Hello and good day everyone!
Welcome to my Video Game Thoughts series, where I look at a specific video game and
explain what I think is positive about it, what's negative, and what is neither positive
nor negative.
Though please keep in mind that I often find negative aspects to positive things, and positive
aspects to negative things, so these aren't supposed to be super strict categories.
Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy!
I remember back when Nintendogs was first released.
At the time, I never bought it, though I've always loved dogs.
I just thought a video game could never be an adequate replacement for a real dog.
Also at the the time, I did own a dog.
The years have passed, and sadly, so did the dog I owned back then.
It's a bit harder for me to play Nintendogs than other games, because I keep thinking
of my old dog.
But time heals wounds, and I guess now that I don't have a dog, I wanted to try the game.
Positive
- It's adorable The manual to this game is hands down one
of the most adorable things I've seen.
It's just puppies photos showing different breeds, and they are so cute.
Even the back cover of the game box shows Dalmatian puppies playing with a Nintendo
DS.
It's the same once you start the game and want to buy your first puppy!
Each puppy looks adorable!
It's like choosing a starter in Pokemon, except I can't buy two copies of the game to trade
myself each of the starters so now I actually have to make a choice and it drove me crazy.
But I did love the puppy I chose.
It's also cute how, when you teach your puppy a trick, a lightbulb will show up and you
can even drag the lightbulb to the puppy and the puppy will eat it.
- Animation of the dogs The animations of the dogs are very well done.
The way the dogs look, different actual color variations within breeds, the way the dogs
walk, run, yelp, play, lie down, everything is presented so well, and that's important
because the moment any of these actions seemed unrealistic, the entire game would cease to
function.
The game works to the extent it does by creating an illusion of playing with a real dog.
It's not perfect, and the fact that Nintendogs is a DS game is clear today, particularly
with things like the leash when you go on walks clipping through the dog's neck.
That said, it is very very close to perfect.
Nintendogs did have great graphics for a DS game.
I love the DS and there are many great examples of 2D games that look wonderful for the system,
but the 3DS was really the first Nintendo handheld with the necessary power to use a
three dimensional area.
The DS struggled to do 3D graphics.
Despite the occasional hiccup like clipping, the fact that the dogs look and act so lifelike
is indeed amazing.
The illusion of playing with a real dog is the best way to put it.
I love the delicate balance here between keeping the dogs moving and acting real enough that
you see them more as dogs than as pixels, but also making sure the dogs react in certain
rule based ways so that the game is no where near as frustrating as owning an actual dog
can be.
Because everything from feeding to bathing the dogs to keeping different dogs together
is either easy or just not as potentially problematic as it is with real dogs, Nintendogs
essentially removes every difficult part of dog ownership, and for the most part presents
the most idealistic version of dog ownership possible.
The game leaves in how adorable and loving real dogs can be, but removes the realism
for the less fun parts of owning a dog.
And as a result, the ultimate game is a bit of addictive fun to play in short bursts.
It's a nice a relaxing change of pace from more intense and difficult games.
Which is not to say that the game itself is always easy.
Teaching the dogs different tricks can become frustrating, and earning money, at least the
beginning of the game, is a slow process.
In the agility contest, winning a contest can get you to a new level of contests with
new obstacles, so to do well you need to practice at the gym instead of just directly going
to the next contest after the last contest, but to practice you also need to go for a
walk, which is a leisurely or slow activity depending on your viewpoint.
This is a game that rewards taking it slow.
I know, because initially I tried to marathon the game, trying to win as many contests as
I could and unlock as many breeds of dogs by gaining trainer points, and that was just
a less fun experience overall than playing with the puppy, seeing what would happen if
I played with this or that toy, and so on.
Instead of rushing to do everything I could possibly do, like teach the maximum number
of tricks or win the the maximum number of contests, if I just took the dogs on walks,
took them to the dog parks, played with them just to see how the puppies would react to
different toys: that was just more fun.
So my opinion is that you might not enjoy it as much if you want to rush to the next
part.
When I wanted to stop and smell the roses, to see everything there is to see, that was
when I really enjoyed the game for what it was.
It's not supposed to be the most intense video game with millions of things to do, it's a
video game for when you want to relax, and there's a place in the world for both types
of video games.
I know this might contradict what I just said, but even so, sometimes I wonder if I would
prefer the game resemble Animal Crossing a bit more.
In Animal Crossing, there are a number of activities to do, from gardening, fishing,
shopping, decorating your home, interacting with the villagers, and even more if we consider
the special event days.
Each activity is decently different from every other activity to add a great deal of variety
to any particular play session.
Whereas Nintendogs has walking your dog, playing with your dog, teaching your dog tricks, participating
in obedience, disc, or agility contests, and so on.
Each of these activities is so similar, so centered in the interaction with your dog,
that I almost wish there were other activities where the dogs were significant but not as
central, just to add variety.
I wish, for instance, we could decorate the rooms we lived in (though admittedly you can
buy different interiors for your homes, this just seems very limited), or have an figure
of ourselves in the game we could customize.
