With as many games as I’ve reviewed, I always tend to appreciate pleasant surprises. Having often bemoaned titles that have obviously come over from the mobile space, typically for failing to justify the move to a dedicated gaming system with physical controls, it’s always nice to see ones that make a fair effort. 

Rival Stars Horse Racing is both a horse racing and breeding simulator, though the relative depth of those activities is pretty limited. It was obviously shooting for the goal of being played and enjoyed by just about anyone, so it keeps its rules and controls pretty simple, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had. On the competitive side you’ll be able to enjoy traditional oval track racing, cross country riding, the very aggressive steeplechase, and more formal show jumping, each with their own relatively simple control schemes. I’d say the traditional racing is the most satisfying, with you needing to keep in mind where your horse likes to be in the pack in order to max out your stamina gauge, which you’ll then use to speed your way to the finish line. 

On the other side of the coin you’ll need to work to breed better and more capable horses, working to mix different attributes, breeds, and a little bit of luck to create successive generations of winners. The game does do a pretty good job all around of poking you with goals that will keep you exploring new gameplay areas that will continue to unlock, but for the most part you can just set your own pace and focus on what you enjoy as well. There’s a nice scalability here to the experience, and in general even if you’ve managed to lose all of your money, it won’t take long to get rolling once more.

Is Rival Stars Horse Racing great? Not really. Is it really worth its full asking price? Nope, it is absolutely overpriced, given that it still very clearly hasn’t wiped away all of its mobile pay-to-play elements. But does it reasonably address something that’s missing in the Switch eShop, while proving to be quite accessible, and something equestrian fans could enjoy? Yes, it does at least manage to do that, so it could be worthwhile for the right audience, at least when on sale.