Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed

Written by Ara Ajizian on 5/2/2003 for PS2  

I didn’t know there was a market for horse racing games, but apparently there is, because Tecmo has bestowed upon gamers the third in its Gallop Racer series, Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed. The series began with a PS1 title in ’99, followed by Gallop Racer 2001 for the PS2. The newest installment continues and expands upon the series’ ultra-realistic approach to horse racing, right down to the breeding process.

You start the game by going through riding school, and learning the basics of racing. This part was painless enough, and I actually thought I might be pretty good. Then I had to face the reality of riding complimentary racehorses against the rest of the pack. That’s right, free. Since you start with no money or points, you get your pick of the free horses. Joy.

Occasionally you can pull fourth or fifth with these prime ponies, and earn your way to better horses. The problem is that the actual racing part isn’t much fun. There are some dynamics involved, such as getting a good start, establishing your position, and keeping your horse’s speed and stamina under control. By the third race, though, even these weren’t enough to keep the game interesting.

Then there’s the complicated business of building your stables. You can buy horses with the points you’ve earned from races, provided your abilities match the horses’. Here’s where an in-depth knowledge of horse racing comes in handy. There’s about 50 different attributes to keep track of, as well as knowing how the horse’s age, temper, leg type, and growth type.

There’s an extensive training area for the horses, and you can set up a training schedule for the whole year. Some horses are only trainable between January and June, making the game that much more unnecessarily complicated. I can understand such realism in a a flight sim, but horse racing? I don’t know how anyone except horse trainers could find this stimulating.

Once you have your horses, you can begin scheduling them for races. The game allows you to access races a month in advance, allowing your horses time to recover between races. You can move the game’s time forward by weekly or monthly increments, and this affects the horses’ health. My horses needed a little longer to recover from my incessant whipping, which, by the way, is one of the few fun things about this game.
Now for the truly hardcore, there’s even the option of breeding your own generations of horses from the ones you retire. Oh yeah, let the good times roll! Select a sire and a broodmare to mate, but only during the month of April. How’s that for realistic action?

One almost interesting feature of the game is betting. Apparently Pete Rose was a consultant on this game, because the only races you can bet on are your own. I don’t know much about horse racing, but I’m pretty sure that’s going to violate some rule or regulation. Again, unless you’ve spent a lot of time at the track with your Uncle Eddy, and know your quinellas from your trifectas, this part of the game is about as fun as the rest.

Gallop Racer 2003 also has a free mode, that lets you race against the computer or a friend. Even with all the complicated aspects of the career mode missing, all you’re left with is the mediocre racing sequences. Even my five-year old got bored with this after three races, and to put that in perspective, he can play Duck Hunt on the NES for hours without losing interest.

Gallop Racer 2003 could have worked better, and been more fun to the casual user, had Tecmo gone for a straight head-to-head racing style, and allowed more control over the horse’s movements and speed. Some weapons to beat down the other riders would have been nice too. Instead, they designed a game that’s complicated, repetitive, and very little fun to play. Unless you want this sort of confusing realism, avoid this one.