Riding Star - Horse Championship!

The main reason I will recommend this game is because it's dirt cheap and it's quite fun to play for a bit, and even challenging on the dressage. The game doesn't have any story line at all, just as a head's up. The game involves grooming horses, training for show jumping, cross country and dressage, hacking and competing. This game was originally made for console (I had the game on PS2) and it doesn't seem they bothered to make any changes to put it on PC. As opposed to other equestrian games (most of which are not available on Steam) which use the arrow keys for direction, this game uses the mouse in a way that takes some getting used to. With a controller, one would use the right joystick/thumbstick to turn, pushing it to the right or left and releasing ; and so one must slide their mouse to the right or left to turn, but you must bring the mouse back to the center to stop turning. As we all have mouse accelaration, this can cause some frustration in the game play when you're not used to it. I suggest turning the mouse accelaration off to make it easier, at least in the beggining, or just plugging your controller in if you have one. I have played both ways, neither is particularly easier.

At first this game was a nightmare for controls, after a tutorial and a tournament it was seamless and easy. It flows well and the game felt well rounded and fun, grooming is nice, jumping is great and timing based (left click to jump feels weird tho) and dressage is involved and entertaining.

I loved this game as a kid. This is a strange game on here, as controls are slightly different than that of the CD. There is no way to change the controls or mouse sensitivity. This is not quite the game that you may have played before.

Controls arent very user friendly which makes it difficult to play. Would be good for young child to play but not really enough depth of game for an adult to enjoy. worth playing if free but wouldnt purchase game.

I distinctly remember playing this game in it's original CD-rom format back when it was "new" and I cannot remember the controls being this horrid. For whatever reason they've changed it to be almost fully mouse controlled except for during dressage where you need to use WS for gait adjustments and the arrow keys for rhythm and collection/extension while steering with the mouse, horrid layout and makes you wish you had three hands. Not to mention how oversensitive the response of the horse is to the mouse, it is nigh impossible to ride in a straight line or move your mouse correctly for the different special moves during the dressage. I didn't bother trying cross country before requesting a refund but I assume it works with the same controls as the show jumping, which are manageable. Gait is still controlled with WS but you still steer with mouse and have to use the left click to spur your horse into jumping. If you are like me and considering buying the game for the nostalgia, be aware that the nostalgia might be ruined by the sheer frustration the controls will instill in you.

Nostalgia - This is a lot better than the earlier releases from when I was a kid, but the controls are so buggy and terribly mapped out. If you had options to configure them and change the sensitivity or even play on a gamepad instead then it would be better. It is a real girly girl game and lets you be a girly girl gamer with pretty ponies. So if you want to be a girl girl or just have a little girl who wants to play a girls game, then yes I would recommend this for that reason, just take your time getting used to the controls. I think it would be easier if the riding part was played on a gamepad instead of keyboard and mouse.

I have always loved this game when I was younger. I hope more of the Lets Ride horse games come to Steam so I can play them again. Brings back good memories of the horse games.

I would not recommend this game due to the terrible controls. Trying to use the mouse to steer and adjust speed is just so difficult and it makes the game unenjoyable to play.

The controls are absolutely awful, you cant control the horse at all. Unplayable and insanely disappoining

This game is pure furstation, the controls are wonky and if your horse even a little bit off center for a jump it will refuse. The grooming is annoying as you have to status bar to see how groomed your horse is, you just have to keep going until it says you're done. The training is super repeative you just go around the same course over and over until your horse is trained enough for the competition. The Cross Country and Show Jumping do not show how many faults you have on the screen, not to mention the Cross Country has really tight turns that would never be in a real Cross Country event. The Dressage is good if you want to test how long your temper holds, it expects you to use the mouse and all four arrow keys at the same time to perform a 'figure'. You're supposed to press the right and left arrow keys to keep in 'harmony' with your horse, but this rarely ever works you must do this while keeping your mouse pointed in a certian direction and trying to steer your horse so it stays on course. And it the higher competion levels you have to do the Dressage 3 times in a row, I've never seen a Dressage event that has 3 'rounds'. Packed nearly 9 hours into this trying to figure out the controls, all I got in return was frustration. The horse customzation sucks, you get to pick from three coats and a mane and tail colour. Can't even change the markings. You can edit the tack but half the tack is locked until you win the events. You can free ride but the world is so ugly I can't stand using that feature. If you're looking for a good horse game on Steam, try My Riding Stables 2: Life with Horses and pretend this game does not exist.