Gallery Pictures:
- Thats my dog, Ace, trying his hand (paw?) at being an Elvis impersonator, at the mountain park.
- More mountain park.
- If you touch the screen here, they lick your hand. It’s really cute.
- All of the competitions have gotten a graphics overhaul, and you don’t go down a rank if you lose.
- A cat playing. It’s not mine, I’m at the cafe.
- Dogs fighting over a disc at the beach park.
- My cat in a high place.
- AR card usage. Depending on the card, the dog changes hat.
- Running around in the cafe.
- Catching a boomerang (I tried to time if so you had the dog jumping, but it didn’t work).
This is a first- a review with pictures taken from my own game! Wow!
Nintendogs was the tied second game I bought for my 3DS. Why did I buy it? No idea. But I did (equal second with Ridge Racer, more on that in a later post.
If you have never played nitendogs (the original), and you own a DS, you should have a long hard look in the mirror. Sure, its a slightly childish game. But its charm and general awesomeness makes it a brilliant game. Nintendogs was released, like any launch title, purely to show off the system’s abilities. Nintendogs+cats is clearly made for the same reason.
So, how could Nintendo improve on such a great game (besides make it 3D). They added cats, fixed a few things, added new items, updated graphics, changed a competition… And that’s about it. It’s really quite sad that there aren’t more differences to the original.
The dogs side of it is pretty much the same. Competitions? Check. Walks? Check. Tricks? Check. The obedience trial and disc competitions are back with few changes (AR card functionality and sand/bonus areas respectively) and the other competition that I can’t possibly remember its name has been replaced with lure coursing. Now, I liked the old competition, and I like lure coursing too. Maybe they should have dumped the ever-annoying obedience trial for lure coursing. The concept behind lure coursing is your puppy chases a lure around a course. Eventually crossovers and hurdles are added in, mixing it up.
Walks have been messed with slightly. The view is more first person (from the side on in the original). You don’t choose a path before going on a walk, instead, you come across signposts on the walk to take you to different areas. There are 4 in total (mountains, town, seaside and default). And, like the original, you come across other owners (who add in their unrequited opinions) and gifts and rubbish on the road. There’s also a gym, two parks, a cafe and other secret shops that only open at certain times. I don’t like the new way. I’ve had many times where I’m going to the mountain signpost so I can visit the park and train for the disc competition, and there’s a gift right behind the signpost. So, you’re face with a decision. It’s happened so many times now that I get really annoyed.
Tricks, besides a few new ones (unless I missed them in the original), are the same. You direct your dog to do something, repeat the command 3 times, and it gets saved. Some tricks require you to wave a treat in the air to get the dog to its required learning position.
Now, the other new addition. Cats. Lets look at what cats can do. No competitions. No walks. No tricks. All they do is laze around like… Well, cats in real life. They love shiny things, as well as high places. Oh, and annoying all other creatures. And that’s just all about it for cats. You can awe at their cuteness and complain at their lack of use. It makes it quite a waste to save up so much in-game money to get a useless ball of hair.
Obvious bias about hating cats aside, nintendogs+cats is the same game with a few new additions. It doesn’t really show off the 3DS’ abilities either. A touch screen is hardly a new addition to Nintendo handhelds, as is a microphone. It has streetpass (unused so far), picks up our face, and uses the outer cameras. But the 3DS is more than just cameras. It has a gyro sensor, which is so far unused.
The addition of 3D is the main change in this game. You remember how, in the original, pets come and are all over the screen The 3D effect really makes this feel real. You get licked all over the face. You get a gift. You throw a disc. All these things that seem so novel become much more real.
All I can say is this. Thanks to 3D, many simulation games are going to become a lot better (I’m hoping to purchase the new Pilotwings at some point too).
Tl;dr version: Decent game, too similar, dogs>cats
My Rating
Music: 6
Gameplay: 8
Creativity: 5
Graphics: 10
Other: 7
Total: 36/50
Wait, What? 