I enjoyed Red Dead Redemptions 2‘s horse gameplay so much I decided to create an article dedicated to horse games for PS4. This article features a top list of every PS4 horse game released so far ranked from worst to best. The PS4 surprisingly has a good amount of horse games targeting different age groups and audiences. In general Horse care/riding games are suited more for kids. However, horse racing games seem to target teen and adult audiences.
6. Horse Racing 2016 (The Worst)
– See It On Playstation Store
Horse Racing 2016 isn’t entirely bad. I can see hardcore horse racing fans actually enjoying this game. The basic horse racing fundamentals such as accelerating, stamina gauge, jumping, turning and computer AI are ok. The main problem I have with this game is slim content, graphics, and glitches. There are two gameplay modes available, Online and Championship.
No one plays Online mode anymore, so that’s dead. Championship mode has really plain tracks and the normal AI is easy to beat. It takes about 5 hours or less to complete the entire championship mode. The graphics and track designs are downright horrible. Plain textures make the game look like an outdated HD PS2 port. I also encountered odd glitches with horse and track railing collisions.
I would not recommend this game to anyone. However, if you are a horse racing video games enthusiast you probably won’t mind the problems this game has.
4. My Little Riding Champion (Good for kids!)
– See It On Amazon
My Little Riding Champion is a good game for kids. It’s similar but more serious than the “My Riding Stables” game featured in this list. This game offers a lot of horses to choose from, with a lot of customization options. There is also a lot of challenging training chapters, missions, grooming, and races to play through. Graphically this is one of the better-looking horse games. For a budget title, I appreciate the developers putting in the extra effort to the environments and player models. They do look polished.
On the negative side, this game becomes repetitive really fast. Not only is it repetitive, but the controls are also a little clunky and the gameplay feels boring. The game is also really glitchy. Glitches include getting stuck or going through objects.
Overall young kids that love horses will probably enjoy My Little Riding Champion. I can see some adults enjoying this if they don’t become bored or frustrated first.
5. My Riding Stables – Life with Horses (Good for kids!)
Just remember My Riding Stables is targeting young children gamers and not adults. So I have to give it a fair pass. I can see some adult horse lovers enjoying this also. One of the big pluses of My Riding Stables is the amount of content available. There are 9 challenging timed race tracks. A lot of semi-fun mini-games. Horse care such as washing and grooming. You can also breed your horses to create new, stronger, and cooler looking horses.
Yes, the big picture sounds great, but I thought My Riding Stables became repetitive too fast. I did not like the outdated cel-shaded graphics either. The graphics look great if they were for the PS2 or Wii consoles, but fall way behind in 2019 for the PS4. Overall my opinion doesn’t matter much though because most younger kids that love horses will enjoy this game. For young kids, it is a fun game.
3. Winning Post 8 2018 (Japenese Import)
– See It On Amazon
Winning Post is the most popular professional horse racing/management simulator series. Winning Post 8 2018 didn’t receive a UK or North American port for PS4. The only way you can play Winning Post 8 2018 is to buy the Japenese Import game. All of the text in the game will be in Japenese, which kind of kills the experience for English speakers.
Winning Post is the best professional Horse Racing video game series. I have heard positive feedback about Winning Post 8 2018, being the best game in the series so far. Sadly there aren’t any English ports of this game. I can only recommend Winning Post 8 2018 to those that speak Japanese or for those that don’t mind the game having foreign text. With some practice, English speakers can learn the controls and most of the text, but many of us don’t have the time or patience to learn such things from a video game.
Hopefully in the future UK and North American Ports will be released. If not physically at least digitally.
2. Windstorm (Best casual horse game)
– See It On Amazon
This is the video game based on the popular family-friendly horse movie “Windstorm”. I actually enjoyed this video game because of how the story, and characters wrapped into the gameplay. The game offers lovely graphics, landscapes, races, missions and horse grooming. This is a great game for children, but I can see a lot of adults who want to play a relaxing game enjoying this also.
Like a lot of other games on this list, the gameplay does become a little repetitive fast. However, I was more engaged in Windstorm. The gameplay, with the characters and missions, have a nice flow. After I defeated a few missions I felt like I was accomplishing something important. I also enjoyed the art style, graphics, music, horse leveling and skills.
Sadly Windstorm is a UK import game. If you’re in North America you might have trouble finding it on Amazon. You’ll probably have better luck checking eBay for the game’s availability.
1. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Best horse action game for adults!)
– See It On Amazon
At its core, Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) is the best western game created so far. It’s much bigger than that though. Being an open world sandbox game, RDR2 is huge in scope. The game can easily fall under many sub-genres in gaming. Yes, RDR2 is also a horse game and is a very good one. I guarantee you have never seen a horse look, sound and move this real in any other game.
In most of RDR2’s single-player mode, riding your horse around is a good option for transportation, herding cattle, and gunfights. There are also many main/side missions that involve horse riding, racing, wrangling and shooting while aboard your horse. You can upgrade your horse’s stats, buy saddle & stirrup upgrades, buy new horses, or simply steal horses that aren’t yours.
If you go online with RDR2 you can participate in 8 players online horse racing that features Super Mario Kart Style power-ups. It’s a pretty fun mode and the only active online horse racing game mode I know of.
Horses play a very important role in the overall RDR2 experience. RDR2 is not a game for kids, this game has gruesome violence and many adult themes. If you love western shooters, a deep story, and horses as a bonus. RDR2 is an amazing game and the most polished horse game on this list.
* Other PS4 Games That Have Notable Horse Gameplay In Them *
I wouldn’t consider the following games to be horse games. But they do have a good amount of Horse riding or racing in them.
The Witcher 3 – Horses are great for Transportation.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – A lot of cool looking horses in this game. Mostly used for transportation.
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim – Used for transportation but the horses are clumsy moving.
Farming Simulator 19 – Maintain and ride horses or ponies. You can also create stables for them.
