KOEI introduce bizarre horse-riding peripheral
PS2’s analogue sticks simulate jockey’s reins
Koei has just announced the arrival of the latest installment of the G1 Jockey series on PS2, coincidentally appearing in shops on March 31st which is the weekend before [URL=http://www.aintree.co.uk/]The Grand National at Aintree[/URL].
From nurturing your very own thoroughbred and breeding a whole stable of potential champions, to riding your way to the very top over an entire career as a champion jockey, G1 Jockey 4 covers every aspect of the increasingly popular sport of Horse Racing. It’s the new darts, or summat.
Now it would be very easy to overlook G1 Jockey 4 as yet another niche-interest game, which will appeal to a limited market of horse-racing fans with PS2’s. Easy, that was, until we caught a glimpse of the new controller which will come bundled with the game. This funny looking contraption effectively turns your PS2 control pad into a set of jockey’s reins with which you can control your horse. Now we are interested.
We couldn’t quite make out how the controller worked from the pics Koei sent out to all the press yesterday, so we asked the guys there to take some more for us and explain in more detail. Which they did. And for which SPOnG owes them a little snifter in the bar after the Grand National. Providing we back a winner that is.
Basically the two analogue sticks are used to simulate all the movement of the jockey on the horse, our man at Koei explained. “The best thing to do would be to give you a few examples… Steering is obviously moving both sticks to the side in the direction you want. To sprint at the end of race you need to quickly move the sticks back and forth but also taking into account the rhythm of the rider on the horse. Having the controller add-on enables you to combine steering away from getting boxed on the inside while also keeping up the horse’s speed. Thus it enables you to combine multiple stick movements at the same time.”
It all sounds very detailed and confusing. But we still desperately want a go. What about ‘whipping’, we went on to quiz our virtual jockey trainer?
“The whips can be slapped by pushing in R3 for the right side and L3 for the left side. Combine this with your finishing sprint and you're moving the sticks back and forth while also factoring in a whip push every few stick pushes. It's much easier to explain in action than it is in words!”
There are also a multitude of other manoeuvres familiar to anyone into their horses. And all of these moves are elicited through the analogue sticks. Some can also be activated through the pad buttons but when you have the controller add on it apparently makes synchronising your movements so much easier, with practically everything in the race controlled with the sticks.
Our man at Koei went on to tell us that “the idea of the game is to understand your horse's style and then maximise this during the race. Does it like to win from a long way out? Is it a sprinter? Does it dislike being boxed in? Does it like to front run and so on….Then with the controls you can gently coax it towards ever faster speeds without using up all its energy too soon or de-motivating it by riding incorrectly or mis-judging its strengths. To just get a brief increase in speed you need to watch the movement of the horse and then move the sticks in time with the horse to get the jockey moving in synchrony. So it's nothing like a track and field button basher but more strategic and considered before the final frantic dash fro the finishing post.”
“Believe me it's not easy to describe” he added. You're telling us it's not!
SPOnG will be paying Koei a visit at some point in the next week or two to get a hands on with G1 Jockey 4 and see if this bizarrest of peripherals does the business.
Right now, we’re off down to bookies to put a tenner each way on The Spawny Mong in the 2.30 at Doncaster…
From nurturing your very own thoroughbred and breeding a whole stable of potential champions, to riding your way to the very top over an entire career as a champion jockey, G1 Jockey 4 covers every aspect of the increasingly popular sport of Horse Racing. It’s the new darts, or summat.
Now it would be very easy to overlook G1 Jockey 4 as yet another niche-interest game, which will appeal to a limited market of horse-racing fans with PS2’s. Easy, that was, until we caught a glimpse of the new controller which will come bundled with the game. This funny looking contraption effectively turns your PS2 control pad into a set of jockey’s reins with which you can control your horse. Now we are interested.
We couldn’t quite make out how the controller worked from the pics Koei sent out to all the press yesterday, so we asked the guys there to take some more for us and explain in more detail. Which they did. And for which SPOnG owes them a little snifter in the bar after the Grand National. Providing we back a winner that is.
Basically the two analogue sticks are used to simulate all the movement of the jockey on the horse, our man at Koei explained. “The best thing to do would be to give you a few examples… Steering is obviously moving both sticks to the side in the direction you want. To sprint at the end of race you need to quickly move the sticks back and forth but also taking into account the rhythm of the rider on the horse. Having the controller add-on enables you to combine steering away from getting boxed on the inside while also keeping up the horse’s speed. Thus it enables you to combine multiple stick movements at the same time.”
It all sounds very detailed and confusing. But we still desperately want a go. What about ‘whipping’, we went on to quiz our virtual jockey trainer?
“The whips can be slapped by pushing in R3 for the right side and L3 for the left side. Combine this with your finishing sprint and you're moving the sticks back and forth while also factoring in a whip push every few stick pushes. It's much easier to explain in action than it is in words!”
There are also a multitude of other manoeuvres familiar to anyone into their horses. And all of these moves are elicited through the analogue sticks. Some can also be activated through the pad buttons but when you have the controller add on it apparently makes synchronising your movements so much easier, with practically everything in the race controlled with the sticks.
Our man at Koei went on to tell us that “the idea of the game is to understand your horse's style and then maximise this during the race. Does it like to win from a long way out? Is it a sprinter? Does it dislike being boxed in? Does it like to front run and so on….Then with the controls you can gently coax it towards ever faster speeds without using up all its energy too soon or de-motivating it by riding incorrectly or mis-judging its strengths. To just get a brief increase in speed you need to watch the movement of the horse and then move the sticks in time with the horse to get the jockey moving in synchrony. So it's nothing like a track and field button basher but more strategic and considered before the final frantic dash fro the finishing post.”
“Believe me it's not easy to describe” he added. You're telling us it's not!
SPOnG will be paying Koei a visit at some point in the next week or two to get a hands on with G1 Jockey 4 and see if this bizarrest of peripherals does the business.
Right now, we’re off down to bookies to put a tenner each way on The Spawny Mong in the 2.30 at Doncaster…
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