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Review: Nintendogs
All that said, it is easily the most enjoyable Tamagotchi ripoff I've ever played with. When you first start the game, you're presented with a trip to the puppy mill. There are three versions of the game, and each one has different dog breeds available to play with. I got "Miniature Dachshund and Friends", and along with the title breed you also get the option to adopt Shih Tzu, Golden Retrievers, Beagles, Pugs, or Siberian Huskies. Even if you choose a larger breed, you needn't worry about ruined furniture; the dogs in this game are eternal puppies. Once you've gotten a puppy, the game puts you through a quick tutorial ... and then you're on your own. If you just want to sit around and rub your dog's tummy all day, that's cool.
On the other hand, if you just have to do something constructive with your puppy you can teach your critter tricks. By moving the stylus in certain ways, you can get your pup to approximate certain positions (sit, lie down) or actions (roll over, chase your tail). When they perform the trick with your stylus prompting, a little light bulb shows up on screen. If you press the icon, you're given the chance to say something into the built in microphone. Say roughly the same thing enough times, and your dog will associate that vocal imprint with the trick. The key with this is that, as good an idea as it is, the microphone isn't all that great. Multiple words (like "sit down" or "chase your tail") with distinct sounds are the best way to get the wee canine to do what you want.
Once you have it following your voice you can do what every dog owner dreams of: enter it in contests! Actually, the contests are phenomenally boring and are hosted by two incredibly annoying virtual yahoos. The only reason to enter a contest is if you want money ... and you're going to need it. In order to pick up dogs from the kennel, you need to spend money on them. At the start of the game you have more than enough to buy one dog, but if you want to buy any more you're definitely going to need to enter a few contests. Despite the annoyance factor, you've just got to do it. Having two dogs in the house is part of the whole fun of the game. The easiest contest is the obedience contest, which asks you to have your dog perform certain tricks in a specific order prompted by the game. You also have the option of entering your pooch into a frisbee competition or an obstacle course event. The frisbee toss is relatively easy once you get the hang of it, but the control for the obstacle course is terrible. Even with practice it's hard to know what the dog is going to do. Whether it's going to understand your stylus clicks enough to go through the little doggie tube in a timely fashion is critical to success in the contest, and the control just isn't there.
Personally, I much preferred one-on-one time with my dog (a Siberian Husky named Lupus) in the house or taking it for walks. Going for a walk isn't a terribly interactive event, but your dog enjoys it a whole lot. From your house you plan out the walking route, and can aim yourself and your dog at places like the park or the obstacle course arena. At the park you can play catch or practice with your frisbee, and at the arena you can get in some time with the awful jumps and tubes for the obstacle course competition. There are also cheaper second hand stores than the corner store near your place, where you can buy toys, food, and water. A walk mostly consists of you holding the dog's leash while it chugs along, occasionally stopping to wizz or poop. There are occasional points of interest, where your dog might find a gift for you or run into another dog owner out for a walk. The presents are cute, ranging from odd objects that you can use to play with your dogs to even odder fashion items that you can cruelly place on your animal. The other dog owners are know-it-alls, and seek to give you unasked for hints about how you should best play the game.
And really, who cares what they think? Nintendogs is entirely about what you can get out of it. Whatever makes you laugh or get warm fuzzies is the right thing for you to do. For example, for a reason that escapes me Nintendo thought that it would be important for you to know every place in the neighborhood that your dog has peed. They're marked by little blue dots on the mini-map showing your progress on your walk. The more your dog pees in a certain spot, the larger the dot gets. Though I know it isn't always the case with Nintendogs, Lupus only peed in places he'd already done so. By the time I was ready to write this article the mini-map resembled a smurf's version of mapquest.
The intelligence and responsiveness of the virtual puppies, as well as their individual personalities, is quite a sight to behold. Not only can you derive enjoyment from your interaction with the dogs, but if you have more than one in your house you can watch them play with each other. Some dogs are playful, some are lazy, and some are troublemakers. Together, a pair or trio of dogs is almost more than you can comprehend. You can only actually play with one dog at a time, but that doesn't stop the puppies from getting right up against the touch screen and struggling for your attention. Lupus and my wife's dog Erin would constantly battle each other for chew toys, affection, and (thanks their exuberant natures) who got to be standing at any given time. If you like animals at all, it's hard not to smile at the image of two happy puppies literally warring for your attention. Nintendo has really captured something intrinsic to the appeal of having a dog for a pet here, and everyone I've shown the game to has had a hard time putting it down. Even without the voice element (the voice commands only work for the dog's owner, obviously) it's hard not to be drawn in by their enthusiasm and wagging tails.
In the end, this unique title for the DS is all about who you are and the connection you can form with little virtual critters. If the idea of a virtual puppy isn't appealing to you, you're probably not going to get a lot of enjoyment out of Nintendogs. If the venerable PC titles "Catz" and "Dogz" were your thing back in the day or you were one of the people that made sure your Tamagotchi was fed regularly, these pups will be right up your alley. Judging by sales numbers the non-hardcore market has already adopted this title, and a dog of their own. Your mileage may vary, but Nintendo has a real accomplishment here.
