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Nintendogs will appear to some to be another
glimmering example of Nintendo’s freakish powers for market
conveying for girls and kids. To others, t he title will personify
more than 25 years of gaming experience. Shigeru Miyamoto’s
latest expedition into virtual-petting is determined to offer
NintendoDS gamers a full spectrum of gameplay whilst retaining its
overall garish-monstrosity appeal.
The option available in the Electronic Entertainment Expo
(E3) build was to play with three puppies simultaneously, although
in the final build puppies will be purchased individually via an
option on the Menu Screen titled “Shop”. Each dog has a
distinctive personality and it’s currently unclear as to whether
or not you’ll be able to purchase multiples of each dog. As
limited as the options were, play was instinctive. Speak into the
microphone to command your dogs – or at least the dog you are
currently playing with – “Sit” and “Roll Over” work in
the game as in reality, as in, not always. The dogs could be
dressed and accessorised minimally and while this may be appealing
to many of those already queuing, it was far from as
paralysing-hypnotic as some of the titles’ more lucid features.
A football, Frisbee and skipping rope were available as toys
to amuse yourself and your pets and the Touch Screen input here is
as satisfying as pumping off nineteen rounds from the Shotgun that
appeared in Quake II. Spin the skipping rope with the aid of
a pooch or curve a Frisbee into another’s loving slobbery jaws.
As gleeful as the approach is, it’s not nearly as captivating as
Nintendo’s work towards the pups’ ability to get your
attention.
By either using the “Look” command from the first Screen
within the title or simply waiting for one of your  dogs get bored
and take command for themselves, they may approach the screen,
bounding at you as if against a plane of glass. Both captivating
and commanding, the dogs’ power is inescapable; the effort put
into the presentation is seemingly effortless in its capacity for
the “cute” factor.
There’s a substantial amount left to discover in Nintendogs,
and a lot which will continue to remain undiscovered until a long
time after the games release. With the title’s dependence
on user input and the system’s internal clock, anyone who reviews
the title within a month of release simply doesn’t understand the
concept. A hugely deft activity that was encapsulated perfectly by
one of Nintendo’s “booth babes” (although it has to be said,
one of them was distinctly beardy) “It’s great, I love to watch
fat 30-year-old men go “ahhh….”
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