Review: Pony Friends (DS)
Score: 86
The 5 second review: "This is Nintendogs, only with horses".
But don't let me give you the impression that Pony Friends is a copycat title and not worth buying. The comparison with the pretty superb Nintendogs (and I speak as a parent of an eight year old daughter) is a complimentary one. If there's one thing that little (and medium-sized) girls like more than cute puppies, it's ponies. And here they are in spades.
90% of Pony Friends will hold no surprises whatsoever, this is the tried and true 'virtual pet' system used in countless copycat titles since Nintendogs came out. The difference here is that the graphics and depth of gameplay are better than the copycats, from cutscreens to pony animation. Pony Friends still doesn't rise to the dizzy slick heights of Nintendogs, but it's close.
And so we come to choosing a pony, looking after it day to day (the minutae of care are quite well represented here, although mucking out the poo from the stables is thankfully missing!) and then getting down to the fun bit, petting and playing with it, feeding it apples and so on.
So far so good. Next up is entering your pony/horse (yes, there's a difference but, frankly, who cares....) in a race, which involves shouting encouragement into the DS microphone. This works OK but can get a bit noisy for other family members!
Finally, there's a first person riding game tacked on, in which you scan around an environment from the vantage point of being on horseback, trying to spot rare things to photograph and extra accessories to collect. This section is surprisingly engaging and is about as close as Pony Friends gets to being a 'proper' game.
Yes, Pony Friends spoon feeds you things to do, but it's part educational, in terms of looking after a virtual animal (and waaayyyy cheaper than buying your children the real thing), has plenty of cutesiness for keeping kids entertained on long car journeys and, occasionally, is fun for others as well.