The Nintendogs phenomenon is nothing to be sniffed at, with the original DS game selling close to 25 million copies worldwide since it's release in 2005, being one of Nintendo's best-selling titles for the DS to date.
And who can blame them? There's few who can look at a cute puppy without resisting the urge to 'awwww'. Some were expecting a sequel of sorts on the DS with felines - a Nintencats, if you will - but were left disappointed, as despite the Nintendogs creator, Shigeru Miamoto, speaking of how he would like to make a game with cats in, nothing ever came of it. Until now.
Can you walk your cats too?
nintendogs + cats is the sequel to the original Nintendogs game, only this time, there's an extra dimension, as it's walking it's way onto Nintendo's new 3DS handheld. And, as you've probably already guessed from the title, cat lovers around the world have finally been heard, as this time, there's a whole host of loveable moggies set to join the puppies - in 3D. At Nintendo's Discover 3DS event in Amsterdam a few weeks ago, we managed to get our paws on the game for a quick play - and, it's pretty much everything you could expect it to be.
Located in the appropriately-named Pet Shop section of the hall, we got to pick from one of the three starter dog and cat sets. Obviously, I picked the cutest set going, and preceded to dress them up - a flower behind it's ear seemed to suit the cat, and my puppy looked cool in his pair of sunglasses. Then we decided to have a little game of fetch, with a pink, squeaky mushroom - flicking the stylus forward threw the mushroom forward into the top screen, where it was promptly ignored completely by the dog. The cat, on the other hand, went mental at it, doing that all too familiar bottom-wiggle before pouncing on it, as well as patting it round the floor - just like a real cat. Stroking your new pets works in much the same way as in the first game - touch the button on the touch screen to call your animal over to you, and then stroke the silhouette of it using the stylus, while a 3D version shows it's appreciation on the top screen. But those who like to squee - be warned! The extra dimension will make your puppy or kitten look all the more real - more furry, fluffy and huggable - so get ready to go 'awwwwwww' as it puts it's paws on the bottom of the top screen, and looks as though it's literally climbing out of your console to say hello.
Beach balls - more popular with dogs than mushrooms.
Beyond being able to play with your cats and dogs (which, admittedly, kept me entertained for a while), the demo didn't really seem to consist of an awful lot - which got me wondering about the longevity of the title. I played the original nintendogs a bit, and even though I love animals, I tend to find virtual pet games are never as entertaining as the real thing. Needless to say, I got bored of it eventually, as there wasn't an awful lot to do - and trying to train your dog to obey the commands you said into the microphone was a never-ending nightmare.
That being said, Nintendo are Nintendo - this is the same company that took the original Wii Sports (which wasn't really much more than a tech demo) and turned it into Wii Sports Resort, packing in more than double the sports and several variations of each to make one of the best mini-game/sports compilations on the Wii, with a heck of a lot of replay value. If nintendogs + cats gets the same treatment, it'll sell by the million.
