1 Player (single player mode) 2 Players (wireless DS multi-cartridge play) Touch Screen Compatible Microphone Compatible Cartridge Save Having had a chance to experiment with Nintendogs at E3 in May of this year I was enticed by the ability to raise a puppy, virtual of course, without the mess of real dog hair all over my living room. Since that time Nintendo has finally released the final product and raising my virtual puppy is more fun then I had hoped. Graphics I have to admit that the look of this game really does stand out. The DS has never been known to be a powerhouse in terms of graphics capabilities, even though it is not bad, but I have to say that Nintendo made sure that this game looks darn good. The various puppies that are available are phenomenal looking. Each dog looks like its specific breed. What really caught my eye was the movement of the puppies. Their playful moves were very realistic and made the game that much more fun. From scratching their ears to cleaning themselves each puppy’s animations are just fantastic. I can’t help but think that they must have spent a lot of time watching and filming real life dogs in order to get the moves down to a tee. As for the environments which the dogs inhabit they too are in 3-D and help to further move the game along. There are various places to go like parks, streets and one’s own living room. Each of these places simply rendered but well represented. There is lots of space for the puppies to run around and play and they interact and blend in with whatever environment they are in quite well. Overall I have to say that the visuals really do add to the game and the adorable dogs are just something that you cannot stop looking at. Sound In a game like this one does not really realize how sound actually affects the game. Nintendo made sure to do this right and like the graphics, it helps this game out immensely. What is evident from the get-go is the various barking, whimpering and whining that each puppy does. It is not generic and each breed sounds different. Smaller breeds (e.g. poodles) have distinctively different sounds then larger breeds (e.g. labs). When watching three or more dogs play on screen it is easy to distinguish which dog is which as the sounds of all the dogs playing are different. It is really like being at a real-life off leash dog park. To further my view of the realism the sounds have I had to laugh when I was playing this game at home and my real-life dog’s ears perked up when she heard the dogs barking from the DS. Now I have a fun way to torment her. Nintendo also made sure that the puppies relay how they are feeling via sound. Anyone who is a dog owner knows how a puppy’s happy playful whine sounds very different then a “I-am-lonely-want-some-love” whine. These differing sounds are also prevalent in Nintendogs. During interaction with the puppies one may miss the music in this game. The flavour of the tunes is quite upbeat and it is just the right sound not to get annoying. It is not an important part of the game, but what is there blends in perfectly, and this is why many people may not even realize it is there. Gameplay Nintendogs is a pet simulator plain and simple. The main goal is to take care of a puppy and do what one would do in the real world. This includes playing with it, feeding it, grooming it, taking it for walks and even entering it in various competitions. How one raises their puppy effects its overall personality too, just like in the real world. And for those who become attached to their pets the puppies found in Nintendogs don’t ever die so they will be yours for as long as you wish. The game has a total of 18 breeds in each game, so although there are 3 different versions of this game out there, each game has the same number and type of dogs it is just that the initial breeds available at the start that are different in each version. The DS has many technical features that are yet to be fully exploited by game developers; however Nintendogs is a title that fully utilizes everything that the DS has to offer, and raising a virtual pet has never been easier. Everything from the touch-screen to the built in microphone has some sort of use when taking care of the various puppies found in the game. Using the features of the DS allows anyone to pet their dog and give voice commands (e.g. sit, lie-down, roll over) to get their dog to do tricks. With my extended playtime I found that the speech used in this game was quite substantial and it helped to fully immerse my experience in raising my virtual puppy. When teaching a puppy any new trick the game requires the player to speak the command at least three times before it will recognize and assign the command to the trick one is trying to teach. I have to add that one does not have to stick to simple one word commands either (e.g. sit) as evidenced by the command “wiggle your bum” I assigned to one trick to my virtual puppy learned. However I did find that the voice recognition had a few quirks. One of these was that any voicing into the DS’s microphone had to be done in a relatively calm environment as too much background noise affected the DS causing it to have trouble recognizing what was being said. Also, one has to speak very clearly as any slight mumble stands a good chance of being misinterpreted by the voice recognition. Regardless these minor quirks did not take away for the ability to teach dog some pretty cool stuff. I also want to comment on the ability to actually play with the puppies in this game. Nintendo did such a good job with the toys/items and how they interact with the environment and the puppies. Similar to my thought about the animations I can’t help but think there was a lot of real playtime with real puppies. Everything from the Frisbees, balls, and even bubbles act like one would see in real life. The various reactions that the puppies display to these toys/items are those that I have experienced with my real-life dog, who by the way is one crazy 2 ½ year old dog who loves her toys. Anyone who has this game will find themselves playing for extended periods of time interacting with their puppy and all the toys and items that Nintendo has included in the game. There are a few negatives that are worth mentioning in terms of what one can during a day of playing. First off is that you can only do up to three competitions a day, second is that your dog can only learn up a few tricks a day before his/her brain is put on pause, and thirdly you can only take your dog out for a walk every thirty minutes or so. It is my opinion that Nintendo limited these things in order to stop people from finishing the game quickly as once anyone has mastered the various difficulty settings of the competitions the game is basically over. Sure, there is a lot of stuff to discover in the form of special items and toys, but once a puppy has mastered all the tricks that are required to complete the various competitions, there is not a whole lot more that one can do to train their dog. So while some may see these limitations as negative, others may see it as them as a positive as it stretches the length of the game itself. That being said if you are one that has to collect every single thing in a game, there is some lasting power in Nintendogs, however if you are one that mastering skills is the only important thing this game will seem to stop entertaining you after your dog has won the competitions. Something that I found quite interesting in this title was the multiplayer mode. This mode has been appropriately entitled “Bark Mode”. This allows anyone with Nintendogs to seek out any other DS owners with the same game while the machine is in sleep mode. This allows gamers to connect to other players automatically. During “Bark Mode” one’s dog will interact with the other players. The payoff for this mode is that by building up one’s friends list will allow player to collect gifts from visiting dogs and it also unlocks other dogs in one’s kennel for future adoption and training. Conclusion Nintendogs is once again testament to what Nintendo can do. They have taken the pet simulator genre and upped the ante by putting it on the DS. The features found on Nintendo’s Dual-Screened machine make a game like this so much better. With 18 breeds of dogs, extremely lifelike animation and a cute factor that is over the top, one cannot go wrong by giving Nintendogs a try.