Pony Friends: Mini-Breeds Edition is a newly remixed version of an Eidos-published virtual pet design, and you can only buy it at GameStop. Because it's an "edition" of a game and not the original game itself, this level of exclusivity seems most similar to that seen with Target and Shaun White -- in that you could get Pony Friends elsewhere, but if you get it at GameStop you'll find additional content in-game.
But it's also a bit odd, since, uniquely, this isn't a new game. Pony Friends has been around for a while, having first shipped to stores in the spring of 2007. So while the added Mini-Breeds content could have motivated potential purchasers to choose to shop the 'Stop instead of anywhere else, now it seems like the age of the game will defeat most of that purpose. How many people are out there who are still weighing out whether or not to buy a game that came out two years ago, anyway?
The timing seems more than poor, and things only get worse when you actually get into Mini-Breeds Edition and find that the freshly added content isn't all that expansive. The new subtitle refers to the fact that you can now select to own miniature horses in the game -- the original Pony Friends had several different horse breeds to choose from, but not any miniature ones.
But that's pretty much it. There are some other, minor upgrades made to the game's interface, but after you've navigated past the initial horse selection screen you've seen pretty much all the new content that Mini-Breeds bring to the game. Luckily, Pony Friends was a solid virtual pet game on its own merits before this special edition came around, so what's left over after the new content ends is still a worthwhile design, with a strong emphasis on user choice and customization. Let's revisit the original review here, to address again what hasn't been changed:
The interface for customization greets you right away when you first begin the game. Though you're given the option to just choose a ready-made, standard animal, the true draw is crafting your new pet from scratch, piece by piece. You'll pick your pony's coat color. Mane color. Tail length and, of course, color. You'll be able to apply different patterns to your pony's body overall, all actual genetic possibilities drawn from real horse breeds from around the world -- like spots, or large, patchy stripes, or a belly that's lighter than the hues of its back. As you make each choice, you'll find yourself more and more invested in your creation, which is an immediate positive for a virtual pet game to have -- in other titles where you simply give a stock, static creature a name before taking it home from the vet it's hard to feel any kind of bond right away. Here, you'll want to name your animal proudly -- it's your own masterpiece, after all.
And after all that decision making, you'll have yet more choices to make -- in how to interact with your new animal. The options aren't overly extensive, but variety is there. You can care for your pony by brushing and washing it, you can feed it its favorite food and go to the store to buy more when you run out. You can compete in head-to-head races against other horses, encouraging your steed to add more speed with shouts into the DS mic. And you can just go out for casual trail rides around the countryside.
The trails are probably the most compelling aspect, because riding along them plays out like a simplified version of the addictive N64 title, Pokemon Snap. Sitting high astride your four-legged ride, you'll travel forward along an on-rails path through a forest, or marshland, or small western town. You'll be able to use the stylus to shift your view around and, then, to point at objects of interest in the background when they appear. If you happen to spot an animal, touching them on the touchscreen will cause the camera to zoom in and take a snapshot -- you'll often be given assignments to photograph specific animals, and completing these will earn you money to invest in care products, food, or decorative accessories.
Though you can always make your own. Pony Friend's early customization interface comes full circle and shows up again when you're busy adding saddles, blankets and brandings to your beast of burden -- you can design your own tattoo and tapestry textures with a sprite editor interface that's similar to the one found in Animal Crossing. It's difficult to see your custom-created saddle blankets once they're in place on the animal -- because the saddle covers a large portion of the design -- but the quartermarking on your pony's rear haunches is more readily visible. You can tattoo your horse's rear with a smiley face, if you want to.
Verdict
It's odd that it took almost two years for this special edition of Pony Friends to arrive, since the original game has been on sale since May of 2007. And because the design's that old, many players will likely pass it by for newer, more updated takes on the virtual horse care genre. Pony Friends' strong emphasis on customization has held up, though, and this does still feel like a good value.
Perhaps the promise of the new miniature horses inside will motivate those who skipped it the first time around to give it a second glance, now, and GameStop will score itself a minor victory in the middle of this minor exclusivity trend. To me, it's not worth making a special trip there -- but if you find yourself there anyway, you've got some extra dollars and a young horse-loving gamer in your life who hasn't played the original edition, Pony Friends: Mini-Breeds might just be worthy of your consideration.
