Part of the “Launch Titles Revisited” feature
When the Nintendo DS came out, Nintendo revealed a new IP, Nintendogs. Nintendogs is a pet-simulator, in which you’re required to take care of a virtual dog, that means, you need to wash, feed and take the dog out for a walk. Once Nintendogs was released it was a commercial success, drawing in a large amount of gamers who didn’t know they were gamers. While it was critically well received, the main problem which I had with Nintendogs was the stale formula; it got a tad boring.
Has Nintendo fixed that this time around? Let’s take a look.
Nintendogs + Cats is a pet-simulation which sees you take care of a puppy, and also later in the game, a kitten. Nintendogs + Cats is presented beautifully with the animal models being quite detailed and fluidly animated. The environments while they aren’t equally detailed, they still look good. It still retains the cuteness from its predecessor. In terms of sound, the developers at Nintendo have got everything right. The dog barks are perfect, the cat meows are great too. The 3D effect is pretty good, especially when you’re taking your dog for a walk; you can really tell the distance. When you’re at home, the only good use of the 3D is when you call your dog over and you can see his/hers little head slightly popping out the screen. But even that will get boring after a while.
Nintendo has not added a lot to the gameplay, you still feed, wash, take your dog for a walk, teach it tricks and take it for competitions (to earn money). While Nintendo have made minor additions to gameplay such as now you can take your dog for a walk almost literally, you just close your Nintendo 3DS, put your 3DS in your pocket and it will count the number of steps you make then reward you. It’s a nice addition but it’s not a drastic step up from Nintendogs.
Another feature that Ninty has added is that you take Augmented Reality photographs of your dog. It’s a nice feature but it gets stale very quickly. Just the game on the whole, it just gets stale. It’s really because every feature is already available; there’s nothing to unlock. But this game is made for younger gamers, so I guess they couldn’t have made it too hard. Voice recognition has also been improved and it makes it less of a hassle to teach your dogs tricks.
A new addition to Nintendogs + Cats is SpotPass support. Nintendogs + Cats will automatically download new items, like in Animal Crossing: City Folk. Nintendogs + Cats also supports StreetPass. If you cross someone who owns a copy of Nintendogs + Cats, your 3DS will switch information such as your name, your dog’s name, a short message and a present for their dog. These additions help Nintendogs + Cats avoid getting stale, which is great. That’s the main problem I had with Nintendogs, it just got a bit boring. Unfortunately, Nintendogs + Cats suffers from the same problem has I’ve mentioned earlier. To combat boredom, I normally just play Nintendogs + Cats for 10-15 minutes each session, if I didn’t, I would be forcing myself to play it.
The problem with Nintendogs + Cats is not that it’s a bad, it’s a game that we’ve already played five years ago. It just feels like a remake with a few new additions and cats.
To conclude, I feel that Nintendogs + Cats is a great game but it just feels like a refined version of its predecessor. I don’t feel it’s worth $40, in fact, I feel it should be $30. If you’re a fan of pet-simulators then you should try Nintendogs + Cats as I feel it’s pet simulation at its best. But if you’ve already got a copy of Nintendogs, then skip Nintendogs + Cats as all you’re paying $40 just for updated graphics, 3D effect and a few more features.
Loved:
- Great graphics
- Gameplay is refined
- SpotPass and StreetPass support
Hated:
- Lack of innovative features
- Not a huge improvement from Nintendogs
7/10
Thanks to Nintendo UK for supplying me with a review copy.
