Nintendogs need a lot of looking after! (Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends (DS))

Member Name: Deb_C

Product:	Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends (DS)
Date:	03/11/09 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get to adopt a cute virtual puppy

Disadvantages: Soon becomes repetitive

After receiving a Nintendo DS as a gift last Christmas, one of the games I was most keen to buy was Nintendogs, as I love the idea of looking after a virtual pet. There are 4 versions available: Dachshund & Friends, Labrador & Friends, Chihuahua & Friends, and Dalmation & Friends. Each version starts off with 6 different dog species to adopt, however if you play the game for long enough you can unlock all the different species whichever version you have. You might get fed up of the game before unlocking any though so it's best to choose the version which starts off with your favourite species.

I chose Dachshund & Friends as I wanted to be able to adopt either a Miniature Dachshund or a Shih Tsu. These species are available from the start in this version, along with Golden Retriever, Beagle, Pug & Siberian Husky.

The main idea of the game is that you adopt a virtual puppy, care for it & train it. Your pet lives in your virtual house (you only get to see one room), & you can have up to 3 different puppies living there at a time. You can also keep up to 5 others in the 'hotel' if adopting 3 puppies just isn't enough for you.

When you first start the game, you go to the adoption centre & look through all the different puppies. Most species seem to be available in at least 2 different colour variations (that is, realistic coat colours for the breed, not things like green or purple!), & you can choose a male or female puppy. (In Nintendogs, your pet never grows up, it stays a puppy forever.) The animations of the dogs are quite realistic & of course they all look very cute. Next you have to choose a name for your puppy, & you have to say the name into the microphone a few times so your puppy can 'learn' it. After this, the puppy should come when you call its name.

The next stage is to start teaching your puppy voice commands. You can touch the touch screen in a certain way to make the puppy perform an action (such as sitting, lying down or rolling over) - the instruction manual tells you how to do the basic ones, & the rest you have to find out by yourself! Once the puppy performs the action, you say the voice command into the microphone (e.g. "Sit!"), & again after a few repetitions the puppy will learn it & sit on command. Puppies can learn up to 3 commands in a day, & there is a maximum number of commands they can remember altogether (you can tell the puppy to 'forget' a command if you want to make room for a new one).

The use of the microphone in this way is a good way of making use of the features of the DS, although unsurprisingly the voice recognition doesn't always work. The most important point is to say the commands slowly & clearly. You also have to say each command in the exact same way every time, so you need to say them in a way that you can remember. For example, I said "sit" quickly & in quite a high pitch, whilst for lie down I said "down" more slowly & in a lower pitch. This makes the commands easier to remember & also easier for the game to differentiate between them. It seems to recognise 1- or 2-syllable commands best. I always had trouble with "roll over". Sometimes a puppy will 'forget' a command if you keep trying to say something & the game doesn't recognise it, so you have to teach it all over again. I got quite frustrated with trying to teach commands before long & only ever taught about 4 different ones.

Another important point is that you sound quite silly when speaking the commands, especially if you're saying them in different pitches & so on! Most people would only feel comfortable playing this game when completely alone in the house! (This goes for adults at least, most children would perhaps be less embarrassed.) There's also the fact that the game generally encourages you to see your pet as a real puppy so you find yourself talking to it & saying things like "good boy" even when they won't be recognised by the game! Definitely not one to play on public transport.

Whilst in your virtual house, you can also stroke your puppy using the stylus, play with toys (e.g. throw a ball using the stylus & the puppy will fetch it), feed & groom your dog (e.g. use the stylus to run a brush over its coat). Food, toys & grooming items are available from various shops that you can visit in the game.

You can also take your puppy out of the house on a walk. (Only one puppy can go at a time.) You choose your route, deciding whether to stop at a shop, or in the park, or in the training area. The older a puppy gets, the further it can go on a walk. The shops you visit on a walk can be cheaper or sell different items to the ones available to you whilst you're in the house. You can also meet other dog owners on a walk, which gives your puppy a chance to socialise & you get to see different breeds of puppy. Your puppy can also find items along the way, such as clothing accessories for them to wear. Some items unlock other dog species at the adoption centre. You can choose to keep items or sell them to get money to buy other things for your dog.

One of the main parts of the game is competing in competitions with your puppy. These are obedience, frisbee & agility. For the obedience competition, you train your puppy in your home as discussed above, then once you feel they're good enough you enter the competition. There are various levels to progress through & the rules are quite strict! If you pass a level, you get a trophy & some prize money.

You practise for the frisbee competition whilst visiting a park on a walk. I never got very good at this & found it was quite complicated to throw the frisbee using the stylus so that the dog could catch it.

My favourite was the agility competition & you can visit a training area for this whilst on a walk. You use the stylus to encourage the dog to go around the agility course. The first competition level is reasonably easy to pass but then gets more challenging. It's quite fun competing against other dogs in this competition & hoping your puppy will beat them!

There's also a multiplayer mode where you can wirelessly connect with someone else who has the game & your puppies can play together. I've never tried this but it sounds like something children would enjoy doing with their friends.

The main problem with this game is that is gets quite repetitive after a while. You need to play it regularly otherwise your puppy will become sad, hungry & dirty, & may even run away (I think they always come back eventually). This quickly starts to feel like a chore & it would be better if the game was not affected by your not playing for a while. Training your puppy quickly becomes frustrating, and feeding, grooming & so on gets quite boring as it basically just consists of clicking on a food bowl, for example. The walks become extremely boring as you just keep walking past the same backgrounds & meeting the same people, & it can be quite time-consuming to just sit there watching the puppy walk & not being able to interact with the game.

I'm sure this game would be appreciated by children as a gift, however be aware that they may get bored of it before long. Most adults will probably get bored of it quite quickly. It could be a good way of teaching children (or even adults!) that a real puppy is quite difficult & time-consuming to look after!

Despite having been released a while ago (October 2005), due to its popularity Nintendogs is usually more expensive than other older games. The RRP is £29.99, & the current price on Amazon is £24.99. I got it for around £20 from Amazon earlier this year.

Summary: A cute game that entertains for a little while