Gamer World: Nintendogs review

All of us have owned or currently own a pet in one form or another. I have owned three cocker spaniels in the past; their names were Snoopy, Lucky, and Luke. They were very fun pets… until they died of old age. Since then I haven’t had a pet, but now I can forget about all the sadness and depression little kids get from owning living creatures who eventually die, with Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS.

Nintendogs is a dog-training simulation game created by Shigeru Miyamoto, who is best known for creating franchises like Mario and Zelda. His latest brainchild is reminiscent of the Tomagotchi from the 90’s, since you’ll be taking care of a puppy from the breed of your choice, depending on the version of the game you own.

Nintendogs comes in three versions. One version is Chihuahua & Friends which contains Chihuahua, German Shepard, Boxer, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Yorkshire Terrier, and Shetland Sheepdog breeds.

Finally, there is Labrador & Friends, which I ended up winning an early copy from Nintendo. In addition, that’s why I’m able to review the game prior to its release. Anyway, this version is the home of the Labrador Retriever, Miniature Schnauzer, Toy Poodle, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Miniature Pinscher, and Shiba Inu breeds. In short, there’s no difference among each version other than the different breeds that are available.

Personally, I wanted the Dachshund version, but it’s a free early copy, so I shouldn’t complain. My initial puppy was a Labrador Retriever male named Rush, the name’s from Mega Man for the uninformed. After telling him his name through the DS’s microphone 5-8 times, he eventually learned his name. You’ll use the same process when teaching your dog new tricks.

In order for your dog to learn a trick, you must make sure he’s in the correct position for the trick. For example, if you’re teaching your dog to sit, you’ll have to wait for the dog to stand on all four legs, then gently touch the dog’s head and then drag your stylus down to the bottom. He should be seated, and then the Training Icon should appear in the top right corner of the screen. Quickly tap it, and the game will record and play back your voice. Say the command, and if the dog understood you, a yellow light bulb will appear above its head. If the dog didn’t understand you at all, a red question mark will appear above its head, and then if it understood you, but got confused with a different command, a blue question mark will appear above its head. The latter two occur when you don’t speak clearly and concisely into the microphone.

You are given instructions for a few basic commands in your Training Manual which is located in your supplies menu screen. When you start the game, you’re taken to the “Home Menu,” which is basically the general menu screen. In the center is a circle with a hand petting a dog in it. Tap the hand to whistle for your dog’s attention. The dog will then run up and this allows you to interact with the dog. When interacting with the dog, you can pet it with the stylus and touch screen, and teach it tricks. However, you can only teach your dog three or four tricks each day, and it can only learn up to 15 tricks. But you can make the dog forget tricks to make room for new ones, in the dog status screen, for lack of a better word.

In the dog status screen it will display your dog’s name, the breed of dog, the trainer’s name (your DS nickname) and how much time you’ve spent with the dog. Then there are the relevant things like the condition of the coat (dirty, clean, etc.) and the type of coat (long-hair and short-hair.) As well as telling if your dog is hungry or thirsty. Your dog’s trick list can be viewed and touching the trick enables your dog to forget it. The contests your dog has entered in are also displayed here.

If your dog is thirsty or hungry, you can alleviate this by going to the Supplies menu, and selecting the Care option. That’s where you’ll find all your necessary items like food, drink, shampoo, hairbrushes, and various tutorial manuals.

The main fun with your dog occurs when you use toys and sports equipment. You’ll confuse and bewilder your pooch by blowing through the microphone to blow bubbles out of a bubble blower, or throw a rubber Super Mario mushroom that makes noises as it bounces all over the place and watch your dog chase it. You can also practice for disc competitions by throwing a Frisbee to your dog.

In the disc competitions, your dog is given points depending on how far you throw the Frisbee and if the dog catches it in the air within a set time limit. The farther the throw, the more points you’ll receive, but be careful, if your throw is horrible, your dog may not be able to catch it, and no points will be awarded.

