Portable Puppies!

I wasn't too sure about Nintendogs when I first heard about it, and hadn't really had any intentions of buying it. However, desiring a pink DS (which - here at least - you must buy with Nintendogs to recieve) I picked it up and was immediatley surprised with the quality of the game.

Storyline:
The idea behind Nintendogs is very simple. Purchase a puppy and look after it. And that's really it! Nintendogs gives you a great look into how it is to look after a real life dog, including the feeding, walking, playing, training, and competitions.

The game begins with a choice of 6 breeds for you to choose from. Each game begins with 6 different dogs, but with the Dachshund version your options are the beagle, shih tzu, siberian husky, golden retriever, pug, and of course, the daschund. Though you are restricted to these breeds at first, over time you can unlock the other 12 breeds, including popular choices such as the chihauhua, german shepherd dog, yorkshire terrier, poodle and labrador. You are able to keep up to 8 puppies at a time, but only 3 in your house at a time - you must swap with the hotel to get your other pups.

Interaction:
Interaction is done purely with the stylus and with voice control. With the stylus you are able to pet your dog, throw toys, etc. With your voice, you are able to teach your dog to respond to it's name and other commands.

Your life with your new puppy begins by giving it a name, and teaching it to respond. This can be especially helpful later on when you have more than one dog, as you can simply call over the dog you wish to play with. From there, it is up to you what you do. Giving your dog an item is simple enough - you just have to click your supply and choose what you would like to give him. There are a variety of supplies available from the store which also increase over time, and you can gain more by your puppy finding presents for you when on a walk. These items can be simple things such as tennis balls, or more novelty items such as Santa hats!

Training is something you are likely to want to start work on early, and can be both a fun and frustrating experience! Though the voice technology is good, it can be hard work to match up your tone each time. The dog does not respond if you speak in a tone or speed different to what the command was recorded in, and so it can be more than a little frustrating having to continually repeat "sit" in 10 different ways to get it do just that! Your dog can only learn around 3 tricks per day, which does make it a little frustrating if you intend to play a long time.

Competitions are an interesting part of the game. You can enter your puppy in a disc competition - where he must retrieve frisbees you throw for him, agility competitions - where he must compete a course including jumps, tunnels and see saws, and obediance competitions - where he must respond to set commands. The competitions are definitley fun to do, however a drawback is that you can enter a maximum of three competitions per day per puppy, meaning you run out of things to do fast.

Graphics:
The graphics on the puppies are amazing. The puppies are very realistic, and much like any real dog you come across. They interact with you and each other as you would expect puppies to do, and don't just continually do the same movements repeatedly.


Conclusion:
Though Nintendogs is a lot of fun to play, it's restrictions do mean it is really only a game for a lot of short goes throughout the day. Being limited in how much you can do with your puppies each day stops it from being as fun as it could be, and the number of points required to gain new toys or breeds is so high it can take a very long time to acheive, by which point you may have lost interest anyway. However, it is still a fun little game and one that I would recommend to anyone - even my action game loving boyfriend has a habit of quickly turning it on and playing with my pups when I leave the room! There isn't really much of a plot or a never ending supply of things to do, but for a virtual pet game it is definitley one of the better ones I have ever played.