One thing I remember quite well about the years both of my daughters were at the younger end of the gaming spectrum, was my frustration with the lack of coverage about games that were obviously targeting them. While Nintendo helped out quite a bit with Nintendogs, supplying a game that was a pretty easy bet for fair quality, outside of that the situation was much more unpredictable. Unfortunately, the majority of the review sites out there took either zero interest in giving these titles the time of day, or if they’d bother to say something they’d simply make the review dismissive, ignoring that there’s a legitimate audience for more casual and kid-friendly fare that’s entitled to their need for fair and accurate reviews. With this site, I’ve been trying to do my part to help remedy that situation as much as I can.

So, in the case of My Horse Stories I was actually surprised to find that it was more of a multi-dimensional title that I’m used to seeing in this space. Rather than just focusing on naming, dressing up, and caring for whatever animal the game is geared towards, you’ll do quite a bit more. Working as a very light version of a farming sim, you’ll get walked through a pretty typical but at least pleasant story where you’ll play a bored girl from the city who feels trapped on her grandmother’s farm, but then slowly begins to get inspired to help her turn things around… no doubt in part thanks to a cute farmhand she meets. So you’ll work to slowly restore a variety of buildings to working order which will allow you to properly care for and train your horse, as well as produce some crops you’ll be able to feed them with and more.

In order to do this you’ll need to earn money though, and as it turns out your departed mother was once a champion rider, and that will be your path to rejuvenating the farm while helping to feel more connected to your family. I won’t lie, while at least the horse competitions diversify into different types the further you get, on the whole they’re not terribly challenging, but I get the sense they’re not meant to be, instead erring on the side of approachability for either younger or simply less skilled players. For quite a while you’ll be pulled around a bit with training wheels, with the game dictating your every step to be sure you’re grasping all important aspects of finding success, but then it will let you go on your own and do your best to restore everything to its full potential, and move through the various story beats along the way.

So, how does it hold up, at least compared to some of its contemporaries? There are some more action and adventure-oriented horse games out there, but I’d say this one does well appealing to a younger crowd with more of a focus on care activities, and making far less demands for controller dexterity. Since there’s a storyline as well as quite a bit of instruction, players will need to be able to read to at least a reasonable level, and to not get frustrated with the amount of reading there is to do. A good thing is that the story-driven dialogue can almost all be skipped, but there are some things to understand in order to be successful that it won’t let you fly by. While I’d only recommend it for younger or more casual players, this is a very nice effort that focuses on a variety of tasks to participate in rather than quickly feeling like you’re stuck in a shallow loop, which happens all too often. If I were back in the days looking for something my kids would enjoy, I would have been very pleased with this compared to some of the one-dimensional junk you typically see in this space.