My Horse and Me 2 Review - A Counter to x360a's

My dear British friend, Jackanape, recently wrote a review for My Horse and Me 2 for the site x360a.org. He ended up giving the game a 10 out of 100 and trashed the game all through his review. The review left the reader with the opinion that the game was unplayable. I am here today to play devil's advocate and defend what I found to be a gem of a game about the world of horse competitions and saving the ranches of family members.

First let me state that this game is a sequel to the wonderful My Horse and Me. The game was good enough to warrent a sequel and as we all know, nothing bad ever gets a sequel.

Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you and the ground. ~Author Unknown

After an introduction, I like to delve right into the controls of the game. Controls are usually a sticking point for me, as they are the difference maker between a game that is ok and a game that is great. This game is about riding a horse and as such your left stick controls the steering while your triggers help you alternate between speeds. If you play on professional, the A button will make you jump. It is pretty hard to screw up simple controls like that, and the developer didn't. They work just fine and the horse controls like a horse.

A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence. ~Pam Brown

Now we are getting into the meat and potatoes of My Horse and Me 2, the incredible edible gameplay. I haven't ate breakfast yet this morning, hence the food references in the previous sentence. The gameplay is like the quote above, it gives us an escape from our mundance existence into the wonderful world of nurturing a horse and competition. I sat there with my xbox 360 controller stroking my horse for hours anticipating the next time I got to ride the majestic beast. As I cleaned Horsey's hoofs, I thought about how fluidly we automatically made our jumps on the amateur difficulty. While hosing Horsey down, I thought about how fun the game was on professional difficulty as I actually had to hit A to jump. I even called the vet when I thought Horsey wasn't feeling well.

There are 8 tournaments in the game, 3 sections of training, 6 minigames, a central farm hub, and a grooming area in the barn for your horse. The tournaments consist of 3 types of events, dressing(posing the horse with left stick movement prompts), jumping, and cross country. The minigames range from riding a fake bull to foal herding. And I think I covered enough of the grooming earlier.

No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle. ~Winston Churchill

I'm not much of a grapic whore or audiophile. As long as something doesn't look or sound like shit, I am good to go. This game does not look or sound bad. It's not the best looking and sounding game, but I have seen and heard worst. Plus I highly enjoyed the voice acting of my character as she was making eyes at the stable hand.

There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse. ~Robert Smith Surtees, "Chapter XXX: Bolting the Badger," Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, 1853

The game can be completed achievement wise in 6 hours. You play through the game once on amateur getting the collectibles, minigames, and gold trophys. Then you play again on Professional and just focus on the tournaments. You cannot get much easier than this game outside of 2k6 and Avatar.

A lovely horse is always an experience.... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words. ~Beryl Markham

I give this game 4 Fro's out of 5.