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IGN Review of Barbie Horse Adventure: Riding Camp
Barbie's off to learn to ride. The venerable Mattel mascot has gone to summer camp, where she and two of her friends intend to learn how to ride, care for and compete with horses. They'll only have a week to do it all, though, because this camp closes after just seven days.
Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp is the latest sequel in a Barbie sub-franchise that dates back to 2003 -- you may remember its first installment, Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue, for the infamous ridicule it received in X-Play's "0 out of 5" review and the fact that its Xbox version inexplicably gained backwards-compatibility with the next-generation 360 long before much more notable games. Luckily, though, this new DS edition isn't nearly as bad as that predecessor was.
You take control of Barbie as she arrives at the tropical island of Equestria, an isolated vacation spot entirely dedicated to horses. You're quickly introduced to the local riding camp's headmasters, riding instructors and stablehand. Then the schedule begins.
You start out on Monday with a trip to the stables and a horse care activity. Then you have a riding lesson, then a nature trek. At the end of the day Barbie's friends Nikki and Teresa invite you to play a mini-game, and then it's off to bed. The day is done.
You wake up on Tuesday, and follow the same procedure. Wednesday, the same deal. And Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By the time Sunday rolls around, you've experienced everything Equestria has to offer, and the game ends. It just stops. I thought you might be able to select to revisit some of the past week's nature treks, but you can't -- and if you try to check your diary to see what's next on the agenda, the game will actually just freeze up on you.
That's less than ideal, and the sort of oversight that brings to mind the negative memories associated with the first Horse Adventures game. But while the endgame freeze and far too linear progression of the title are certainly issues, Riding Camp is a fair experience overall.
Its style is well representative of the Barbie brand, as the characters are wholesome, happy and visually in line with what you'd expect to see in the pink aisle at Toys 'R Us. All of the dialogue with the non-player characters in the game is voice-acted, too, which is nice.
The graphics aren't anything extraordinary, as there's some pop-up in the environments and the 3D models used for both Barbie and the horses are about as average as you'd expect -- but there is a fair bit of variety included, in that Barbie has several different riding outfits to wear and you can choose from a selection of different horse breeds and colors.
And the gameplay is also nothing that will be too memorable in the end, especially with its occasional technical troubles in the mini-games that require you to draw circles around fireflies or puppies -- but its simplicity will be a match for the skill level of the young girls intended to be playing it, and the included ability to use either stylus control or the DS face buttons for the core mechanic of riding your horse is pleasant.
©2008-12-15, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp is the latest sequel in a Barbie sub-franchise that dates back to 2003 -- you may remember its first installment, Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue, for the infamous ridicule it received in X-Play's "0 out of 5" review and the fact that its Xbox version inexplicably gained backwards-compatibility with the next-generation 360 long before much more notable games. Luckily, though, this new DS edition isn't nearly as bad as that predecessor was.
You take control of Barbie as she arrives at the tropical island of Equestria, an isolated vacation spot entirely dedicated to horses. You're quickly introduced to the local riding camp's headmasters, riding instructors and stablehand. Then the schedule begins.
You start out on Monday with a trip to the stables and a horse care activity. Then you have a riding lesson, then a nature trek. At the end of the day Barbie's friends Nikki and Teresa invite you to play a mini-game, and then it's off to bed. The day is done.
You wake up on Tuesday, and follow the same procedure. Wednesday, the same deal. And Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By the time Sunday rolls around, you've experienced everything Equestria has to offer, and the game ends. It just stops. I thought you might be able to select to revisit some of the past week's nature treks, but you can't -- and if you try to check your diary to see what's next on the agenda, the game will actually just freeze up on you.
That's less than ideal, and the sort of oversight that brings to mind the negative memories associated with the first Horse Adventures game. But while the endgame freeze and far too linear progression of the title are certainly issues, Riding Camp is a fair experience overall.
Its style is well representative of the Barbie brand, as the characters are wholesome, happy and visually in line with what you'd expect to see in the pink aisle at Toys 'R Us. All of the dialogue with the non-player characters in the game is voice-acted, too, which is nice.
The graphics aren't anything extraordinary, as there's some pop-up in the environments and the 3D models used for both Barbie and the horses are about as average as you'd expect -- but there is a fair bit of variety included, in that Barbie has several different riding outfits to wear and you can choose from a selection of different horse breeds and colors.
And the gameplay is also nothing that will be too memorable in the end, especially with its occasional technical troubles in the mini-games that require you to draw circles around fireflies or puppies -- but its simplicity will be a match for the skill level of the young girls intended to be playing it, and the included ability to use either stylus control or the DS face buttons for the core mechanic of riding your horse is pleasant.
©2008-12-15, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved