Nintendogs

Review from Jess - Wednesday, 07 June 2006 @ 12:00am

I recently had the awesome pleasure of acquiring a brand spanking new hot pink Nintendo DS. Was it pink from being spanked however - God only knows. In saying that, for me the main reason for purchasing a DS was to play the cute and cuddly virtual pet simulator Nintendogs which I?ve been looking forward to playing for a very long time.

If you had to think of one word to sum up Nintedogs it would have to be ?Awwww.? Similar to the wildly popular Tamagotchi, but much more interactive, Nintendogs is an excellent gaming experience for non gamers starting out and equally good for veteran gamers wanting to try something different. Using only the DS stylus and voice recognition features to interact with your dogs and navigate through the game, Nintendogs is a very easy game to simply just pick up and play. This is what makes Nintendogs so accessible and special.

When you buy Nintendogs there are 3 main breeds to choose from - Labrador and Friends, Chihuahua and Friends and Dachshund and Friends. However the more you play you can eventually unlock all the breeds no matter which one you choose to start with. When Nintendogs begins, the game prompts you to pick a puppy and give it a name by using the voice recognition feature. You do have to be careful to speak very clearly and concisely when using the voice recognition or your Nintendog won?t be able to identify your voice properly. Each puppy has its own unique personality that evolves the more time you spend with it. Be cautious about which dog you choose, because some dogs take longer to train than others depending on their personality type.

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Your mission in Nintendogs is to keep your puppies happy and healthy so you can train them to win money at competitions. By winning more money from the competitions you can afford to buy more dogs to train and thus the circle of cuteness continues. Training more dogs increases your points as a trainer which allows you to unlock more adorable breeds to buy.

At first when you bring your new Nintendog home from the kennel it?s usually scared, timid and relatively unresponsive to your voice commands. It?s up to you to increase its confidence and loyalty by taking it for walks, socializing it with other dogs and teaching it tricks. Also, to begin with, your Nintendog only has a short attention span and can only handle small amounts of walks and training at a time. However, the more you work with your Nintendog the healthier and stronger it becomes allowing for longer play time and training sessions. The down side to this is that Nintendogs takes a fair bit of commitment and needs to be played regularly to be rewarding. Unfortunately not taking care of your pups can result in deduction of trainer points and your dogs may eventually run away for a while. Training your dog mostly consists of generally repeating a command while your dog is listening until it learns the sound. And like a real dog you need to reward it for doing what it?s told by giving it a pat or treat. Once you have spent enough time practicing a skill with your dog and it has enough confidence, it?s time to enter a competition.

The competitions are arranged into 3 mini-games in which you are competing against other virtual dog owners and their pets. The Disc competition tests your pup?s skills of catching a Frisbee. The further the disc goes and the higher your dog jumps to catch it, the more points you are rewarded. The obedience competition tests how well your Nintendog responds to your voice commands ? this can be a difficult competition to complete successfully if you have a lot of background noise. And lastly, the agility trial times how fast and faultlessly your dog runs through an obstacle course. This contest can sometimes be frustrating as it can get quite difficult to control your dog when there are several jumps close together. Your pup may tend to want to jump over the wrong jump and if it does you are penalized.

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The Nintendogs themselves behave very realistically by barking, wagging their tails, panting, pooping and generally doing what dogs do. It?s very entertaining when you are out walking your Nintendog to introduce it to other dogs and watch how they interact. You can also introduce your Nintendog to other players? dogs as well by using the wireless bark mode. Often if you force your pup to interact with a dog it doesn?t like you can end up with dog fight on your hands. You can tell how much your dog likes another dog by changes in the music when they are introduced. While out and about, your Nintendog will often find trinkets and accessories to bring home, for example pirate hats to play dress-up and rubber chew bones. You do also have the option to buy accessories for your dog, but the selection of merchandise is quite limited. I personally would have liked to be able to accessory shop a lot more.

As far as handheld games go Nintendogs is very good graphically, with the dogs themselves looking quite realistic, and with excellent animations. I also found myself spending quite a bit of time throwing a tennis ball just to watch it bounce around the room ? which is another subtle but cool feature. The sound design blends into the game nicely as well as the music (which tends to get into your head).

Pros

Very easy to play, Realistic dogs, Great graphics for handheld, Great for all ages and abilities, Unique playing style

Cons

Needed to have more dog accessories to buy, Sometimes hard to control the dog in the agility mini-game

Summary

An easy to play, non-threatening game for people of all ages and ability levels to enjoy, Nintendogs is a game that is sure to tug at your heartstrings. Nintendo have done well to make such an innovative yet addictively simple game that uses the DS to its full potential.