Nintendogs - Dachshund review:
4 stars (Surprisingly playable) - I honestly thought my seven-year-old would tire of playing with an electronic dog after an hour or so. (Remember Tamagotchi -- those creepy electronic pets that we all killed a few years ago?) But he now has three dogs that he walks, trains and plays with for a few hours each week. He runs over to show me the latest trick and buys them toys while managing his money.
We recently went to a game store and participated in a Nintendogs promotion where he received a new free toy for his pets. He was thrilled!
My only complaint, which isn't really a complaint, is that we don't find many people in "bark mode" so our dogs can play together. Probably a consequence of living out in the middle of nowhere, but not a reflection on the game itself.
3 stars (Good game, but you can only play for 30 minutes) - This is a good game. You raise a pet and come to love it. You can get 2 others and watch them play around. The only problem with the game that not alot of people are mentioning is the fact that the game won't let you do stuff repeatedly.
You can only go out on one walk every 30 minutes. You can only teach your dog 3 tricks a day. You can only enter 3 contests a day. You can't pet your dog for too long else he becomes agitated. You can only feed him once and a while.
It's amazing how they limit you, because after maybe 15 minutes you can't do anything else with your dog and you have to put the game down.
3 stars (Definitely not what it's hyped up to be...) - I was looking forward to the release of this game for various reasons, but mainly because it looks innovative, original, and fun. I had read the reviews on here, and so many people had given the game such high praise so I decided that it must be worth it. When I played, though, I was disappointed: 1) The voice controls are unfulfilling. You have to be in an ABSOLUTELY QUIET environment for the system to even pick up what you said, and I mean even if there are other people in the room having a quiet conversation and you try to give the dog a command, it will not pick it up correctly. It's true, though, that that's really the DS system's fault and not the games. However, it greatly impedes the game. Furthermore, if other people want to play it, they can't use the voice controls because it only recognizes your voice. Some people view that as a pro, but I see it as a con. (2) You can't have more than one file. It seems that almost every game has a selection of saved files you can choose from, but not this one. When you start the game, it immediately takes you to your dog, and there are NO file options whatsoever. (3) I just don't see where the fun in the game lies. To me, scratching the screen with a stylus repititiously to pet the dog just gets boring. Yes, you can enter your dog in competitions and take them for walks, but the dog has to have moderately long intervals between each walk/competition to "rest". Likewise, your dog can only learn a certain amount each day, and by learning I mean learning certain commands. You do reach a point where you're stuck with nothing to do but pet the dog, and a lot of people have commented that they play with this game "for hours on end", but I just don't understand HOW.
That aside, the game is realistic, but if you wanted something realistic, why don't you just get a real dog? To me, this idea just doesn't work as a game. People argue that The Sims is the same concept, but The Sims is totally different: you can do illimitable amounts of ventures and actions in that game. You're really confined when it comes to Nintendogs. But hey, if you like scratching screens over and over, then this just might be for you. |
