N-Philes

Nintendogs Import (Guest Review)

Posted by Alison Wheat.

If you grew up around the time that I did, you'll remember the first time you saw a Tamagotchi. All your friends had one and you weren't cool unless you did too. That's not really a fond memory for me. The first time I saw a virtual pet went about like all the other times I saw countless "improvements" on the original models...Always a huge disappointment. I abhor the entire concept of a "virtual pet". What's the bloody point? Feed, bathe, put to bed, play pointless micro-games with the stupid thing, repeat. UGH.

That was what I was thinking about when Miyamoto showed us Nintendogs at the Nintendo press conference. It looked great, but did I really need the hassle of training and caring for a virtual dog? I played Dogz back in the day on the PC, and it was boring. However, the cuteness worked wonders, and by the end of the demo I was dying to try it. I got my wish at E3. I stood in line for about 30 minutes just to see what it was like... and there were Mario Kart styluses for the DS being given away, which didn't hurt at all. Once I sat down in front of it I started to realize that I was going to have to talk to the thing in order to teach it a trick. This demonstrates the one downside of gameplay: If you play it in public, people will think you are NUTS.

My fiancee (and personal slave) Steve surprised me by buying the Japanese release of the game from Lik-Sang, of whom is an affiliate of this very site, and now here I am the proud owner of a Shih Tzu named Trixy. Nintendogs may appear to be a gimmicky voice-recognition toy if you haven't seen the whole game, but after figuring out how to translate the Japanese menus I found out that it's much more than a virtual pet. In my personal opinion, Nintendogs is by far the most entertaining game available for the DS so far.

The amazing thing about this game is how fast you bond with your dog. At first you will only be able to afford one, and in "Chihuahua & Friends" that means you can choose from one of 5 different breeds: Chihuahua, Beagle, Shih Tzu, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, or Labrador Retriever. If you're having trouble deciding, you can spend time with several different puppies of each breed, male and female. When I say spend time, I mean you can actually play with each one of them and find the one that you like the best.

Your new puppy will live in your small apartment with you for the moment, but if you want to move eventually, you can save up enough money to do so later. Once you've taught the dog his or her name and their first trick, you'll be able to play with the pup freely. Training the dog involves small directional cues with the stylus and a voice command. Once they're doing the trick, a small microphone icon appears in the upper left corner of the touch screen, enabling you to tell the dog what this trick will be called. You can call the tricks whatever you like. For instance, when I say "George W. Bush", Trixy turns around and waves her butt around in the air. Once you've executed the trick with the voice command enough times, the dog will master it, and you are able to add it to the list of tricks that your dog can do. You can delete these tricks at any time if you want to teach a different voice command.

Nintendogs never get old or die, and for the record it is impossible to starve them, but nevertheless they are affected by other things that our REAL canine friends go through. Without food or water, the dog is almost impossible to train. It also needs shampooing and brushing every now and then, otherwise it gets fleas. There is a feature in the game that monitors what your dog needs, but usually you'll be able to tell just by their reactions.

Food, water, grooming supplies and toys don't come with the dog either. You have to go to the pet store and buy these necessities. Money is quite important in this game. The more you have, the more customized your dog can become. Trixy wears little red bows on her head, a specialty item that I aquired from the pet store. The pet store isn't the only place to spend your cash, though. You can also go back to the kennel when you have sufficient funds and buy another dog. You can't have more than 3 active dogs in your apartment at a time, but if you start buying more dogs (As the game progresses, new breeds can be unlocked.) you can store up to 5 dogs in the "Dog Hotel". There is also a store for looking at bigger, nicer apartments for sale. Once you buy a new apartment, it will take up to 24 hours to move in, but it's worth it because there are lots to choose from and more to be unlocked. But how do we aquire these funds? There are two different ways...

First of all, you will have opportunities to find items during walks and sell them at the "Recycle" store, the Tom Nook's of Nintendog-land. Walks are very involved. You are given a map of the neighborhood before each walk, and a certain amount of walking area to explore wherever you like. You can go to the store together, play at the park, train for competitions (Which I'm just coming to...), and explore the question mark signs marked on the map. Sometimes the "?" icon is an item available for aquisition, other times it's another dog (I haven't played with the online mode yet so these are just dogs within the game.). You have to be careful when your pup meets another. If they start barking at each other, it means they don't get along and that you should keep them apart, lest one of them attacks the other. Of course, the same goes for them liking each other too much... YES, what Miyamoto and what's-her-name were showing us at the Conference is possible, but as far as I know, it is not possible to actually procreate with other people's dogs. Also worth mentioning is the courtesy you need to show other people in the neighborhood: Always pick up the dog's poo. If you don't, your neighbors will come and scream at you about it. You can walk your pooch every 30 minutes. This game is in realtime, so try going out at different times of day to see differences in the neighborhood.

The other way to make money in the game is through competitons. Your Nintendog will be able to compete in 3 competitons per day, ranging from frisbee catching to obstacle courses. There are places to train in town, for instance, the park is an ideal place for frisbee practice. If your dog does particularly well in the competitions, you can cash in.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A-.

For those of you who just can't wait, I encourage you to pick up this import version and try it for yourself, (you may order it through the Lik-Sang link listed on the main page of this very site). You can't help but fall in love with the little critters. Nintendogs is entertaining, innovative, and packs quite a bit of staying power thanks to all the great unlockables in the game. Believe me, when you get it, you'll fall in love with this incredible, complex game and the little furry pal that goes with it. Females beware, your boyfriend will get addicted and take your pup if he plays it more than a few minutes. I like that. For those of you who wanna see it for the first time in English, this edition of Nintendogs hits the US on August 20th. Japanese is so much classier...

Posted in: Reviews

Comments (0) | Permalink | Digg | Reddit