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I was asked to review Horse Life, so here we go! Just a quick note before the actual review. This game's target audience is young girls. Probably from 5-14 years old. (Though an older gamer can definitely enjoy it, especially if you like horses.) So I'm going to attempt to review it from that point of view, because I think it's only fair. The ratings may not be true for someone outside that demographic. Anyway, on to the review!

Basically, you're given a horse in the beginning of the game and told to take care of him. (Or her? I'm not sure if all the horses are male or if it's just the luck of the draw. Mine is male.) You go through the game doing just that: caring of your horse and trying to win awards in tournaments to unlock more stuff and earn money.

Graphics: 8/10 Pretty good for the DS. It's not anything mind blowing, but it's decent, and some of the scenery is very nice, especially the pasture and the forest. The character designs are kind of bland, but that's to be expected. The horse itself is surprisingly detailed. The fur is shiny and shaded well, and you can see it's muscles. So it looks like an actual horse, rather than a cardboard cut out! I liked that.

Gameplay: 7.5/10 Here's how the gameplay basically works. You have a lot of freedom; you can do five activities per day. You're not really forced into picking any activity, so if you want to shampoo your horse five times, go for it. I'm getting ahead of myself though. First you have to pick out your horse.

In the beginning, the horse selections you can choose from are pretty simple. Three basic breeds and you can choose whether you want the horse to be black or white. You can also customize it a bit. Once your horse is made, the game walks you through some basic training, and then you have to do some training on your own before you can unlock the tournaments.

Here's a list of the places and activities :

Lodge: Look at your diplomas and trophies. Change your clothes.

Stall: Curry/groom and shampoo your horse, muck out the stalls

Pasture: Increase your horse's happiness by petting it and feeding it snacks

Training: Learn new skills so you can do better in competitions.

Forest: Take your horse for a walk to improve its health

And here are the no-brainers...

Competition Hall: Compete

Store: Shop

Riding your horse is actually pretty complex and it works well with the game. There are these little circles that pop up on your screen and you have to tap them, sometimes in a certain order and sometimes there are just many on the screen, so you have to be quick. Other times, you'll have to drag your stylus and keep it within the circle, for things like turns. You can miss a couple of dots, but your score will be marked off for it.

The reason why I didn't give game play a higher score is because some of the activities can be repetitive, like cleaning your horse. It gets dirty very quickly, so you'll end up cleaning it every day (and days go by quickly.) Also, I don't know where else to put this particular complaint, so I'll stick it here. There's an old man who's basically your guide in the game. He repeats the same dialogue every single time you try to do something. For instance, when want to go to the farm area he'll go through every option, listing the stall, pasture, training and lodge and stating what you can do in each of them. If you've read the dialogue once or played the game a lot, you already know what each area is for. It drives me crazy, and there's no way to skip it or speed it up. Same thing if you fail a task, the game will repeat all the directions instead of asking you if you want to hear them again. The directions often take a while to get through and you'll waste a lot of time taping the screen and wishing the old guy would just shut up.

Sound: 4/10 The sound effects aren't bad, but the music is boring. I guess you might say it's peaceful, but if you're sleepy while playing the game you should probably turn it down. You can buy music to accompany you on your walks, but I wouldn't bother. Save your money.

Replay value: 7/10 The game takes a while to complete, and there's plenty of stuff to unlock. I think you can even unlock different breeds of horses, like unicorns, later on in the game. You can only have one horse per file, but if you create another file, you can play with the horse breed that you unlocked. Another replay factor: if a kid is playing the game, they may form an attachment to their little virtual horse.

Overall: 7/10 The game isn't that challenging if you're an older gamer, but it's still fun. It's a very good horse simulator in my opinion, despite some of its flaws. I had fun learning to ride the horse and doing various activities with it. So I would definitely recommend it if you like horses, or if you have a young relative that does!

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