Pocket Stables

There comes a point in every video game franchise's life when it's necessary to mix things up a little. Otherwise, things grow stale.

Management sim behemoth Kairosoft has been trying incredibly hard to keep its games fresh in recent months, throwing us some curveballs and generally trying to keep the relatively samey action exciting.

With Pocket Stables, it's finally starting to show its weakness. This is the least entertaining and least addictive Kairosoft game to date.

Take the usual Kairosoft management setup, but this time throw stables, horses, and horse races over the top. Voila: Pocket Stables!

This time around it's all about training your horses up and then throwing them into races. Win the races and you'll be able to advance up the ranks, until you eventually become a master horse-breeder.

All the tell-tale Kairosoft signs are there - everything is easy to understand, and there's a ton of content to ease your way through.

And while you're keeping your horses and jockeys occupied, people will come and visit your ranch, meaning you need to build plenty of entertainment-style structures to keep the cash flowing.

Eventually you'll end up with a sizeable ranch, with numerous trophies to your name.

But Pocket Stables entails more of a casual trot than a gallop.

The game is very slow to get going, with you simply training a horse, winning a race, training him some more, winning another race, training, repeat, etc.

There's an interesting angle in that horses get "past their prime" after a set amount of time, meaning you have to train other horses to replace them.

But this isn't backed up by the usual amount of depth and exciting content. It all just feels incredibly stale compared to past titles.

In fact, Grand Prix Story is pretty much the very same thing, but with racing cars, and way more interesting stuff to see and do.

In all fairness, it speaks volumes that a "bad" Kairosoft game is an above-average game on everybody else's scale. Here's hoping that the studio's next effort will be above average on its own scale.