Not as fun as the real things! (Nintendogs: Chihuahua & Friends (DS))

Member Name: lozzy_princess

Product:	Nintendogs: Chihuahua & Friends (DS)
Date:	29/07/08 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amusing for short amounts of time, good for those not wanting pet hair on their sofas!

Disadvantages: limited excitement, easily becomes tiresome

As a fan of games like The Sims, I decided nintendogs would be a brilliant choice for my new DS. However I feel it has not really lived up to its expectations.

The premise of the game is simple, you choose a puppy and train it up to compete in various competitions which you can win "money" prizes in. This money can then be spent to buy your virtual pup new toys, fashion accesorize and the basic food, grooming and medical supplies. The game works using both the stylus on screen commands but it also requirs speech recognition in training the puppy for obediance competitions. This is where my first problem occurs, as I find it does not always recognize the words your saying, a few times despite my choice of commands being cvaried in sounds,, the virtual puppy becomes confused. As such it is difficult to complete obediance competitions and frustrating when you know you are doing everything right!

The walk feature is quite entertaining, and allows for such bonuses (resisting the temptation for a bone pun there) such as finding presents on the way or meeting other dogs. A few times however I have been irritated by other virtual dogs appearing in the "parks" meaning the attempt at furthering my own pooches frisbee catches are halted by the distractin, and there appears no way of removing the cpu dog at all!

The other irritation for me is the limited time you can really play on the game each day without getting bored, the ability to enter competitions and to take the dog for a walk is limited to a small number per day, and as such once this is completed there is nothing really do, the game therefore becomes highly reptetive. Once the dog is fed, groomed, exercised, it is easy to lose interest unless playing a one hour game of frisbee is your cup of tea!

Altogether I think for young children this game could be enjoyable, however it seems to oversell itself in how long you can play it for. For a twenty minute break each day its brilliant, but anymore time than that spare and I would pick another game entirly!

Summary: an ok game, but probably more suited to younger players.