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Riding the Back of a Bullet
The actual racing in the game - which, if you want to win, you'll need to spend lots of time preparing for - is difficult but ultimately addictive. For the first few horses of your career, chances are you'll be spending more time than not watching other thoroughbreds pass you by and wonder why. After some practice and learning how your particular equine likes to race (not to mention perhaps ramping down the difficulty level for a few go-rounds), some things begin to make sense.
There are really three distinct parts to a race - the gate start, the front stretch, and the back stretch. The gate start is critical, unless your horse likes to run near the back of the pack, in which case starting "poorly" is recommended. Once out of the gate, the front stretch is more about delicate management by gentle prodding, making sure your prize steed is not exerting too much effort. If it is, then there'll be no gas left in the tank for the crucial back stretch. If you're running well, though, in the part of the pack where your stallion enjoys being (lead, front, rear, or end), chances are that you'll have a shot at the end.
The back stretch is really where races are won or lost. To have a chance, your horse will need to be strong, have a lot of spirit, and be willing to accept a few well-placed whips to the rear end and/or shoulder. All of these traits are shown in the HUD at the bottom of the screen. It's up to you to allow your steed to not get overworked and fade, not that it's particularly easy nor intuitive to do so. What is needed is patience, patience, and more patience, as well as a willingness to lose a lot in an effort to learn the game.
Building the Perfect Beast
Another main area of the game is breeding, which allows you to take any horses you've raced and retired and couple them with some waiting studs or mares. Thankfully, all "activities" take place behind closed stable doors. Taking the time to match abilities of one horse with another can ultimately allow for some seriously talented foals to be born, provided – again – you're down for some studying, patience, and old-fashioned learning on the job.
Therein lays the truly frustrating aspect of this game. Beneath the confoundingly difficult game navigation, lack of tutorial guide, and unnecessarily vague game goals lives a truly deep, rewarding, and - yes, I am about to say it - fun game. Gamers familiar with past Gallop Racer efforts likely know this already and will feel quite at home. It's just a shame that newcomers to the series will feel like quitting out of frustration. Had this reviewer not had a duty to spend many hours with the game to give it a fair representation, I would have never made it to the point that I actually enjoyed myself. Having never played a game in the series prior to this one, I was more lost than in any title I can ever remember. Through sheer will, however, I discovered some of the joys of horse racing and breeding, and wound up appreciating many of the complexities Gallop Racer has to offer.
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