Retro Review: Nintendogs: Dalmatian and Friends

With the popular puppy sim Nintendogs: Dalmatians and Friends, if you missed out on the first three iterations, want to collect dogs you couldn't get in the other versions, or really like Dalmatians, you might be inclined to pick up this DS title. Here's a quick series rundown for those unfamiliar with it.

The game begins with you adopting a puppy from the kennel. There are six breeds initially available: Yorkie, Beagle, Golden Retriever, Boxer, German Shepherd, and Dalmatian (which was a special unlockable breed in the other four versions of this DS game). You choose a female or male dog, name it, and you're off to the races.

Much like Animal Crossing, there's no particular end goal in Nintendogs. Instead, the focus is on caring for your new puppy, training it, and interacting with it.

Gameplay:
Training your dog is central to Nintendogs, but there's plenty of other stuff to do as well. You can play with your puppy in your living room, bouncing tennis balls off the walls or throwing around a Frisbee. You can buy food and water, new toys, and even treat yourself to some new decor for your house. You can also shampoo and brush your puppy, getting rid of the fleas it may get if you don't play the game for a couple of days. For the most part, though, you'll spend your time taking your pet for a walk, and enter it in contests.

Taking your dog for a walk adds an element of exploration. Players trace their path on an area map and can stop by the park to play with their pup, work on its agility at the local gym, or investigate question-mark icons. The question-marks trigger events like your dog bringing you a gift or meeting other dogs and their owners. Walking is also good for your dog's health, extending its stamina and in turn enabling it to take longer walks. Going for walks allows you to practice for the competitive aspect of the game: the dog contests.

There are three dog contests you can enter: Disc Competition, Agility Trial, and Obedience Trial. Disc Competition is a Frisbee tossing contest, in which you get points for your puppy catching a flying disc you toss with the stylus. The further away from you that your dog makes the catch, the more points you're awarded, and you get extra points when your dog makes a mid-air catch. Agility Trial is an obstacle course that has your dog jumping hurdles, running through tunnels, and walking over see-saws. There's a time limit and point total, with points deducted for missing obstacles. Obedience Trial puts your puppy's trick knowledge to the test, having it perform tricks in a predetermined order to be judged on how well it follows your voice commands. There are several difficulty levels in each of these competitions, and it's great fun to work through them all.

Nintendogs doesn't have an online feature, being originally designed well before Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection went live. Instead, you have "Bark Mode": close your DS, carry it around with you, and download the dog and trainer information of nearby players that are also in Bark Mode. Those trainers get added to your Friends List, allowing your dogs to play together. It's a cool feature, but when you see what developers are now doing with DS online play it seems that being able to do more online would have made Nintendogs even more fun.

The touch screen is very intuitively used to pet your dog and teach him or her new tricks. The stylus controls a hand icon that you move back and forth on the dog's body, resulting in some amusing and lifelike reactions depending on where and how you scratch. There are preset stylus motions that correspond to tricks your dog can learn, which is where the microphone comes in to play.

Nintendogs features voice recognition technology that saves a sound bite from you and maps it to an action your dog can perform ("Sit", "roll over", etc).. Scratch or pat your puppy and a light bulb icon appears, indicating that it has just performed a "trick" that it can learn. Tap the light bulb and a microphone icon briefly appears, prompting you to speak into the DS microphone and name the trick. Repeat this process a few times and your puppy will learn the trick and perform it on verbal command. Say the word "Sit" into your DS, and your dog will do exactly that.

Well, it's supposed to work like that. In practical use, though...

While impressive, the voice recognition isn't perfect. For example, you can call your dog over by either calling its name or tapping on the touch screen. Tapping the touch screen is 100% reliable (unless your dog is misbehaving, of course). Calling your dog's name works maybe half the time ("Sasha! Sasha, come here! Sasha! SASHA GET OVER HERE OR SO GOD I WILL..."). Naming tricks is more accurate, but you must still be sure to speak clearly and not get too close to the microphone, or the recording will be scratchy, sound tinny, and your dog won't understand you. To its credit, the game does recognize the same command spoken by a different voice, even if the recorded voice is male and the commanding voice is female, as both my girlfriend and I could tell our respective dogs to sit, roll over and the like just as easily.

Graphics
While not a graphically-intensive design, it's obvious that the effectiveness of Nintendogs hinges on how accurately the behavior of your puppy compares to the real thing. To this end, it sports some incredibly detailed puppy models that spring to life with convincing animation and adorable behavior. It's the small touches, like the look on your puppy's face when you pet it, or the trot of your puppy across the room contribute to a highly immersive game. As a Pug and German Shepard owner, I can tell you that the animation team took care to capture the gait and behavior of each dog and recreate it faithfully.

The character models are very lifelike, right down to the coloration and markings of each breed. The backgrounds are sparse but functional; most of the attention is paid to the dogs, which is as it should be. The animation is incredibly detailed, from the trot of a Pug to the expression of joy on a good job well done in training.

Sound
The music is passable-- nothing that detracts from the game, but nothing too memorable either. However, the sound effects for each dog really do a good job of making each Nintendo puppy seem that much more real.

Creativity
The downside to Nintendogs is that it's fairly limited in scope. While it's not meant to be played for hours at a time (in fact, if you train your dog for an hour or so it will eventually get "tired" of being taught and you'll be told to try again tomorrow), it doesn't take long to experience everything the game has to offer. Once you've trained your puppy and completed all the competitions, there isn't much else to do-- unless you want to start over with a new dog.

Fun
This game is fun, and instantly appealing (because, really, who doesn't have a soft spot for ADORABLE PUPPIES?). I can't think of any other platform but the Nintendo DS that this game could be done as well on. The trick-teaching portion of the game is excellent fun, and while the voice recognition is slightly flawed, it works well enough to not distract from the game experience. Each puppy model looks great and features incredibly lifelike behavior. The contests are very entertaining, and it's especially satisfying to win the Obedience Trial with tricks that you've taught your dog from scratch Nintendogs: Dalmatian and Friends is a great package, and while it's a little short, I highly recommend it for dog lovers and any gamers looking for an entertaining change of pace.