Wild Horse Islands, Horse Valley and more: Horse Games on Roblox

I’ve written at length about how the lack of good horse games makes horse game fans find their own fun in modding, emergent gameplay and replaying obscure edutainment games from the early 00s (or at least trying to).

One other such example has been brought to my attention this week by a TMQ reader: Wild Horse Islands is an online horse game made within Roblox. Roblox – which you may not have heard of if you’re not a teenager yourself – is a game creation platform that has exploded in popularity in recent years, especially with kids and teens. Signing up for Roblox and downloading their launcher is free and a matter of minutes, making the games very simple to try.

I should note that Roblox has also been under a load of very valid criticisms for the monetization and potential exploitation of its largely underage audience. Before you spend money on any of the premium purchases within any game, I recommend a look at People Make Games’ videos on the subject.

A quick search in the Roblox library reveals dozens of attempts at user-made horse games in every quality and style imaginable. Some of the more popular options are Horse World, Horse Valley and the aforementioned Wild Horse Islands, all of which had between a few hundred and a few thousand currently active players when I checked. I’ve given them all a very brief try and quite liked Wild Horse Islands: The game appears quite impressive in its scope and quality, all things considered. It reminds me of Horse Isle 3, but with decent onboarding and tutorialization.

One of your first actions in the game is to chop down a tree, craft a lasso and catch a horse.

Side note, I know we mock traditional game publishers for unimaginative horse game titles that all sound the same but I have to admit none of us fans are any better at that.

Friendly NPCs explain the game’s mechanics to the player and serve as guides.

The game’s World Map is impressive, with new islands becoming available as you level up.

This isn’t a review however: I haven’t played any of these games in depth yet, I’ll leave that to my readers for now. But I do once again find it fascinating and wonderful to see how this community will turn anything into a horse game and use any tools available to fill the gaps left by the larger games industry.

Have you spent any time with Roblox horse games? Do you have recommendations for other enthusiasts? Can Roblox games be a serious alternative to traditionally published horse games or are their limitations too noticeable? I’d love to hear more people’s thoughts on this in the comments, and I recommend you give Wild Horse Islands a try for yourself.