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0 Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Edition aims to recreate the thrills of the track. Developed by PikPok, this immersive simulation lets you live your dreams of becoming an equestrian champion right in your own home. It’s available on the Meta Store for £16. Now, whilst I can appreciate the odd horse race now and again, I came into this review with an open mind.
Yay or Neigh!
How is this game going to line up against other simulation games? Is it going to run its course quickly? Let’s find out as we await the starters orders.
Gameplay
So, firing up the game, you are greeted by a phone call from your “Mean Boss”. After a few minutes, you are then released into the main game. Follow a few prompts to get you to your first horse, and the dream is made a reality. You now have your very own horse, at a fraction of the cost of a real-life horse. With even less poop as well. What could go wrong?
Not a lot, really, apart from being particularly awful at the game. Which is no fault of the game itself. I just seemed to struggle with the mechanics. To start off, you are encouraged to take part in a few races to get your horse’s stats up a little. At the start of the race, you are given a short introduction to the controls. Don’t worry, you can turn that off entirely if you want to. Personally, I left it on just as a little reminder.
So grab the reins with the controller grips, then a tap of the triggers at the right timing, and you’re off. With three real movements to learn, the turning is easy enough; pull back on one of the controllers, and your horse will turn in that order. To get the most out of your horse, you need to charge up the sprint bar. Charging is done by shaking your controllers up and down, and you can make your horse sprint by moving your controllers forward and back.
Caring For Your Horse
Playing through Rival Stars Horse Racing, you need to get the best out of your horse. This is accomplished by building a bond with your horse. All you need to do is groom them, finding their favourite spot to scratch. You can also feed the horse their favourite treats as well as take them out into a more open world for a relaxing ride.
Doing these things will allow you to get to know your horses. Forming close bonds allows them to have better performance for those all-important races.
Graphics & Audio
The audio is spot on in Rival Stars Horse Racing, with lots of typical horse noises. There is nothing extra, really, as a simulation, you don’t get any over-the-top sound effects. It’s all just perfectly accurate.
Graphically, the game doesn’t stand out amongst a crowd, but it doesn’t need to. Everything fits, the horses look great, and when you are taking to the track, you don’t really get a moment to take in the entirety of the graphics.
Longevity
The desktop version of the game runs up a good 30+ hours of gameplay. So hopefully the VR game also has the same amount of content. After my time with the game ended in a lot of frustration, I decided to park it for now. I have got to the point where whatever I do, and whatever tactics I use, I can’t seem to place where I need to. I’ll conquer it, I just need to take a moment before trying again.
Final Thoughts
So should you be rushing to the Meta store to pick up Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Edition? Personally, for me, it’s going to be a no. However, I can appreciate the game that is there. It’s an immersive simulator that has a lot of positives. Unfortunately, I think I was just the wrong person to fully appreciate this game. However, it was a good work out, and I’ll definitely dive back in and check it out again.
Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Edition receives the Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.
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