That's right, I'm back again with a Genesis game under the Sega Club banner aimed at younger gamers! According to Sega Retro, Sega specifically wanted this game to appeal to female gamers and it certainly does seem to bear a lot of similarity to My Little Pony, which has also historically been aimed at a female demographic. The only reason I'm mentioning this is because I'm a 40+ year old male and therefore far, far removed from the target audience, yet I still felt compelled to play it...for some reason.

I played this back-to-back with Ecco Jr. and while I didn't enjoy this one as much, I will say that it seemed to have a bit more going on in terms of gameplay. Crystal's Pony Tale combines multiple genres and I've seen it described as an action-adventure game, as well as a puzzle-platform game. The objective in the game is to rescue your friends and in order to do that, you'll need to explore various levels while solving some simplistic puzzles along the way. There are enemies / obstacles that can get in your way, but you don't really "die" or anything. However, it is important to avoid them since they will cause you to lose horseshoes and you need those to open new levels.

The controls felt a little odd, but I think it's because of the way your character "gallops" in an attempt to somewhat mimic a real horse. Despite having some (light) platforming elements, this game lacks the precise control of contemporary games like Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, or Mega Man 5.

In addition to the light platforming, you'll also have some light combat when attempting to rescue one of your friends. It's a very simplistic battle, but adds more variety to a relatively short game. It only took me about 35 minutes to complete this one, but it does have multiple difficulties, so I suppose you could squeeze a little more out of it if you really wanted to.

Crystal's Pony Tale is a very colorful game and although some of the background elements are a little "meh", the game overall looks far better than I ever thought it would. Little details like your character's tail and mane fluttering about make me feel that the developers, Artech Studios, didn't just phone this one in.

Much like Ecco Jr., this is a difficult game for me to form an opinion on since I'm so far away from the target audience and it's a nearly 30 year old game. I do my best to take things in their original context and therefore I would say Crystal's Pony Tale is a surprisingly decent game. I'd place it slightly below Ecco Jr., but it's still a competent Sega Genesis game aimed at younger gamers. Oh and you get to color your horse too, which was a nifty (though unnecessary) little feature!

Played On: Sega Genesis
Completion Date: 2/6/23
Time: 35 minutes
Rating: 5/10