Kawaii Koinu

"Entertaining and visually appealing pet game for young Japanese kids and students of the language"

Kawaii Koinu is a pet game designed with young kids in mind. As such, it's not excessively deep or challenging, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. A 12-years-old Japanese boy might consider himself too old for this cute puppy-training game, but Kawaii Koinu turns up to be entertaining and effective practice for Japanese language students of all ages.

The whole game is written exclusively in hiragana, to begin with, so all students of Japanese are guaranteed to be able to read it, regardless of how early they are in their learning process. Kawaii Koinu's language might be even too easy for advanced students, who are probably looking forward to expanding their kanji base and developing conversation skills. However, it's simply perfect for those people that have only just begun studying Japanese and feel a little overwhelmed by all the syllable signs and other hurdles one has to jump at the beginning of any language's study. On one hand, the vocabulary isn't very complex: always bear in mind the game thinks it's talking to a 6-year-old! On the other, the game depicts the everyday life in a regular Japanese house, so the player will learn (without even noticing) what expressions to use when you're leaving, going to bed, about to eat, etc. Most Japanese courses go through these expressions very quickly in order to get to the actual grammar, so this practice might be well needed.

Linguistics aside, Kawaii Koinu is a good game to own, if only for its amazing graphics. The isometric view allows the full screen to be used with the game's gorgeous, huge sprites. They are “pixel art”, that is, they have been created directly for the digital format rather than drawn or painted by hand and then scanned. The result is a crisp and highly defined image, improved by a lively and bright colour palette.

The actual gameplay is basic but strangely addictive. You take the role of a young boy or girl, who has come to own a puppy you can choose yourself. Thankfully, Kawaii Koinu gives more importance to training your dog than to mundane and, frankly, deeply tedious things like feeding or washing it. Training, as it does in real life, revolves around the concepts of punishment and reward. You start with a basic set of four orders like “sit” or “lie down”, which can later evolve into more complex commands like standing up or shaking the hand. Teaching these skills to your puppy takes patience: you select the order, and say “Good boy!” or “Bad dog!” according to whether the animal obeyed or not. Rinse and repeat. When the status bar of said skill fills, the puppy has learned it for good and you can move on to the next one.

As you progress, you'll find several elements designed to prevent you from getting bored with the constant training ordeal: you can take your dog out for a walk through a pretty big city or play various minigames, from quizzes to races. There's really nothing very exciting to do, yet I found myself playing in-game day after in-game day and saying “Just one more skill!”. There's something in this game that prompts the player to keep advancing through the game.

Maybe that's a good thing. The chance to practice Japanese from a basic level, coupled with the good example set by the main character (polite, tidy, actually talks to parents, helps in daily chores) are excellent reasons for Western students and young Japanese kids alike to give Kawaii Koinu a chance.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/06