I just finished my review of another game, Horse Haven, which you can read here.
Rival Stars Racing is another similar, yet different, horse breeding, raising, and racing game. I just also learned that it is soon coming to Mac and PC so if you’re the type who doesn’t enjoy mobile games, you might be interested in the PC version with enhanced graphics and additional features.
What makes Rival Stars Racing so great? The first thing that really stands out is the genetic system, allowing for stats and colors/markings to be passed down from parents to foals.
Another thing that makes Rival Stars Racing unique is the random name generator. You can also rename your horses, but if you use the random name generator you can hear your horse’s name being called by the race announcer, adding an element of realism and surprise.
The names are quite funny too in some cases. I always just let the random generator do its thing. I just started playing the game yesterday so I’m still pretty new to the whole thing but loving it so far.
I mentioned in my Horse Haven review, that I used to play games like Pony Island, which was like neopets but with real genetics. Another example is Wajas. These breeding games, and Tamagotchi – especially the new Tamagotchi, have all these “genetic” systems, which lets you create a pet that’s pretty unique, from thousands, or even millions of possible combinations.
That is a huge plus to me, and big draw into this game. When compared to Horse Haven, where breeding X with Y will always result in one of 3 or 4 exactly same looking horses, with maybe 1-2 alternate colorations, but in Rival Stars Racing the possibilities are almost endless!
I’m very into this game right now! The gameplay is a bit more challenging than Horse Haven. The racing mechanisms are more dependent on skill and not just on luck or your horses stats (although stats definitely help too.)
While racing your horse, you can choose to take the inside or outside track, and choose to run in front, mid, or back of the pack, and your horse will have preferences for his preferred position, and the type of surface, firm, or soft, etc that he will perform better upon. When racing in his preferred position his Sprint gauge will power up. Then in the final stretch, you can hold the sprint button to charge ahead of the pack.
You can also customize your horse at higher levels with new saddles, blankets, etc. You even get to customize your jockey from many different styles and colors.
Overall: 65/80 81% B- “Very Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 5/5 – The more challenging gameplay, ultra-realistic graphics, voice acting and full genetics system make this a game with a lot of meat for a free mobile game.
Sweetie: 4/5 – No fantasy breeds, and no cartoon graphics here – but the horse breeding element rocks. It also has a deeper story than Horse Haven.
Gameplay: 10/10 – I mentioned above the benefits of this game’s gameplay, but the biggest highlights are the genetics system and the more complex racing mechanics.
Story: 5/10 – mm, well there’s more story here than Horse Haven for sure, you’re following in your deceased father’s footsteps who was also a famous jockey… The NPCs constantly reference about your father’s legacy, and there is a prologue in the beginning about this… but overall of course, games like this are still pretty light overall with story. Much better though than Horse Haven here.
Characters: 6/10 – I like the diversity here, black, asian, females, males, etc. And like I said it feels like they are part of the story, and the ultra realism, makes them seem more real… But overall the characters and story are still pretty weak.
Graphics: 10/10 – Really nice graphics – ultra realistic – it’s not my preferred style – but I gotta say it looks nice. And the genetics system lets you create millions of ultra unique one of a kind looking horses.
Music: 5/10 – Average – sometimes at times, annoying – but there are some good tracks, especially back on the farm, some nice peaceful tranquil relaxing songs
Voice Acting: 10/10 – ok the voice acting isn’t amazing or great – but it is so much fun to hear the announcer pronouncing all the goofy randomly generated horse names and it’s exciting especially when you hear your own horse’s name being called especially that you’ve taken the lead 🙂
Replay Value: 10/10 – the genetics system makes it so that you’ll never breed the same horse twice. There’s also live events and special events to keep you coming back each day.
Overall: 65/80 81% B- “Very Good Game For Girls”
