How to play
Horse Race
Mash button 1 to gallop, jump the rails with 2, and be first past the post.
At a glance
- Players
- 1–4 at once
- Ages
- 4 and up
- Round
- About thirty seconds
- In the packs
- Core, Party, Little Kids
Controls
The stick and button 1 are enough to play. The rest add moves for the older kids.
| What you press | What it does |
|---|---|
| Button 1 — the big button | mash to gallop — button 1, and only button 1 |
| Button 2 | jump |
How a round goes
The race is over when someone crosses the line, about a hundred and fifty presses from the start, or around thirty seconds of steady mashing. If nobody has got there after a minute and a quarter — the seats have gone quiet — the horse in front wins where it stands. Every press is a shove forward and your horse coasts between presses, so a steady rhythm beats a frantic one. The track scrolls with the leader, and the strip at the top of the screen shows every horse on the whole course.
Eight rails stand across the course, spaced unevenly — a quick pair early, long runs between others — and none in the home stretch. Press 2 to jump them; the faster you are going when you take off, the longer and higher the leap. Clip one and you keep less than half your speed — it costs momentum and dignity, never the race. A leap keeps your speed but you cannot gallop in the air, and a leap that clears no rail lands in a stumble that costs more than clipping one, so jump for the rails, not for fun. You cannot jump from a standstill.
Scoring and winning
First horse past the post wins.
On your own you race Robo, who gallops at a steady pace: about four presses a second ties him and six wins clearly. If Robo wins, nobody does.
Tips
- The speed bar tops out well before your thumb does; past that, extra presses buy very little.
- Time the jump just before the rail, not on it.
- On a Little Kids seat the horse takes the rails by itself, so a younger rider only has to gallop.