Gone To The Dogs

by Wootini

Okay, so I was such a freak that I got my pre-ordered copy of Nintendogs the day it came out, but I wanted to actually spend some time with it before posting my thoughts here, which is why it's taken so long. And it's a good thing, too, because my initial reaction was a bit too much, and I've since calmed down. Yeah, the puppies are cute enough to cause insulin shock in most normal humans, but after the initial "Awwww" factor wears off, you realize that there's a limited appeal for most.

You begin by going to the kennel and picking out the dog you want. Depending on which one of the three variations you pick up, you are given a different starting group of breeds. I went with the Chihuaha version because I knew I wanted a pug. And having huskies available as an alternative was another plus. Any dog I unlocked later wouldn't be anything I'd be too interested in. You take your dog home to your sparsely furnished home and proceed to teach it its name. Wilbur became his name, and I soon learned that the combination of programmed puppy stubbornness and poor AI voice recognition made training the dog to do simple tricks a test of patience. Ultimately, Wilbur learned some simple tricks and even some advanced combinations. I was so proud. In fact, when I later brought home another puppy, a husky named Max, I learned that he wasn't nearly as cooperative as Wilbur, so there does seem to be a learning curve for the dogs, which I guess might be realistic, but it's not that much fun.

Basically, the game boils down to you feed the puppy, bathe the puppy, and take it for walks, on which you can practice for a couple of the competitions, interact with other dogs in the neighborhood, and pick up odd little collectible accessories that let you dress your doggie up in all kind of ridiculous nonsense from pirate hats to 3-D glasses. (Most of which are far too silly for me to subject my cute little Wilbur to.) There are three competitions you can enter your dog in — Disc, Agility, and Obedience. The disc throwing turned out to be the easiest, once you can get your puppy to bring the frisbee back immediately after catching it. Even Wilbur, with his stubby pug legs, managed to ultimately bring home 1st place in the championship round. (I was so proud!) Agility, I'm still working on, because Wilbur got a little too excited and started running through the obstacle course out of order and not listening to me at all. Obedience can be the most frustrating, because even though your puppy might listen to you at home (barely), on stage he can freeze up, and you find yourself shouting at him.

The graphics are actually pretty impressive. The backgrounds are sparse, but that's because they've put all the work into the surprisingly-realistic puppies. The detail of their appearance and animation are startling. You really start getting attached to them in spite of yourself. However, it's not really a game you can play during your commute, because most of it involves talking into the DS microphone, calling the dog by name and issuing commands. So in order to not look like a freak on the subway, I tend to just feed my doggies and go for walks.

What I appreciate about Nintendogs is that you aren't really required to keep feeding and caring for the dogs. It's not going to bark at you in the middle of the day like an annoying Tamagotchi. In fact, if you neglect the animal, apparently it just wanders off, hoping you'll treat it better when it returns. On the other hand, your mileage with Nintendogs will vary depending on how appealing you find cute little puppies. Because the walking can become tedious (especially the monotonous — yet creepily cheerful — music), and there's only three competitions to enter. Also, the competitions can be tricky, because even if you only place third, you automatically get moved up to the next level of competition, which you may or may not be ready for. So then you fail miserably, and get bumped back down to the previous level where you can try again and do better. It can get frustrating, especially when you can't skip the annoying and repetitive text from the "hosts" of the contests.

It's not exactly a game, per say, but Nintendogs is exactly the killer app that the Nintendo DS needs. The touch screen and microphone are used brilliantly, and the dogs are undeniably cute. But as I said, your patience may wear thin, and the lack of true competitive elements might be a turn off for some. Me, I'm gonna keep playing with Wilbur (and now Max) until I turn them into champions.