Nintendogs

System: DS
Release Date: 2005
Published By: Nintendo
Reviewed by: Ama
Rating:

Nintendogs is the kind of game that's just perfect for someone like me. I love puppies -- playing with them, oohing over how cute they are, watching them do adorable (and very silly) puppy things. I don't so much love the fact that they'll die if I don't feed them, or make messes all over my house if I don't take them outside. Trust me, my house is messy enough without their help. So Nintendogs is great; all the fun of cute puppies without the nasty consequences of leaving them on the shelf for months.

You'll start out by picking a puppy from the kennel, naming it, and getting it to recognize its name via the DS's built-in microphone- a feature that gets a lot of use in this game, but more on that later. There are of course the basic tasks of feeding, watering, and grooming the little guy, plus you can play with toys, work on obedience commands, or just pet him til he sparkles. You can also choose to get out of the house for a bit if you want to take your pup for a walk, go shopping for supplies, buy more puppies, change up your decor, or enter a contest.

Ahh, contests. These make up most of what you'll be doing with your playtime, once you've gotten your daily fix of watching silly puppy antics. You can enter a disc competition, agility trial, or obedience test, all of which you'll need to practice for if you want to win. Luckily for you there are places you can visit on your walks which are great for just such practice, though be warned -- the other dogs at the park *will* try to get the frisbee! The obedience test requires the most work before you're ready to enter, as your puppy will need to know at least "sit" and "lie down" in order to get past the first bracket, and teaching commands requires a bit of patience. When you place in contests you'll win prize money for purchasing supplies, new puppies, and other fun stuff, as well as move up to the next bracket of the competition. Naturally higher brackets require more practice and reward more money. The only complaint I have about the contest system is that it bumps you down a bracket if you fail to place; there's no way to stay at your current level of competition until you master it. This combined with the three-contest-per-day-per-dog limit can make it a bit frustrating to get to the championships, but you're still likely to be rolling in plenty of money before very long.

Nintendogs takes great advantage of the features of the DS. Like most DS titles, interaction with the dogs takes place on the bottom screen with the stylus while information, dialog, or a wider view of the puppies playing use the top screen. You will use the stylus to pet your puppy, show him how to perform tricks, throw toys, and hold his leash when you walk, among other things. As far as voice goes, you can call your puppy, give him verbal commands, and use the mic to control at least one nifty toy which I won't spoil here. The voice recognition seems to be a bit touchy, with your puppy not always recognizing a command you're sure you've said the exact same way before. However, it's very possible that this is done purposely to accurately simulate the fact that sometimes, puppies just don't listen. To be fair, it's also possible that I just suck at giving commands.

Graphically the game is pretty impressive. While the backgrounds are fairly simple and repetitive -- every block in your town looks pretty much the same -- the puppies themselves are quite realistic, and their animation is very believable. Definitely a plus for a game whose main selling point is "Hey look! Cute puppies!"

There's also a feature for connecting with other puppy owners to let your puppies play together, but unfortunately the only other person I know who owns the game uses the same DS I do, so we haven't gotten to try it out.

At under $30, the game doesn't need to do a whole lot other than let me watch my puppies playing together for a few minutes each day to be worthwhile, but if you're looking for something with a lot of depth this isn't it. If you're a puppy lover like me and have a place to play where you won't get funny looks for yelling "Sit!" at your DS, this is worth a buy.

Buy this game from Amazon.com!