Continuing the time-honored tradition of skipping games in the Western Nintendo Direct, the Japanese one revealed a brand new Umamusume: Pretty Derby game for consoles and PC.
We get the first look at Cygames' Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, a pixel-art party action game coming in 2024 for PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch. The most surprising part of the announcement is that it's releasing worldwide, marking the gaming debut of the popular horse girls in North America and Europe.
Below you can check out the announcement trailer directly from Cygames.
Here's how the game is described by the developer:
Tracen academy's time-honored Spring Fan Fest will play host to a very special event this time—the Slapdash Grand Prix. Pick a team from a pixelated roster of fan-favorite Umamusume, and conquer all four events to take home the trophy!
Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash includes several events including Hurtling Hurdles, Blazing Baskets, Dodgeball Demolition, and Gourmet Gauntlet.
If you're unfamiliar with the Umamusume: Pretty Derby franchise, it's a multimedia franchise launched by Cygames in 2016 including manga, anime, and a super-popular (at least in Japan, since it was never released in the west) mobile game that debuted in 2021.
It's set in an alternate world in which famous racehorses are reborn as horse girls, who study at the Tracen Academy in Tokyo to become both successful racers and idols. Japan loves to mix girls with pretty much everything, from cats to World War II warships, so this shouldn't be excessively surprising.
If you're unfamiliar with Cygames, the name Granblue Fantasy may ring a bell. We're currently waiting for the release of the fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and the highly-anticipated JRPG Granblue Fantasy Relink.