Nintendogs

Nintendo exclusive

A limited-edition bundle featuring a specially colored Nintendo DS system and a "Best Friends" edition of the best-selling Nintendogs. The special bundle-only version of Nintendogs let owners start with the six most popular breeds chosen from the three Nintendogs editions.

Released: 21 April 2005
Platforms: Nintendo DS
Genres: Simulation
Developers: Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development
Publishers: Nintendo
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: First person
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E
Languages: English
Copies sold: 24.0 million as of 2021-03-31

About

Nintendogs (stylized in all lowercase) is a 2005 pet simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was released in Japan, and was later released in: North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and other regions. It was originally released in three different versions: Dachshund & Friends, Lab & Friends (Shiba & Friends in Japan) and Chihuahua & Friends. It has been re-released twice, first as a bundled release with a special edition Nintendo DS with a new version called Nintendogs: Best Friends which was released only in US and later Australia and subsequently with Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends.

Nintendogs uses the DS's touchscreen and built-in microphone. The touch screen allows the player to pet a dog, as well as to use various items that can be found or purchased. These range from balls and frisbees, to toys, to grooming supplies to keep the dogs happy. The microphone is used to call to the player's dog by speaking the name given to the dog in the beginning of the game as well as to teach the dog tricks such as "sit" or "roll over".

Keywords

ds microphone use
nintendo ds tag mode

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Nintendogs, players assume ownership of and interact with virtual dogs. Actions such as petting, playing, walking, and grooming are performed using the DS touchscreen. The game also utilizes the DS microphone which allows players to call or teach their dog tricks. Dogs remain as puppies and cannot age, die, or reproduce.

Money can be earned by placing in competitions or selling items at the secondhand shop and can be used to purchase supplies, puppies and home decor. Dogs can be walked and can be taken to the park where they can practice disc catching skills for disc competitions and to the gymnasium to practice dog agility for agility trials. While walking, question mark icons on the map point out areas that may contain neighborhood dogs or presents, though presents can be found unmarked as well.

Development

First publicly mentioned in 1997, Shigesato Itoi (designer of EarthBound), Tsunekazu Ishihara (designer of Pokémon) and Shigeru Miyamoto codeveloped a Nintendo 64 prototype of a pet creature breeding game called Cabbage. Its four-year development was fundamentally enabled by the real-time clock and mass writability introduced in the requisite 64DD peripheral "such that even if the power is cut, [the game] can still raise the creature" and with optionally purchasable enhancement data. A subset of creature maintenance functionality would be made portable on the Game Boy and could be synchronized back to the 64DD disk, via the Transfer Pak. It was expected for release in 1998 and then, in 2000, but all further development was distracted.

In 2006, Miyamoto concluded: "It disappeared, didn't it ... However, the conversations and design techniques that popped up when we were making Cabbage are, of course, connected to Nintendogs and other things that we're doing now."

Reception

The game was well received by critics, with an average score of 85% at Game Rankings. In the May 2005 edition of the Famitsu, Japan's most popular gaming magazine, Nintendogs received a perfect 40/40 score. Only four other games had attained this score at the time. 5 out of 10 in Nintendo Power.

Game Informer gave Nintendogs an 8 out of 10, reflecting on the game's lack of an ending. Game Oracle gave it 85% and a recommendation saying that unlike most sims, it has a lot of depth.