A Virtual Puppy

I absolutely adore dogs and wish I had the space in my house to have one of my own (apologies to my already existing menagerie of a bird and two cats). I found the perfect solution to that until I buy a house with a big yard.

While I was at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 Expo) recently, I had lots of fun playing with Nintendogs, one of Nintendo’s soon-to-be-released games. Mesmerized by the cuteness of these virtual dogs, the superior graphics, and the quality of the game itself, I’m sure I was really annoying the people waiting in line behind me. After the Nintendo employee finally kicked me off the console, I stood in line all over again just to play it again.

Nintendogs offers you a choice of 15 of the most popular dog breeds, including Labradors, Beagles, Chihuahuas, Poodles and Welsh Corgis. Each one has its own unique personality and variations in coloration and gender. Using the Nintendo DS’ touch screen and microphone, you care for and train your pup. It allows you to pet your puppy, train it with personalized voice commands, bathe it when it gets dirty, and acquire and play with more than 100 items. These include tennis balls, soccer balls, frisbees, jump ropes, clothing accessories and more.

As you go on in the game, train your pups well and compete in obedience and agility competitions. If you do well, win cash to buy supplies and even more pups. In addition, you can socialize your doggies by walking them around the town to meet other neighborhood dogs and possibly find new toys. These trips are good training to build stamina to prepare for those valuable competitions. The stamina will increase over time, allowing you to have your dogs explore farther and farther.

Nintendogs also works wirelessly, allowing you to interact with other Nintendogs users within range. Your DS can be programmed to bark when another puppy is near.

Last month in Japan, the Nintendogs release was responsible for single-handedly tripling the sales of Nintendo DS systems. It may just do the same here. I currently don’t own a DS yet, but I sure will before next month, as I highly anticipate Nintendogs’ release on August 22. The game is rated E for Everyone and will cost about $50 at your nearest video game retailer. There are three different Nintendogs packages to choose from, each with varying breeds. Check out www.nintendo.com to see demos of the game.