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User Reviews about Petz Saddle Club

This is the first horse game to be released on the PSP system (that I know of; not sure about other countries). This game is the EXACT same game as Horsez 2 for Wii (it is not Petz Horse Club for Wii, even though the box art is almost identical). In my observations, the demographic that typically plays horse games most likely have a Wii or PC (or DS, for the youngest of players), which is why I thought the whole movement of Petz games to PSP a strange one by Ubisoft.

For the first game like it on PSP, it is a worthy effort. Some features are better, some are not. It is much easier to steer the horse and change speeds since this no longer depends on the movement of your hands (pressing the square button to move faster, moving the analog stick down to slow down). However, the grooming is very frustrating. I found that, in fact, few games make grooming not frustrating. Yet, if you thought it difficult/annoying to groom in the Wii version (as I did), it is more so in the PSP installment. You move the analog stick to move the brush/hoof/hose. Because the analog does not move as fluidly as it does on its PS3/PS2 counterparts, it takes much longer to groom (all four parts).

The graphics are relatively horrible. Compared to the Wii version. The PSP does not lack the capabilities for decent graphics (as seen in God of War: Chains of Olympus, Crisis Core: FFVII, or best yet, in the Jak and Daxter demo [release date later this week]). The screen shots on the product page are for the Wii version. If you go to Horsez 2 page, it will be the same ones.

The demo for this game is on the Playstation Store, so if you are interested in the game, I suggest playing the demo first. My impression with this game is that Ubisoft decided to re-release previous games on the PSP system just to see how they sell, as there are not many games for the younger demographic available for PSP. I have not played the other Petz games (there is a dogz one and hamersterz [sp?] one as well, not interested in those) and I suspect it is the same situation.

I gave it three stars, because if you have not played the Wii version or if you don't have a Wii, it is a good horse game and deserves a play. As I said, it's a good effort. It's not terrible on the PSP, but if it was a new Horsez installment or had better graphics, it would have been much better.
-- Worthy effort, but play the demo first