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Preview  Nintendogs
- By Lander Clinton


The time to play Nintendogs here at E3 was very short. There was a long line to play this one and for a good reason- it's fun!

Once you get over buying a game with a cute puppy on the box, you'll find a very deep game with lots to do.

You can take your dog for a walk, brush it, pet it, bathe it, teach it tricks with your microphone, throw a toy and have it catch it, and, best of all, let it interact with other dogs around the world.

The 3D graphics in the game are perfect for what you should be seeing, a realistic dog. I should say "puppy," since your dog will never grow up. I asked if the game used the DS clock to age the dog, or if you didn't play for a year would it have died of starvation, and the answer was no. It may use the clock for a day and night system, or perhaps if you don't play with it for enough time or reinforce its tricks every so often, it will not like you or forget what you taught.

You can monitor your dog on the top screen while in your menu screens on the bottom, but when you don't need to change items, the dog will be on the bottom screen.

There won't be a need for computerized dogs to interact with, since by the time the game comes out, the DS online WiFi network will be around, and you can visit the real virtual dogs created by other real people. Some of you gamers aren't real, let's be honest.

I don't expect Nintendogs to have the same impact as Pokemon, since there's no story and it's hard to make a TV show out of it, but I can see it having the same impact as Tomagotchis from a few years back.

Sit, Booboo, sit. Good dog.

- 5.20.2005