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What is Nintendogs? Nintendogs, to put it in as few words
possible, is a puppy simulation game. You get to choose your puppy from amongst
the breeds available at the start and you can choose the coloration, and gender
of your puppy. From there you take it home where you can pet
and play with your puppy, feed it, bathe it, take it for walks, teach it its
name and tricks, and enter it in a variety of competitions. In short, you get
many of the joys of dog ownership in a convenient little package.
Nintendogs takes advantage of many of
the Nintendo DS' built in features. Use the touch screen to pet and play with
your puppy and wade through the menus. Whether you're pulling your puppy away
from some trash while on a walk, or throwing a flying disk for your puppy to catch,
you can do it all with just a tap or a swipe across the touch screen. Your puppy
even reacts to where you pet it, be it across it's back, on its belly, or
tickling it's paws.
Another feature Nintendogs takes
advantage of is the built in microphone. When you first get your puppy, you must
teach it its name. Simply say your puppy's name until your puppy fully
understands, and it will respond to its name from then on. You can also teach
your puppy to do tricks when you give a verbal command. When your puppy does one
of the trainable tricks, you will be given the chance to give a verbal command
for that trick. After a few times, your puppy will associate the command with
the action, and be able to perform the action on command. And you don't have to
use the typical "sit," "lay down," and "beg." If you want your puppy to sit down
when you say "bacon," then you can train your puppy to do so!
If you have a friend with Nintendogs,
you can use the Wi-Fi abilities of the DS to wirelessly connect to their game
and allow your puppies to play together, and so you can play with each others
puppies as well. You can also set your game into what has been called "Bark
Mode" instead of sleep mode. In bark mode, your Nintendo DS will constantly scan
the area for other copies of Nintendogs in bark mode. If another game is
detected, your DS will automatically exchange data, and make a barking sound to
let you know. In this way you can set your game to Bark Mode as you walk around
town and see what sort of puppies you can run into!
There is much to do in Nintendogs. Use
the various toys and items you can collect to play with, train, and care for
your puppy. You can take your puppy for walks to increase its stamina so you can
explore even farther later on. On walks you can meet NPC (Non-Player Character)
puppies for your puppy to interact with, whether through play or fighting, and
you will sometimes find presents on your walks which could be anything from a
useless piece of junk to a great new toy!
Train your puppy to enter various
competitions! Throw the flying disk around to increase your puppies catching
skills, then enter the Disk Dog Tournament! Or you could enter your puppy into
the Obedience Tournament and show off all your puppies tricks! And, finally, you
can unlock and enter the Obstacle Course where your puppy can race around
jumping hurdles, racing through tubes, dashing across see-saws, and weaving
through poles in an attempt to complete all the obstacles in order in the
fastest time.
This title promises to be a great game
for various types of people. Hardcore gamers, casual gamers, non-gamers,
children, adults, elderly, pet owners, and those who can't own a real dog for
various reasons. This game holds the potential to appeal to all who like dogs.
Nintendogs has currently been released
in Japan, and is scheduled to be released in the US on August 22, 2005.
Have you reserved your copy, yet?
Also feel free to check out the
Nintendogs Wikipedia Entry.
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