"Nitendogs takes the Tamogtachi concept and turns it into one of the best DS games."

Though not really game a game with any sort of ending goals, Nintendogs is a satisfying experience none the less. The easiest way to describe Nintendogs would be calling the game a Tamogatchi on steroids. From the moment that you bring your first puppy home you'll instantly start to bond with it by using the DS's touch screen to pet and scratch the dog and voice recognition to teach it commands and call it by name.

There is something endearing about real puppies that makes even the toughest of men grow into softies when they see a cute puppy. The fact that Nintendogs is able to capture the feel of a real puppy is an amazing achievement. They wiggle around in order for you to scratch them in a specific spot, and they'll bark if they don't like where you are scratching them. Just like a real puppy, the more love and attention you show it, the more love it will return back to you.

The game runs on an internal clock so that each day you and your puppy will have something new to do. There are a few reasons for this besides to give the puppy certain hours to rest. Throughout the day you and your puppy will do lots of things. Some days you might take your puppy for a walk around the neighborhood. On walks you might run into other trainers and their puppies. Also on walks you might find rare presents that can contain anything from a useless shoe to Mario hat to outfit your dog with. It's too bad you have to wait at least a half an hour after each walk because the game says your puppy is too tired to go again.

On other days you might participate in one of the three contests (Disc, Obedience, and Agility) to earn a monetary reward so you can buy more puppies or toys. Each of the contests is well executed and requires practice with your dog to be able to win the big prizes. For example, to win in the harder levels of the disk trail you are going to have to use the touch screen to flik the disk far enough to earn the big points, but not too far as to put it out of your puppies range. It's too bad that each contests starts with two obnoxious announcers, who by the fourth contest, will start repeating their lame and obnoxious jokes. It just requires needless text advancing and it should have been possible to turn them off. It's also upsetting that each dog can only enter three contests a day. When you get more dogs it's easy to keep a steady flow of money coming in, but with only your first puppy it takes a while to build a sizeable fortune to buy other puppies with.

The game comes in three versions each containing different puppies, but you can get all the puppies if you know other Nintendogs players and enter the games wireless hook up, Bark Mode. But don't fret if no one else you know has Nintendogs, as long as you keep good care of your puppies you'll earn lots of Trainer Points and after so many points new breeds become available.

As I said, Nintendogs isn't really a game per se. You can do the most things possible in a day, but it's not a game that you can really be the best at. It's not the type of game for ten hour ‘power-plays' but more for quick thirty minute plays. But those qualities are part of the magic of the game. It's a care free game that offers a nice break from whatever you have been doing. If you are big dog person like me, the game might easily become an addiction.
FINAL RATING (out of 10)
9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/05