Horse girlies, this one's for us – Barbie is returning in a brand-new horse game reminiscent of franchise greats like Wild Horse Rescue, and no, this isn't a drill.
If you haven't heard of Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue, click off this article (I'm joking, I'm joking). When I was a little girl, I probably devoted literal days to the cozy horse-rescuing sim on my Xbox, exploring every area as much as humanly possible and riding every new horse mindlessly around maps. It lives on in my heart as some sort of 2003 fever dream, but I'm honestly still that horse-obsessed girlie today.
I've clocked hundreds of hours of trail riding in Red Dead Redemption 2's online counterpart and a good few in Barbie Horse Trails, a wholesome Barbie gem that launched late last year. The latter wasn't exactly what I wanted out of a Barbie horse game, though.
I yearn for more Wild Horse Rescue… and that's exactly what Barbie Horse Ride and Rescue, an upcoming title from developer and publisher PikPok, appears to be packing.
Available to wishlist on Steam (and pre-order on mobile storefronts) already, Horse Ride and Rescue has us, well, rescuing and rehabilitating horses. There are apparently "thousands of combinations of beautiful horse coat colors and patterns to add to your stable," too, which I may or may not be absolutely thrilled to read.
When we're not bonding with or caring for our horses, we can also take part in equestrian challenges, like barrel racing and time trials.
There's a dress-up component as well – as every good horse girl game should have – and mysteries to uncover, adding a bit of Barbie Horse Adventures: Mystery Ride flair to the Wild Horse Rescue-esque mix. All in all, Barbie Horse Ride and Rescue feels like a new, unique mashup of genre giants, and I can't quite get enough.
Its release date isn't too far off either, with a mobile launch set for June 16 of this year. As for PC players (hi, it's me) and folks on the Nintendo Switch 2, we'll get to play sometime in 2027 – so, not as soon, but also not horribly in the super distant future or something.
I'll be waiting very impatiently until then, however, replaying my childhood fave in the meantime.
Searching for something else to wishlist? Here's a roundup of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond for more.