There are two other competitions as well, including the Agility Competition where you’ll have to guide your dog through an obstacle course which includes, jumping over hurdles, going through tunnels, and going up and down see-saws. Your dog gains points for clearing the obstacles, and loses points for screwing up on them.

The third and final type of competition is the Obedience Competition where you’re tested on your training skills. The dogs must follow specific commands within the given time limit. It’s the most frustrating competition of the three, but the reward is great. After winning any of the competitions or making it into the top three, you can advance into a higher bracket, and you also gain prize money, which is your main source of income for buying supplies at the dog supply store and for buying a new house for you and your dog. The competition brackets are Beginner, Open, Expert, Master, and Championship.

In order to win these competitions however, your dog needs to be in top condition. If you feed and give it water when it needs it, your dog will obey your commands. But you must also take your dog out for a walk daily to keep it healthy and happy. If you are negligent with caring for your dog, it may run away from home for a while, but it will come back. Once you decide to go out to walk you must draw the path around the city so that it starts and ends from your house. It is also wise to draw through the question mark blocks that resemble the blocks from the Mario games, since you will find items at those locations as well as chatting with NPC trainers and their dogs. When meeting another dog, your dog will react, and dragging its leash towards the other dog will cause the dogs to interact, which will be either friendly or violent. If it’s a violent interaction, the dogs will bark like crazy at each other, and even attack! Of course, my dog owned all the other dogs.

In addition, your dog can only walk so far, but the more walks you make with your dog, the farther it can walk the next time. To prevent you from taking consecutive walks, you must wait 30 minutes between each walk so that your dog can rest. Throughout the walk, your dog will periodically stop to pee or poop. You must obey the law and clean up after your dog, but you only have to clean up the poop. To clean up, all you have to do is touch the dropping and it’ll be placed in a garbage bag. Failure to clean up after yourself will result in a scolding from your neighbor, as well as losing obedience from your dog.

Of course, when walking your dog, you better make sure your dog is in style with all the latest accessories. You can swap what your dog’s wearing in the Supplies menu. The general accessories are collars, bows, and glasses, but there are tons of items you’ll find for your dog. However, for some reason, Nintendo only allowed one item on your pooch at a time. This is understandable for some cases, but I can’t see why my dog can’t have an orange collar and a pair of big cheesy sunglasses at the same time?

When looking at these dogs wearing these goofy accessories, they look hilarious. The graphics may not catch the complete essence of a realistic dog, but they do their best to try to get the job done. I personally thought the dogs with pointed ears looked ugly; then again, they look ugly in real life too. The animations from these canines are what bring the greatest amount of charm to the person playing the game. Watching the three dogs you can train fighting over a tennis ball will bring a smile to anyone.

To accompany the cute animations are adorable barks from the puppies. At least, they’re adorable for the first hour, then it gets annoying, and you end up yelling, “SHUT UP YOU MUTT!” Other than the dog noises, there aren’t any voiceovers, other than the recorded ones you make when talking to the dog.

You can also record your voice on the in-game record player discs. These are generally used for greeting other players who own the game and you are using the Bark Mode feature. In Bark Mode, the DS will search for other Nintendogs owners and will bark when it has located someone. Then your Trainer data is transferred to the other user, along with the recorded greeting. My greeting was, “I’m Matt, Ima gangsta!” When you close your DS and put it in sleep mode, it will awaken when you meet someone. You can also exchange items with another person if you want. There isn’t really much of a music selection from this game. The music played when walking your dog kinda sounded like it was from a Mario game, but alas, nothing would get stuck in my head.

My main gripe with the game is it got repetitive after a while. Each day, you pet your dog, you feed and water it, and then take it out for a walk. Occasionally, you may feel like entering in a contest. But you have to make sure you play it everyday so you don't upset your dog. All in all, I’ve had a great time with Nintendogs, it isn’t necessarily the killer app the DS is looking for though. However, this title should appeal to just about everyone, unless, of course, you’re a cat person.

Nintendogs review

Review by GCNMatt

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