"Nothing but a pretty tech demo with way too many unlockables."

When I first saw anything having to do with this game, I couldn't help but think "My god, what a stupid concept." The hype went on and I started to become curious about this game, since when there is talk about a game, no matter how weird the concept is, it will usually end up semi good. I finally got a chance to play it, and I was entertained, so I took my chance on a used copy.
Here's what I found.

Gameplay: 2/5 Okay, so you go to a kennel, and pick out a puppy. There are five different breeds at first (eventually you unlock every breed from every other version of Nintendogs), and three personality types within each breed. You go home, and teach it it's name using the mic. Now, a game that comprenends voice commands sounds kind of cool, but it's obnoxious. When you give the dog any voice command, including calling it's name, you have to use the same pitch each time, and then your command is played back to you, and it sounds horrible and stuffy. After repeating its name to it a couple dozen times, you're forced to endure teaching it to sit. All in all voice training is redundant and annoying when you can tap the screen to make the dog come.

Everything besides teaching it tricks is done with the stylus, petting it, feeding it, washing it, throwing toys and whatever. You can also blow bubbles with the bubble blower by blowing into the microphone, and the variety of toys is fun (they even have Mario Karts!!!!), but the amount of time it takes to unlock a decent one is annoying. When you take walks, you start by drawing a path, and when you draw over a ?, you either meet somebody else's dog (you unlock other breeds if your dog gets along with them), or get a present, but some of the things you just don't want, like a fifth tennis ball, or picture of a dog that doesn't do anything. Also, you have to wait a half hour between walks, during which time all you can really do is pet the dog with the stylus. You can also enter dogs in obedience, disk throwing, or agility tournaments, but you can only do three a day, the announcers talk too much, and the actual tournament only lasts 60 seconds.

Graphics: 2/5 The dogs are oddly realistic, almost too realistic because they're really very blocky, don't make the right facial expressions (they don't even hang their tongues out of their mouths), and they're cute, but not nearly cute enough. Also, they never grow into adults, which is weird. Also, the background of the room of covered with this annoying white fog, as if the developers thought we'd be too busy staring at the puppies to notice.

Sound: 2/5 Just dogs barking, and this weird elevator music stuff that repeats itself every ten seconds. It's not annoying, but it's really a lack of effort on the developers' part.

Replay Value: 1/5 As I said before, I bought a used copy of this game. I returned it the next day. It really doesn't take long to get the most out of this game, it's not fun having to wait a half hour for the fun parts to roll around, and after a while, there's nothing to do but pet the dog with the stylus and trow toys at it.

Unlockables: 1.5/5 The unlockables themselves are awesome :records, a full octave keyboard, MARIO KARTS!, a remote controlled airplane, but the problem is, it's just such a pain to get them. The presents you get on walks are often repeats of crappy things like tissue boxes and sticks. There are just too many unlockables, and once you end up getting the ones you want, it's not even worth it anymore.

All in all: Nintendogs wouldn't exist if it weren't for the DS's features. It makes full use of them, and even for dog lovers and people longing for a pet they can't have, it's just not worth it. It's a game that screams "Look at what the DS can do, but don't pay attention to the fact that I'm all talk and nothing else. You'll find yourself playing this game for a few minutes, and being mildly entertained, but not truly having fun like you would with many DS titles. If you don't believe me, I would suggest renting or borrowing the game (or buying a used copy and returning it the next day like I did). It really only takes a few hours to get tired of this game.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/06