G1 Jockey 4 peripheral pictures

Ever at the front of arcade horse racing field, Koei today showed off a spiffing little controller peripheral to be released with the G1 Jockey 4 around the time of the Grand National in the UK this year, and we've got pictures of the thing up elsewhere on the site.

Despite its niche, the PS2 title is expected to come relatively strongly out of the stalls: Koei's pushing the game in the horse racing press around the time of the race - running this year on April 8 - and is also expecting the peripheral to spur game completists and equine-loving types alike into buying mode. All game fans love Japanese bits of plastic, don't they?

The controller sits across both the sticks on the PS2 pad and acts as a kind of "rein simulator". It has a nice, tight, rubbery feel, a little like a minute horse condom.

The G1 Jockey series is Koei's most successful after the unending Dynasty Warriors franchise, despite being, as Koei staffers mentioned yesterday, "bloody hard".

There's no fixed date for the game's release as yet, but we'll be bringing you a closer look in the near future.