I enjoy reading, drawing, painting and gaming. I work in a computer game store and study Web Design
I enjoy reading, drawing, painting and gaming. I work in a computer game store and study Web Design
Member since:21.06.2006
Reviews:16
Members who trust:1
Nintendogs takes the idea of an already established game (Petz on PC) and bumps it to the next level. The whole idea is to simulate having a real dog, and most of the trials and joys associated. Children will benefit from this to see if they can look after a pet, or perhaps to compensate for being unable to own a real pet.
When you first start up the game, you go to buy your first puppy at the kennel. Here you can interact with a few puppies before picking your breed and then your individual dog. Each pup has a short description of its personality, allowing you to have an individual pet. Once your new pet is purchased, you will be taken to the main screen, your house.
The tutorial takes you through the next steps, such as calling the dog over, teaching it to recognise its name (and come when called), how to teach the dog to sit, both to touch and voice command, and how to feed your dog.
Basic interaction is simple; tap the screen and your dog will run over to you. Then you can simply rub the dog to pet it. Rubbing
in particular motions (e.g. a quick stroke down from the top of its head to its feet will make the dog sit) can get the dog to perform tricks, which can then have a voice command associated with them. The voice command will have to be repeated around 5 times for it to remember, which can get frustrating but leads to a far more enjoyable experience and sense of achievement eventually.
You can also feed, water, brush or play with your dogs from this screen. Simply click 'Supplies' and you can choose food, water, shampoo or toys, depending on what you've bought. Food, water and toys appear in the normal main screen; shampoo or brushes take you to the bathroom where you can clean your dog.
To see information about the dog, in the 'home' screen you can tap under its name. This will bring up stats on how hungry/thirst/clean your dog is, and also lets you view how well it has done in competitions and what tricks have been learnt.
The other option on the home screen is 'Go Out'. In here you have several choices. Shopping, Walkies, Bark Mode, Contests and Info.
Shopping allows you to either buy things for your dog, sell surplus supplies, buy new interiors for your home, put your dog into a hotel or buy a new dog.
Walkies lets you go walking with your dog. You choose a route (the fitter your dog, the longer the route) and set out for a stroll. On these routes you can visit the discount store, the agility practise arena, or the park, where you can interact with other dogs or practise your discus. There are also random events along the way, such as finding presents (which can unlock secret breeds) or meeting with other dogs.
Bark Mode is a wireless mode that allows you to interact with other DS' in the area. You can meet up with other Nintendogs users, allow your dogs to play together and exchange items.
Contests allow you to enter three competitions; Disc, Agility or Obedience. Each contest has different difficulties that your dog can climb up through. Disc requires your dog to catch and fetch a frisbee, scoring as many points as possible within the minute. Agility sees you take your dog round a course of jumps, seesaws and weaving poles as fast as you can, and Obedience tests how well you've trained your dog to voice commands.
The final option is Info. This is where you can see your stats as a trainer. The most important thing in here is your Trainer Points. As these build up, you unlock special interiors, items and dog breeds! What most don't realise is that you can actually unlock all the breeds on all versions, so don't buy all of them, just the one you like the best.
The game is huge fun, though it can seem a bit repetitive. It's one of those you'll find yourself playing non-stop for a few weeks, then ignore it for a couple of months before getting hooked again. As far as pet-sims go, this is by far the best out there, though the pups never grow up, which is a bit odd, and you are limited to owning 8 dogs, despite the fact you can unlock around 20 breeds.
All in all, for any dog lover I would certainly recommend this game. The cute little yaps make it all worth it!
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