Tag: Review

Review: Rival Stars Horse Racing

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Developer: PikPok
Publisher: Prodigy Design Limited T/A Sidhe Interactive
Genre: Management, Sports
Price: FREE (Micro-transactions)

Ever since I played The Legacy of Rosemond Hill, I have been on a seemingly hopeless search for a game that can measure up to it. I want a little bit of stable management, horse management, mystery, competitions, and character story/development. Alas, I have found nothing and Rival Stars Horse Racing is not quite there either… but almost.

Your family is a well known horse racing family but due to a fatal tragedy you have all given up the horse business, that is until now. A manager of the stable pleads to you, saying he still believes in your legacy and requests that you come back which you of course do with the option of choosing your own gender, ethnicity, name, and racing gear.

After confirming your identity you are tasked with facility and horse maintanence and upkeep. Your first order of business is to get a horse because without it you cannot race and earn the money you need to evolve your ranch. You get the option to name it, however, there are a few restrictions to the naming if you want the commentators to shout out the horse name during races. The randomize button gives a few opportunites for giggles as the two-word name suggestions can turn out ‘Free Flattery’ and ‘Complete Goat’.

Rival Stars Horse Racing is a good mixture of management, competition, and play. You get to breed your horses for the best possible stats, train them, race with them in races against other players or AI, and even save pictures of your best horse. It does have a story, but it fails to capture my interest as it seems to be the staff around the ranch simply telling some tidbits about themselves or what they think you should do. I would have loved if the player had been involve and active within the story as they are completley left out of it as it stands at the moment.

Despite the lack of story, Rival Stars Horse Racing is the best game out there if you want a game with horses. It is a good managment game, but what sells it is the polished graphics and a well done horse niche. However, if you are into racing and managment games I would give this one a try to see if you can breed and train the best racing horse there ever was.

Review: Pocket Build

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Developer: MoonBear LTD
Publisher: MoonBear LTD
Genre: Fantasy, Sandbox Builder
Price: £1.99

To create your own fantasy world and fill it with monsters, royalty, and NPCs is something I have always found interesting. When I found Pocket Build for only £1.99 I did not hesitate. It had the charm of a blocky, yet cute, aesthetic and the possibilities that comes with such a style. Daunting at first, the world I created began as a humble island which became the home to a witch, some forest animals, and her apprentice.

To create your own fantasy world and fill it with monsters, royalty, and NPCs is something I have always found interesting. When I found Pocket Build for only £1.99 I did not hesitate. It had the charm of a blocky, yet cute, aesthetic and the possibilities that comes with such a style. Daunting at first, the world I created began as a humble island which became the home to a witch, some forest animals, and her apprentice.

Pocket Build gives you the tools to create your vision of a fantasy village, an orcish den, or a princess’s castle; or why not all of those in one world? You can choose from the starting point of basic squares of land — each with a different biome. You can stack the squares or put them next to each other to fashion an island. The next step would be to make the squares less empty. In the tools menu, the player can choose to put down trees, rocks, plants, houses, fences, market stalls, crops, castle walls, villagers, or dogs. My only complaint is that so far there are no cats.

When done, you can share your world with other players but except for inspecting and surveying the worlds there is little else that can be done.

One progressive element that was added was the food, gold, and lumber counter. Some cool looking buildings or gruesome plants cost food, or lumber, or gold, or maybe a combination of two. You get food and lumber from your NPCs harvesting certain things and gold you receive from harvesting gold piles.

You can make a battle arena by sticking NPCs of a lighter alignment with NPCs of a darker alignment together and wait out the imminent result. It is not a very satisfying thing to watch, but it might provide some contentment to a player’s need to watch things die.

Pocket Build is not a progression game, it is more of a fantasy sandbox builder where the player sets the rules. There are no waiting times for building and the developers rely on player donations. I would advise to donate a small amount should you enjoy the game because Pocket Build receives good additions in patches from time to time, evolving and developing as time goes by instead of slowly turning into ash, like some games.