Nintendogs
For those of you out of the loop, Nintendogs
is Nintendo taking the virtual pet ball,
and running with it in true Ninty style.
Users can choose from initially five
dogs with ultimately sixteen available
including a hidden breed. The game is
available in three versions “Chihuahua
and Friends”, “Dachshund
and Friends”, and “Shiba
and Friends” – I’ve
been playing the Dachshund and Shiba
versions and although at first only
a selection are available the rest are
unlocked over time and all versions
contain the same breeds.
Gameplay
Your first choice will be which dog
to buy, choosing your breed, then
selecting either male or female and
then picking one with the personality
which best suits the pet you’re
looking for (there are around a dozen
personality traits in all). I chose
to begin with a female; friendly;
English Sheepdog. Your first job is
to name your dog, at the time, not
realising that mine was a female I
christened her “Buckley”
so now you’ve got to teach your
pint size pup its first trick: “sit”,
this is done by using the stylus to
order the dog to sit and then recording
your voice giving the direction, repeat
this process an almost, but not quite,
frustrating number of times, followed
by a reward and the real game begins.
The basic aim in Nintendogs is to
teach your cuddly canine as many tricks
as you can whilst keeping them as
happy as Larry by feeding, walking
and playing with them as often as
you can afford. Lets talk about cash,
you have limited resources in Nintendogs,
just like in the real world and by
training your dog well, you will be
able to enter competitions in Frisbee
throwing, obedience and general all
round good-dogginess. This cash is
needed as you earn more rewards and
buy more toys for your miniature mutt,
as well as being necessary to buy
food and bottled water (oh for the
life of a dog); and for doing up your
pad into a luxury villa and a regular
puppy paradise.
At times the voice commands can be
irritating; when your dog refuses
to understand your dulcet tones for
the umpteenth time you may feel like
smashing your DS into the wall, however
when you shout “PAW” for
that last time and she offers you
her little hand and cocks her head
to the side it all seems worth it.
Graphics
Nintendogs looks great, the dogs
are all well animated and have their
own cute eccentricities as they roll
around the floor and bounce around
chasing a Ninty mushroom. At times
it can appear a little grainy and
rough around the edges, but that’s
to be expected of the DS, especially
in a detailed title such as this.
Sound
Sound is pretty inconsequential,
since it’s really only barks
and yelps you’ll be hearing
anyway, there is music but it’s
all quite samey and really just fades
away. There is little or no speaking,
save your own so it’s well suited
to those with hearing difficulties
and what sounds it does make are really
quite unimportant
Female Gamer Angle
The truth is it would be easy to
be patronising here and say that because
Nintendogs is a cute cyber-pet game
that female gamers will swoon over
it and make high pitch noises as they
tap away with their selected dinky
dog. But unfortunately that is the
case. The problem being that I’m
not a female and I did exactly the
same. This game really does have universal
appeal, save for those without hearts
anybody I’ve shown it to, no
matter how sceptical has been swayed
by it’s cutesy charm and depth
of play.
