I have a younger cousin who lives in Alabama who just loved horses as a kid.  One time when I came to visit she had a N64 and a copy of Ocarina of Time and wanted me to help her get to the part of the game where she could ride the horse.  So I played to that point and gave the controller to her and that’s all she did!  A few years later when I came back to visit, there was an animated movie in theaters that we took her to see called Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and she loved it!  Bottom line is, kids love horses.  And why wouldn’t they?  Horses are pretty cool animals.  And now there is a computer animated spin-off series of Spirit on Netflix, plus a new movie based on the Netflix show out now in theaters.  And now you can play a game based on the new movie and Netflix series with Dreamworks’ Spirit: Lucky’s Big Adventure.  It’s available on nearly all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

In the game you play as a girl nicknamed Lucky.  She lives in a frontier style town with her dad and befriends a wild horse named Spirit.  With her two horse-riding friends, Lucky goes on all sorts of adventures.  One day her father shows her a box that her mom left her before she passed away.  Inside is a treasure map so Lucky decides to look for the treasure to find out more about her mom that she never knew.  Along the way she’ll help out her friends, save wild horses, and have lots of new adventures!

You’ll control Lucky in 3-D space.  She can run around, crouch and sneak, jump, and take photos.  But most of what you’ll do is ride Spirit.  While mounted, you can jump and make Spirit run fast.  A horseshoe meter will deplete when you do that, so make sure it refills so Spirit doesn’t get tired.  After a while Spirit will get dirty and won’t be able to use the horseshoe meter to run.  So you must take Spirit back to the stable and play a mini-game to groom him clean again.

In the game you’ll mostly do fetch quests to move the story along.  You may have to find an item for someone, or take a picture for somebody.  Sometimes you might have to follow someone without them noticing or do some light platforming and climbing as Lucky.  But it’s mostly just fetch quests.  Luckily the game makes it very clear where you need to go next, with a compass telling you the direction and constant markers where you need to go.  You can also view a diary with your current quests and even fast travel to places you’ve already been.  So players shouldn’t have any problems getting stuck.

I do have some problems with the game, like I think the graphics could’ve been better, the framerate is choppy, and all the fetch quests get boring and repetitive.  But honestly, I don’t think the target audience of this game will mind those problems.  Young fans of the movies and TV series will be delighted to play a game where they can ride horses and interact with their favorite characters.  So if you know a young horse fan who loves the Spirit cartoons, you may want to get this one for them.

Kid Factor:

Nothing violent or objectionable here.  Reading skill is needed for the text, though.  Dreamworks’ Spirit: Lucky’s Big Adventure is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television