From breeding, to gambling, to racing, to breeding again, Gallop Racer 2006 has everything every horse racing enthusiast could want (as for the horse itself, the breeding bit is just fine, thank you very much). Everything regular gamers could want, too, surprisingly. It's that thorough and thoroughly competent.

Mind you, it's tough to say exactly how many horse track gamblers are also gamers (all of them, in Japan, apparently, where Gallop Racer is nutso popular like Madden or Gran Turismo is over here), much less horse track aficionados that would actually play such a fake thing as virtual track aficionado-ism when there's the real deal (and real money) to be had (squandered). Regardless, those that do take the time will certainly be happy with Gallop Racer 2006; it's that good.

At first glance, there isn't a whole lot to the game's interface, but the more you know about horse racing, the more you'll respect how intricate the controls really are. That is to say, beginners might only use 4 buttons on the controller and be effective, but a knowledgeable horse race buff can (and will) use the entire controller as the game was designed for it--and really appreciate the depth of control given to the player.

As for gameplay, there's racing, obviously, but also everything leading up to a race and everything post race is included as well, and it's quite incredible. Scouting, stats watching, stable management, gambling, highlight reels, results, standing, payouts… it's enough to make your head spin, but in a good way. They even have a "jockey evaluation" after the race to rate how you did, essentially telling you if you were the one to blame for the results or if it was the horse as you may have claimed.

Probably the most impressive feature of the game is the breeding. Provided you've earned enough points, you can choose what two horses you want to "combine" to give you the best offspring. Depending on difficulty settings, points will determine the potential of your future star horse, as points spent on ma and pa aren't cheap (or if they are, so be the offspring... maybe). Worse, a wad of points spent on horse whoopee isn't necessarily going to net the desired result, so you have to be attentive to factors other than cost of stud stuff and whore's-power. Mind you, at beginner settings you'll be told straight up: "Yeah, those two will be a great a match" or, conversely, "yep, good luck with that pairing." But on higher difficulty, you're on your own and only an actual race will reveal if you bred wisely. If all goes well and offspring has run its races, you can put it out to stud and start all over again, in fact you can have as many as 100 horses in your stable at one time - that's a lot of "combining" (know what I mean. Eh? Eh? Nudge nudge wink, wink, say no more. Eh?)

The glaring down point of the game are its way out-dated menus, which almost seem a throwback to the SNES days - good to know that Tecmo hires people for the long term but they really shouldn't have the same menu look they did for Tecmo Bowl or Super Tecmo Bowl... it 2006, team, lets lose the 1986 menu. Ironically, the actually race graphics are superb, but that not where the meat of gameplay resides.

Still, dismiss first impressions--the frightfully underachieving menu graphics, specifically--and gameplay really gets a groove on after some thoughtful toying and a steep learning curve; get into the flow and start racing and you'll really see the depth of all. Definitely worth a rental fee, at least, and a few hours of trial and error, to see if a horse simulation is for you. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that it is.