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Feature Articles > Features > Nintendogs Family Feature
What happens when 3 fake dogs meet a real one? Anyone who has a Nintendo DS has surely heard of Nintendogs. It's a virtual pet simulator where you take care of and train a cute little puppy. But unlike Tamagotchis and other keychain electronic pals, the level of interactivity between player and ‘pet' in Nintendogs is greatly enhanced thanks to the Nintendo DS' specific capabilities. Use the stylus to pet your dog, take it for walks, and give it a bath. Use the DS microphone to call your dog by name and teach it tricks. Just remember that each Nintendog has his or her own personality, just like a real dog, as me and my family soon found out. When I first got Nintendogs, I felt like a fool getting all three versions, but I didn't get them all for myself. I got one for me, one for my mom (just recently got her a DS for her birthday, the Zoo Keeper addict that she is), and we caved in and got one for brother Jeff, too. The clerks said Nintendogs was selling pretty well. After my barrage, they only had two copies of one version left! Here's what happened on my first day with Nintendogs.
 So anyway, it was time to pick up my puppy from the kennel. I had to knock on the door (with the stylus, no less). I knew first thing I wanted a Golden Retriever. I had to pick from three male pups. One was just sitting, looking at me the whole time. Another was picking on the sitter, nibbling his ear and tail and just being a pest. The third was way over in the corner, facing the other direction and lying down. Well, I didn't want a bully dog or an antisocial dog, so I picked the one that was sitting. I figured a smart, well behaved puppy would be good for starting out. It was time to take him home and give him a name. I've been reading about how people have had troubles getting their dog to learn their name and tricks with the microphone and voice recognition software, but not my dog! He learned that his name was 'Susumu' pretty much the first time! And I was worried the DS mike wouldn't recognize such a weird name! I named him after one of the characters in one of my favorite games: Mr. Driller. Susumu's also a little baby Einstein smart puppy dog, too, as he learned all three tricks practically IMMEDIATELY after I got him. You can only teach him three tricks a day, and then he gets tired of learning. I taught him to sit just as the game told me to, but I wasn't sure what to teach him next. I didn't consult the in-game training books yet at that time. Who wants to read those when you can play with such a cute puppy! But I noticed that Susumu liked to wiggle his butt a lot. When the training icon popped up to prompt me to record my voice, I didn't know what to say except, "Wiggle your butt." And presto, now every time I say "wiggle your butt," Susumu will do just that. He'll put his head down and raise his butt up and shake it! Since he was tired of learning, I decided to play with him a bit. He loved the tennis ball, but hated the bubbles. I also bought him a blue flying disc. But I was having trouble learning how to throw the disc with the stylus. It would just fall ker-plunk right at Susumu's feet. I needed to learn how to throw it better. After that I took Susumu for a walk. One thing I've noticed about this game is that everything is easy to get into. No wonder why non-gamers are attracted to this title so much. Things are so intuitive and self-explanatory to do. Even setting up 'Bark Mode' was easy. Bark Mode allows you to meet other dogs and their trainers through the wireless capabilities of the DS. You can also unlock breeds faster this way, too. Little brother Jeff (age 12) hadn't been able to play with his new dog as long because, being the responsible kid that he is, he said he had to do his homework first. Jeff got a black German Shepherd puppy that he named Treble, after Bass' dog. Bass is Jeff's favorite Mega Man character. Jeff says that Treble isn't as good at learning tricks as Susumu is; he was more interested in eating the imaginary light bulb that popped over his head when he heard Jeff's voice. While Susumu and Treble were playing, Jeff noticed that my dog was thirsty and gave him some water. Aw, isn't that nice? Susumu really wasn't interested in playing with Treble; he'd rather just do tricks for me. Treble, however, was most interested in sniffing Susumu's butt, and did so with wanton abandon. Susumu remained oblivious. After the dogs played, a message popped up saying I unlocked the Sheltie breed at the kennel. Cool, I'll have to set up another play date with Treble later on! The only other thing I could do with Susumu after that was enter him in competitions. I knew it was probably too early to do that yet, but I wanted to try them out anyway. They wouldn't even let us enter the 'agility contest' yet because they said Susumu hadn't trained at the gymnasium. We lost miserably at the disc catching contest. It's not your fault, Susumu; I just suck at throwing those. We also lost the obedience competition because the judges wanted more 'traditional' tricks like 'lie down' instead of ‘wiggle your butt.' Susumu goes through the dog food and water like crazy! I've already fed him three bowls of food and four bowls of bottled water. Our real dog Venus is just happy drinking out of the toilet. I'm really impressed on how lifelike they make these dogs. If I just let Susumu run around on his own, he would paw at the ground like he was trying to dig, or he'd lick his nose with his tongue, or squint his little eyes when I'd scratch his chin just so. Very cute! Of course, yelling into the DS made our REAL dog Venus kind of nervous and maybe even jealous, so after playing Nintendogs we had to give her some special attention, too. You know, petting the Nintendogs with the stylus was fun, but it's not near as rewarding as petting a real dog and feeling the soft fur on your hand. I think Nintendogs is a great game for kids and adults, and maybe it will help players to realize that dogs and other creatures that we share this planet with have thoughts and feelings, too. At least I think so. Anyway, that was my first-day impressions of Nintendogs. I've had the game for about a week now. Susumu wears a blue and red baseball cap that he found on one of our walks, and he's learned lots more tricks. He's won lots of agility and obedience contests, but we still stink at throwing the flying disc. But luckily we earned enough cash to buy a new dog, a Siberian Husky named "Taizo" (another Mr. Driller character). Taizo is just about as smart as Susumu is, if not a bit more aggressive and rambunctious. Maybe someday I'll get a girl Nintendog, like a miniature dachshund. I'll just have to think of a name for it. Maybe Momo? Jeff is doing very well with his German Shepherd dog Treble. He's got another black puppy now, too, named Waffle. He does very well at the flying disc competitions and earns lots of money. And then there's my mom. Bless her heart, her Welsh Corgi ‘Princess' is a little spoiled mutt! She won't come when my mom calls her, she won't do any of her tricks and won't earn money in the competitions. Princess doesn't get along with any other dogs or play with most of the toys mom buys her. She wears the tiara I gave her in ‘bark mode,' but most of the other presents we give her, she has to sell so she can have enough money to feed her little canine brat. Needless to say, my mom's been having a bit of trouble with her Nintendog game. But it's a good example of how many kinds of breeds and personalities each Nintendog can have. Everybody's game experience will be different! So even though Nintendogs doesn't take best in show, it's still an endearing title that gamers owe themselves to give a try!
 Update 10/4/05: It's been about a month since we got Nintendogs, more or less. I got my miniature Dachshund named Momo. She wears a rose in her hair and the boy pups have Mario and Luigi hats. Jeff is busy with schoolwork a lot so sometimes we'll take care of his puppies. In return, Jeff sometimes helps his mom win money with her ‘Princess.' She got enough money to buy another dog, so she got a girl Shiba. Since it's a Japanese breed of dog, she wanted a girl Japanese name for it and turned to us. We couldn't think of any good names that she liked, except for Reiko. So now she has a dog named after the race queen on Ridge Racer. Except she'll sometimes pronounce the name wrong so now her dog has the nickname "Wreck-o." But at least Princess seems to be getting along better now that she has another puppy to play with. And those are our Nintendogs! They're cute, but not as cute as Jeff's real dog, Venus!
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