Game Review: The Unicorn Princess (Xbox Series X)

Let’s get this clear from the start, I am not the target audience for this game. Not even close. Without giving my age away, I am closer to 40 than I am 30 and have had a lifetime of gaming to grow cynical over.

The target age for The Unicorn Princess is probably somewhere in the region of six- to ten-year-olds. Knowing that, the simplistic visuals, music and gameplay can be forgiven. However, the overall poor quality of it can’t be. I may not be anywhere near the target age but I can recognise a flawed game and The Unicorn Princess has plenty of flaws.

Players take on the role of the young girl Leila as she tries to help the townspeople of her small village in the countryside. You do this through simple fetch quests, exploring the map on horseback to find the items needed.

It’s while doing this, Leila hears a mysterious voice calling her name and meets the unicorn, Unica. Get on her back and be transported to the magical Dream World (that looks a lot like the normal world). Why? It needs saving, apparently, and to do this, you’ll have to complete tasks for Unica. Tasks like picking up coloured rings in a race and finding the correct item amongst similar looking items. Err, that’s about it.

It’s not going to win any awards for inspiring content. Which is the games’ biggest problem. Where average visuals, average sound and average controls can be forgiven when you consider the target age, the lack of imagination in quests can’t be. Everything is a fetch quest in the real world and become tiresome quickly. In one quest, you’re tasked with delivering a cart to a location on the other side of the map and then back again. This cart is the slowest thing in the game and it takes ages to get there and back. As the world is so barren, it’s very hard to concentrate. Yet the controls are jerky, so you need to pay attention to keep going in the right direction. Instead of being a fun jaunt around the countryside, it just borders on frustration.

The rest of the time, you’ll be one your own horse, and while that’s not as frustrating as the cart, it’s not exactly fun. The game implies you can care for this horse, and the others that you can buy and house in your stables. Yet, it amounts to nothing more than periodically brushing, washing and giving hoof-care to ensure they stay in tiptop condition. There’s no bond to share because there’s no connections to be made with the animals. A missed opportunity. Something as simple as Leila talking to the horse as she rides around or the option to feed, hug or pet it would have been welcome.

Aside from the 15 different missions set between two worlds, the game has some customisable items you can purchase for the horses and Leila. There are always 30 horse statue collectibles scattered across the land and that’s it. Around 4-6 hours of gameplay, even less if you’re not bothering with the collectibles.

It’s the lack of content and replay value that really makes this game seem low effort. However, the cheapness shines through with the average visuals, where many notable glitches and ticks occur frequently. The sound, in particular the wooden voice acting, and the poorly done control scheme. Young children might get a kick out of it at first but few will stay around long enough to see the end credits.