Champing at the Bit to Start Horsin' Around

Author

Stephanie Liu
January 30, 2026

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Speak Up Sesh

In mid-February 2026, we’ll officially welcome in the Year of the Horse. Japan’s Year of the Horse already started in January 2026, which is why so many Japanese companies were posting horse-related images back then. But in countries that follow the lunar calendar system, the actual new year will be on February 17, 2026.

So, here in the streets of Taiwan, I’ve been seeing a lot of horses! Horses on the lucky red envelopes, horse-related merchandise whenever I drop by chain stores, horses on street banners… So why not add to the horsing around? Why not play some horse-related games before, during, and after the new year for a most auspicious beginning to the Year of the Fire Horse?

Here are some horse games (and one game that I think might just be a fun thing to play around the Lunar New Year) that you might want to pick up.

  • Umamusume: Pretty Derby - F2P | Mobile, PC

    We can’t ignore the elephant-sized horse in the room. Now that the global version of Umamusume: Pretty Derby is out, anyone can enjoy it. You don’t have to be a racehorse fan or an admirer of pretty anime girls to like this training simulator. And it’s very easy to pick up and play. Right now, there are also ten free pulls a day for a limited time if you want to take advantage of that, too.

  • Road to Empress - $8.50 | Mobile, PC

    I know this looks ridiculous, but hear me out. In Road to Empress, you play as a young Wu Zetian. It’s presented as an interactive live-action movie, with you making choices to navigate alliances and betrayal to survive in this pit of vipers. The story is both legitimately exciting and delightfully narmy. Playing it alone is fine, but playing it with a group of friends feels like how The Quarry and Until Dawn can work as party games.

  • The Sims 3: Pets - $30~ (Base game + Pets) | PC
    It’s still strange to me how we live in a world with Sims 2 and 3, yet people keep flocking to 4. Why? Well, in any case, Sims 3 will never die so long as it has the horse girls in its grip. You can train, breed, and customize your horses to create the ranch of your dreams. It’s very fun. Just note that you should download some essential mods from NRaas to prevent the game from frying your graphics card. That’s something you really don’t want happening these days.

  • Red Dead Redemption II - $14.99 (75% discount from $59.99) | PC, PS4, Xbox One
    On paper and in practice, Red Dead Redemption II is a game about outlaws in the wild west who must steal and murder to survive. But, as it’s a game about cowboys, there are obviously horsies to ride.

  • Equinox: Homecoming - $24.99 (Early Access) | PC
    As an early access game, Equinox: Homecoming can be a bit rough at times. It’s an open world game where you can ride through beautiful Alderwood Island and make friends with the residents, compete in races, customize your horse and character, and solve a murder mystery.

  • Rival Stars Horse Racing - $39.99 | PC, mobile devices
    You may have seen ads for the mobile version, but there’s a PC version of Rival Stars Horse Racing, too. This game is a bit more focused on the horse racing aspect than, say, Equinox, which has horse racing more as side content, but you can still breed and customize your horses.

Top 10 Stories From the Past Month

  1. Fatal Frame 2 Remake and Silent Hill f Getting Crossover DLC - Girls supporting girls. We love to see it.

  2. Dynasty Warriors 3 Remastered Delayed - The release window will still be in 2026, though.

  3. Madoka Magica Walpurgisnacht: Rising Delayed Again - Yes, again. Aniplex will announce the new air date in mid-February 2026. So unlike the above Dynasty Warriors 3 Remastered, we don’t currently have a guarantee that we’ll see this movie in 2026.

  4. Umamusume Silence Suzuka Main Story Chapter 5 Hits Global - Even a shallow research of horse racing will reveal a number of devastating deaths on the track. But that doesn’t diminish the tragedy of the real-life Silence Suzuka’s untimely passing. I can only imagine how people involved with the real-life horse feel when they see the imagined umamusume version of her happy and running in Tracen.

  5. Genshin Impact Aether and Lumine Traveler Art Shows New Outfits - The designs of their models compared to 1.0 are so vastly improved, too! Hopefully HoYoVerse will go back and touch up the models of their older characters to better match them to their splash art (Diluc and Albedo, I’m looking at you two in particular).

  6. Needy Girl Overdose Anime Original Characters Introduced - It was always a game that a straight adaptation wouldn’t work with. So, after the initial “Huh?! Who are these people?!” it makes sense that there would be so many original characters.

  7. Cygames Says No Generative AI Used in Its Games and Products - That’s very interesting when they were recruiting LLM engineers and AI image generation specialists and all that.

  8. Pokemon Lego Sets Involve Pikachu and Eevee - Remember when Lego sets were mostly for kids and not nostalgic adults or collectors? Me too.

  9. Review: Trails Beyond the Horizon Brings Many Characters and Plots Together - It’s impressive how sprawling the Trails world and narrative are, but with each new release, it gets harder and harder to jump into the series.

  10. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance on Switch 2 via NSO - Play peak! Hopefully Radiant Dawn will appear on NSO too.

Upcoming Releases

  • Dragon Quest VII Reimagined - February 5 (PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch, Switch 2, PC)

  • Nioh 3 - February 10 (PS5, PC)

  • BlazBlue Entropy Effect X - February 12 (PS5, Xbox Series X, PC)

  • Mario Tennis Fever - February 12 (Switch 2)

  • Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties - February 12 (PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch 2, PC)

  • Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - February 13 (PS5, Xbox Series X)

  • Ys X: Proud Nordics - February 20 (PS5, Switch 2, PC)

  • No Sleep For Kaname Date - From AI: The Somnium Files - February 26 (PS4, PS5)

  • Resident Evil Requiem - February 27 (PS5, Xbox Series X< Switch 2, PC)

  • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - February 27 (Switch 2)

  • Resident Evil Village - February 27 (Switch 2)

  • Tales of Berseria - February 27 (PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch, PC)