My Little Pony Crystal Princess The Runaway Rainbow

If you were around in the mid-2000s as a kid or spent some time buying games for kids, you’ll know that every developer around was trying to milk successful franchises for all they were worth. This would involve plastering a name or a logo onto a game that barely functioned, was as basic as a flash game and had no discernible qualities whatsoever. Well, My Little Pony being as successful amongst little girls as it was would be no exception. My Little Pony Crystal Princess: The Runway would be a shameless cash grab and not even a good one.

The game plays rather like the shameless licenced titles of the time made by blast games or Phoenix games such as Son of the Lion King, Dalmatians 3 or Snow White and the Seven Clever Boys. Yes, you read that right. This game is essentially a playlist of very simple mini-games that pander to a younger audience.

A Ride Around The Paddock

As mentioned, this game offers the player the chance to partake in a series of mini games which occur in a story mode format. This story loosely follows the events of the straight to video movie the game is inspired by with the minigames ever so slightly tying everything together. You’ll have collection missions, matching games, Simon says style memory games and then you’ll have the dress-up section that allows you to accessorize your ponies.

This is probably the strongest asset the game has, as it should be if you’re going to include ‘the runway’ in the game’s title. You can dress the ponies in a variety of styles and this can give younger audiences about five minutes of actual fun. However, the outfits don’t carry over into the in-game story or the minigames. It’s a separate asset, making it an arbitrary task that counts for nothing.

So Sweet It’ll Rot Your Teeth

The game admittedly does have decent visuals considering the GBA hardware that the developers had at their disposal. However, we feel that this was no coincidence as making the game look good is a means of getting parents to buy the game for the child without considering the bare-bones gameplay. It’s hard not to be cynical about all aspects of this title as nothing seems to be done with the player in mind. This game is milking the cash cow of ‘My Little Pony’ dry and doing so with no regard for the paying customer or offering them value for money

This Pony Has Ran It’s Last Race

The only good thing to be said about this game is that it functions and it looks decent for a GBA title. However, as aforementioned, we feel that even this is a calculated move and could be viewed as a negative. The gameplay is nothing short of a joke, the story simply follows the blueprint of the movie in question and the ‘Runway’ aspects many would have bought the game for are pointless and short-lived.

Pros

• The game functions without any bugs
• It looks Okay but nothing special

Cons

• The shameful and basic gameplay
• Story offers nothing of note
• A microcosm of 2000’s money-grabbing publishers