I live in Texas, and whenever we have out of town relatives or friends visit, they always want to go see the rodeo. But now they can enjoy the rodeo experience at home with PBR Out of the Chute for the PS2 and Wii. Yes, folks, they finally done gone and made a bull riding game!

In Out of the Chute, you can either play as the rider, or the bull! As the rider, you must keep your balance on top of the bull for 8 full seconds. In the Wii version, use the nunchuck stick to lean left and right and grip, depending on the direction the bull is bucking. It’s risky, but you can spur the bull for extra points. Make sure to dismount the bull after 8 seconds and flick the remote to land on your feet for bonus points. In tougher difficulty levels, you can even use power ups to slow down time to maximize your points on the bull. Play control for the rider is pretty simplistic, almost overly so.

Unfortunately, playing as the bull isn’t as simple. With the Wii remote, tilt left and right and diagonally up and down to buck in different directions to try and throw off the rider’s balance and make him fall off. It’s too bad the play control doesn’t feel as responsive when playing as the bull, because who wouldn’t want to play as a two ton horned beast! The bull’s power ups on hard mode speed up time to throw off the rider’s timing.

Play through a whole season as a rider or bull in multiple difficulty levels, or challenge a friend in Rider vs. Bull mode where one of you controls the rider and the other is the bull. One advantage of Out of the Chute is they got the authenticity down. You can play as a dozen real life riders or be a dozen real life rodeo bulls. Or you can create your own profile and name and start from scratch. The graphics and sounds aren’t completely realistic, but they get the job done. And it was pretty cool to see that one of the arenas was in my hometown!

The only problems with Out of the Chute are the unresponsive Wii controls and the fact that the game’s a bit too simplistic for its own good. As it stands, it should’ve been a WiiWare game. Maybe they could’ve fleshed out the experience with more rodeo events, like barrel riding, calf roping, chuck wagon races, or that little cowboy monkey who rides on the back of that dog during half time. Personally I think going to see a real rodeo is much more exciting. Come on out next time you’re in Texas!

Kid Factor:
My experience with taking kids to see the rodeo has always been good. They LOVED it and would want to go buy a pair of boots and a cowboy hat afterwards. So they’ll probably come into the Out of the Chute game with some interest. But they may soon get bored with the game’s simplicity and unresponsive Wii controls. Out of the Chute is rated E-10 for Everyone 10 and Up with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Violence. And the game does have some real violence. There’s a video at the beginning of the game that shows real people getting trampled by the bulls, and you can make the bull stomp all over the cowboy and rodeo clowns after dismount during the game (that’s what I always did). But there is no blood or gore, and it’s no worse than the televised rodeos on cable. Out of the Chute is an easy to get into game that the family can play together, so that’s a plus.

Comment time!  What’s YOUR favorite cowbow/western game?  Mine are Stampede for the Atari 2600 and the Capcom shooter Gun.Smoke for the NES.

Tags: Game Reviews