really suffers.
Where cross-country training is arguably the best and easiest course, dressage is easily the worst. As you make your way around the field, symbols will pop up on the screen, which you must tap with your stylus before they disappear. After hitting these buttons, your horse will come upon a checkpoint of sorts, which is labeled with one of the dressage "moves" that you must complete. This is done by drawing circles on the screen over your horse. While this sounds like an easy way to accomplish a lot of different tasks at once, unless you draw the circle within a split second of the checkpoint, and unless your circle is basically perfect, you will still fail the move and lose points. The only positive about this class is that the computer controls your horse, taking at least one thing off your plate.
As I said earlier, there are more classes than just cross-country and dressage, with some allowing you to practice your competition abilities, like jumping, among others. Also, a large portion of the game goes to overall horse maintenance. You must frequently schedule class blocks where you can brush, hose down and otherwise pamper your horse, in order to keep it happy and at the peak of health. This is done by rubbing the stylus over the horse enough times to fill a bar in the top corner of the screen. Or, it terms of cleaning their horseshoes, you must slowly scrape the bottom of their hoofs, removing the dirt but being careful not to actually puncture the horse's foot. This section is fairly hard to do if you are in a hurry, and the fact that you never truly remove all the dirt from your horse, rather you concentrate on filling the meters, makes the entire section seem rather pointless as well.
Another disappointing factor about the game is that there is a lot of emphasis on Ginger's popularity at the school. The headmaster even goes so far as assigning "Chatting" as a course for you, which will affect your grades. This is a horrible message to be sending to children, that they must be popular in school in order to succeed. But moving off my soapbox, I'll simply say that the chatting sessions are completely pointless and have you moving around the academy fulfilling tasks for your friends who are apparently too lazy to do anything on their own. This is usually accomplished by walking (very slowly, I might add) around the academy picking up keys to locked doors, finding food for people to eat and retrieving notebooks that people forgot in their last class.
But to move away from the negative portions of the game, I'll say that the graphics are pretty lifelike on the touch screen, where most of the action occurs. Since the game takes place, for the most part, from an angled overhead view, the objects in the academy are fairly small, yet are represented quite crisply. Your horses have different, detailed coats and the environments where you practice are as detailed as you could probably find on the DS.
Another positive is the fact that you can change Ginger’s clothing from time to time. This, one would assume, would only go along to fulfilling the popularity portion of the game, but it's a nice option nonetheless.
As for the sound department, the horse sound effects are fairly realistic, with neighing being the most life-like noise in my opinion. The conversations are done through text-bubbles, but the background music is basic enough to not throw any wrenches into your mood. Galloping noises also deserve a mention, as they are represented well as well.
Overall, Horsez is easily the most complex game in the new Petz lineup for the DS, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Unless you have a background in horses, you'll likely be flustered by all of the options for horse care, and might find the amount of training required a bit boring. With six weeks of training, comprised of the same courses, the onset of boredom is easily a risk you take.
However, if you do have previous training with horses, you can find that their DS counterpart is deeply realistic, as is the lifestyle presented within the game. I'm sure horse lovers would be pleased to hear that there is finally a game for them, and Horsez is definitely the perfect one. In the end, I hate to sound as if I am bashing this game completely, as it does offer a bit of fun for beginners to the species, it's just that the manual does little to help in terms of "dressage confusion" and the like. Nor does the game allow players to practice beforehand, which only further hinders the situation.
Horsez is one of those rare titles that will alienate one group, and welcome another with open arms. However, unless you are a member of the latter, I suggest looking elsewhere within the Petz universe for your next pet.
Review part of Grrlgamer.com. Full review and screenshots at: http://grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=horsez