It doesn't have to be this.
It could be anything tangentially associated with dogs but not centered solely around the
dogs.
These activities could be made less important than interacting with the dogs, to keep the
dogs front and center.
For instance, the dogs could still be the only way of making money.
It would add just a little bit more variety, without diminishing the significance of the
titular Nintendogs.
- Contests The game has three contests: obedience where
you test the commands you have taught your puppy by speaking into the microphone, agility
where you use the stylus to guide the puppy through an obstacle course, and a disc contest
where you throw a frisbee with the stylus.
Each of these are quite fun.
Agility, for instance, can involve reacting rather quickly to different types of obstacles
at the higher levels, though it never becomes extremely difficult.
The disc contest is also fun, though the simplest of the three.
Obedience tends to be the hardest of the three.
However, obedience is also potentially the most fun.
Some advanced tricks involve puppies performing two basic tricks, one after the other.
I couldn't get my puppy to do a handstand training at home, but when the obedience contest
had a section where I needed to make the puppy sit, lie down, then beg, (lie down and beg
being the two basic tricks that make up the handstand), my puppy did a handstand by itself!
It was so adorable, and since it is a combination of the basic tricks, the competition doesn't
deduct points for that obviously.
Neither Positive Nor Negative
- How the world revolves around dogs One thing that reminded me almost of Pokemon
was how everything in the Nintendogs is based on dog ownership.
The entire economy of the world of Nintendogs is entirely based on puppy competitions.
It's sort of like Pokemon in that way, where not only is the central concept of the game
important, but it's so important that every facet of the game world is built around it.
I find this funny, but it occasionally tips the realism balance too far in the direction
of unrealistic.
- Dog Advice in the manual Some of the dog in the manual is less than
ideal.
It begins by saying Nintendogs is its own experience and owning a real dog is very different.
That's good for the kids to say that!
Later in the manual it says that if you don't see your puppy in the game, it's just playing
outside and will return with a present.
Despite the warning about Nintendogs being very different from real dogs, I'm kind of
concerned for the children.
If your real dog goes missing, it's probably not getting you a present, kids.
You need to tell your parents right away.
- No real sense of progression I mentioned in a previous video about Pokemon
that I like Pokemon and Nintendogs for the same reason.
And I do.
I like taking care of an animal and seeing it grow.
That's part of what makes Pokemon so satisfying.
You start out with young and fairly weak Pokemon, and on your adventure through this new universe
created by the developers, your team of Pokemon grows into powerful creatures.
Nintendogs is very different in that it lacks both the new world, the Nintendogs world being
very similar to ours, and the sense of progression.
This is both its strength and its weakness.
There is a small sense of progression in the tricks your dogs can learn and the unlockables,
but for the most part your dogs will always remain cute puppies and every day you repeat
the same tasks.
As a weakness, it's clear, it can become boring.
But here's something to be said for that stability.
And yes, it can be repetitive, but the tasks you do every day change depending on what
you want to do and and the few tasks that are always the same, like bathing and feeding
the dogs, are done quickly.
Nintendogs isn't an adventure like Pokemon or most video games.
When you travel a path, you're always thinking of the future and preparing for what will
happen.
Nintendogs isn't about planning for a future part of the game.
It's about enjoying what's happening right now.
It's about the simple fun of playing with an adorable creature.
And it is a worthwhile video game because it creates its own unique experience.
You might get tired of it faster than another video game, but if you're like me, you'll
ultimately feel more enriched for the experience.
Negative
- Letter limit on the puppies' names I did dislike that there was a letter limit
to the puppies' names.
Seven letters seemed pretty short.
- Limited dogs to play with only Another thing I disliked is strange to say
because it's a result of having so many well animated versions of so many breeds and color
variations within each breed.
Since you can only own 8 dogs, it's very possible there will be dogs you want but can't own.
Now that by itself isn't an issue that game makes you pick.
But it is strange to me that the kennel has dogs you can look at and play with, but only
three dogs.
If they were going to let you play with but not adopt dogs, I think it makes sense to
let you play with a larger variety of the total available dogs in the game.
- Saves too often Another small problem was how often the game
will save.
Every time you drop off one dog at the dog hotel, it saves, which is annoying if you
want to drop off more than one.
Keep in mind that you can keep 3 dogs at home and 5 in the dog hotel.
Every time you change your dogs' accessories, it saves and it takes a little while to save.
- Can't choose competition level Finally, it was annoying that when entering
your dogs in a competition, the game automatically chooses the highest level, unless you lose,
in which case it pushes you down one level.
Sometimes I'd like to enter a lower level, like when I've reached my limit for teaching
my dog tricks for that day and I know the puppy doesn't know enough tricks to compete
at the highest obedience level, it would be nice to choose to compete in lower levels
for the rest of the day, but the only way I can is to throw a competition and therefore
compete at the lower level the next time.
But since you can only compete three times a day, that process eats up one valuable competition
slot.
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