Maybe I’m just fulfilling a stereotype by wanting a tiny dog to carry around with me at all times (albeit a virtual one), but I can’t wait to get Nintendogs, a puppy simulator for the Nintendo DS. (There’s a more detailed section on Nintendo’s Japanese website, but unless you know Japanese, it remains cute but inscrutable.)
I’m assuming that there’s no area where you have the puppies battle each other to the death like Pokemon, but even still, you’ve gotta have a cold, cold heart not to think that those screenshots and animations are damn cute.
It’ll be interesting to see how it fares against the upcoming but slower-paced Microsloths, and the graphically impressive but far less cuddly So-nemones*.
*That’s “Sony” plus “Sea anemone.” Oh, come on. This is good material here.
Hrm… my games budget is tight these days, and I have a number of vital purchases that are above Nintendogs on my list. I also have a ridiculous amount of games currently in my possession that I still have to play, making additional game expenditure all the more unjustifiable (not to imply that it doesn’t happen; I’m just saying).
Howveer, Nintendo has an annoying habit of taking a concept that seems silly, then making it brilliant so I have to get it. It’s entirely possible that will happen here. glances furtively towards nearby electronic bongo drums
Out of curiousity, which stereotype are you fulfilling by wanting to carry tiny dogs around with you?
Homos. (Stands to reason that a gay nerd would want a virtual little dog.)
Yeah, I’m in the same boat, but a virtual pet isn’t really a game that you “finish,” unless, I guess, you’re really morbid. I read a review of the import version that said the language barrier isn’t that much of an obstacle, except when the contest judges call out a trick in Japanese. I’m fairly tempted to import it, but $50 is a little pricey. It’s supposedly due out in the US by December.
points to location Hrm… by the time it comes out here, I’ll have finished my degree and will probably be working, so maybe I’ll have some money then. If only I were exaggerating.
This page shows the breeds available in the Japanese version; I don’t see the Chow on there, as far as I can tell. Supposedly the US release will have all those, plus more breeds available.
Ah. One of my best friends is Australian and paints a dire picture of the gaming hobby there, just because everything is so much more expensive. It sounded like he did a lot of importing.
I haven’t for the past three years, because the company doesn’t give us time off (depending on the project lead, we may get 1 day off, or none at all – either way, 1 day isn’t enough to make it worthwhile). Plus, they’re usually just loud, flashy, annoying, and destroy your faith in the videogame industry. Lots of sleazy marketing exec types, booth babes (which, granted, I may just not be the target audience for), and people into “flair.” I’m probably going to go this year, though, to see the new Xbox and PS3. Could be an interesting show.
Sorry to post this in a kind of old thread, but some relevant information has just come to light.
It would seem Famitsu gave Nintendogs a perfect score, which is quite hard to come by as far as that particular publication goes. So, things appear to bode well for Nintendogs, and less well for my financial prosperity.
Not just hard to come by; it has now joined the ranks of a mere four others to score 40/40. Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, 3/5 of them are Nintendo titles: Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and now Nintendogs. The other two are Soul Calibur and one other title that I forgot.
This site has another video from the game, including puppy jump rope. It makes it pretty clear that it’s inevitable I’m going to get this game, even if I have to knock down a bunch of girls in Japanese schoolgirl uniforms shouting “kawaii!” in order to do it.
Bad for my wallet: I see that the German Shepherd and the Welsh Corgi are in different versions. Am I going to have to get two of these damn things?
Worry not. The different versions only dictate which dogs you have a choice of starting the game with. You’ll earn the rest of the dogs (even those in other versions) throughout the course of the game.
The only reason there are difference versions is so that the players can choose the version that allows them to use the breed they’d like from the begining.
I don’t mean to hijack things (too much) , but I’m not sure how much stock I put in these ‘big five’ in terms of my personal taste. Of those that I’ve played, they’re certainly good games, but I don’t think any of them would make it into my top five. Definitely I wouldn’t characterise them as deserving of a perfect score.
