Gallop Racer 2003

Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed will cost you a lot less than a day at the track. But would you really rather hang out in your living room than at the turf club?

Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed is a detailed horse racing sim that seems unlikely to win mass appeal. For a game that?s about getting to the finish line fastest, GR2003 is excruciatingly slow paced; and somewhere amidst the massive roster of horses and endless columns of numbers is a game that challenges your patience more than it does your reflexes. But pony fans will still find plenty to dig into in this stint of off-track betting.

After picking one of six jockeys and filling your stable with horses, you begin the painstaking process of learning to ride. A tutorial mode gives you the basics, but true expertise takes time. Each horse in your stable wants to run differently, based on its personality and statistics. If you don?t take heed of your mount?s requisites, you?ll barely manage to cross the finish line. But if you finesse your horse?s position, stamina, and yes, even its mood, you?ll charge down the home stretch and take the win. A tremendous amount of trial and error is required before you start winning races, which will try the patience of all but the most ardent horse racing fans. It?s a surprisingly difficult task considering the simplistic control scheme. You?re never quite sure how your horse will respond to your input?at times it feels like flying a kite in a tornado. Get used to mulling over pages of statistics before each race if you want to be successful?but for those that stick it out, your jockey will be rewarded with an improved skill set and experience points.

Instead of buying horses with cash, as in previous Gallop Racer games, you use your jockey?s experience points as currency. Eventually you can breed your own ponies, but the amount of time it takes to get this far into the game will make it an unreachable goal for most gamers. Still, it adds a nice bit of complexity and personalization for the dedicated fans. There?s also a vastly improved betting system with plenty of wagering options to keep gamblers happy. And once you?ve honed your jockey skills, you can play the odds for some nice payoffs by betting on your own longshots.

There?s a bit of disconnect in the graphic styling of the game. In the management menus, your jockey is represented as a bubble-headed anime character, but during races the graphics strive for realism?the two look silly when juxtaposed in the same game. The music sounds like it was ripped from a TV game show jingle, or maybe a Japanese infomercial. The announcer is monotonous, and sound effects play a minimal role in the game. If you can?t stand the tinny bop of the soundtrack, you can play just as well with the sound muted and your stereo on.

For all its frustrations and shortcomings, GR2003 does pay off with the thrill of long-sought victory and a sense of accomplishment for having figured out the bizarre subtleties of this stat-heavy simulation. Also to its credit, no two races are ever the same?even on the same track with the same horse. Recommended for horse racing sim fans only.

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