These concepts go a bit further back than Tamogachi, i.e. David Crane's Little Computer People, which today would be something akin to a cross between Tamogachi and Sims, as you could interact with some little dude who lived in your C64. I thought it was a bizzare idea when I first saw in in development at Activision in Mountain View, back in 1985 (that's twenty years ago!) and it runs in only 64K of memory. Imagine David Crane coming out of retirement or someone else picking this old nut back up and injecting it with new life. IIRC the main fault of LCP was the limited repetoire of the character, which Nintendogs seems to take advantage of technology (i.e. lots of cheap memory) to hold more behaviour and possible courses of action.
I'd probably lean toward some other animal than a dog. A cat would be easy, it just eats and sleeps most of the time, though you could enjoy the thrill of virtual litterbox cleaning and dragging a string around while the cat chases, or even give it a brown paper shopping bag to hide in.
What animal would really make for an ideal pet? I've tried spiders, which are actually fascinating pets and that might be cool in a virtual way.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I need to feed my Tamagotchi!
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
It's an excellent title and it's clear that an amazing amount of work has gone into making these critters very lifelike. I do have a dog IRL and the puppy behaves very much like him. There are of course still some limits (it's obvious that there are lots of event triggers, that can make things look unrealistic), but generally it's just an amazing piece of software and a great toy.
Now if you'll pardon me I'm off to win the master series in disc throwing ^_^
Against the grain
WTF is non-game games?
I'm done with electronic petting since I've switched to an optical mouse and I don't have to do with the furballs that used to collect inside my mice anymore...! ;)
Let me be the first to say it:
Awwwww. Ain't it cute?
What's interesting about the game is that it is really designed to be played for about 30 or so minutes at a time. You start it up, teach the dog some more tricks (I think it's 2 max per day), take it for a walk (which you can only do every 30 minutes), and train it for competitions. So must of the fun in the game comes from all the little details and things that happen as you perform the main tasks, and watching your dog change (my shy chihuahua grew "more confident" as I kept taking her for walks...she eventually started to listen to my commands better).
The only thing I wish for is that the dogs could grow up. I always thought it was fun watching that happen in older games like Dogz.
play around with it. It's a fantastic game, and designed with great care to detail.
If you still dont' like it then you have no soul, and I fear for your current, or potential future off spring.
sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays!
The game is fun. It sounds dumb, but it's fun. If you play it and can honestly say you didn't enjoy it, I'd say there's something not hooked right in your brainpan. PUPPIES!
No, this is not the best they could come up with. Nor is it original. There were versions almost exactly the same known just as "Dogz" and "Catz" in the early 90s. I think you're just jealous because A: you never had a tomogachi and B: you still want nintendogs
Really? They were all forgotten in a month? Wow, I still play with my Pocket Pikachu. What does that make me?
>The tamagotchie was never good. It was an impulse buy, a status symbol. All of them were forgotten in less then a month. The fact that Nintendo has tried to revive it is pathetic.
World of Anime
A non-game game where you enter numbers into spreadsheet cells. Sounds like non-fun to me.
This is another example of Nintendo's gaming genius. Take a simple idea, make the gameplay simple to get to grips with, but program it well.
The game has been well thought out with some nice touches, but has not been made over-complex.
Games like this show that you do not need a top spec machine with flashy graphics to run an addictive game. Some of the most addictive games ever made have been simple, but they have a hidden depth (playability).
Well done to Nintendo, lets hope they keep up the good work.
For example, for a reason that escapes me Nintendo thought that it would be important for you to know every place in the neighborhood that your dog has peed. They're marked by little blue dots on the mini-map showing your progress on your walk. The more your dog pees in a certain spot, the larger the dot gets. Though I know it isn't always the case with Nintendogs, Lupus only peed in places he'd already done so. By the time I was ready to write this article the mini-map resembled a smurf's version of mapquest.
It's rumored that the dogs use this to mark territories. Notice that if you meet another dog during your walk, sometimes the mini-map will highlight the other dog's pee spot by making it blink in red, as though you're entering its territory. At this point, it's unknown what effect this has on the two dogs becoming playmates or fighting. There are a ton of weird undocumented little things like this in the game. I found a stick and a juice bottle, and I accidentally bopped my dog in the head with them during catch, and now he just growls and them and runs away when I bring them out. But he loves my kleenex box. Weird little virtual dogs, man.
"Sufferin' succotash."
... compared to my favourite new game.
Nintengirls!
Japanese Product Page
Some blog
English Box Shot
Here's a crazy idea: if you don't like the idea, don't play the game. Everything then magically works out fine.
In Japan, this game is getting a LOT of casual and female gamers into the DS, which is good for Nintendo and good for the DS and good for gaming. These are people who never would have played games before, maybe because they didn't find them interesting or were intimidated by them. My girlfriend, for example, fell in love with Nintendogs the moment she saw it, and wants a DS now. Because of that interest, she's been paying a bit more attention to other DS games: she also wants Pac Pics, and she gets a kick out of Ouendan.
I'm not hoping for her to become a hardcore gamer or anything, but I like that she now has some interest in it, so that we have another thing we can share together.
I still play with my Pocket Pikachu.
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
Holy shit guys, Donald Rumsfeld is writing for Slashdot now! I would try out Nintendogs, but I just have too many known unknowns.
So Nintendogs is a computerized experience designed to produce interactive enjoyment. How exactly is it not a "game"?
If other sandbox titles like The Sims can be considered games, I don't see any reason why Nintendogs doesn't deserve the title.
Some people have been having trouble with their dog recognizing vocal commands, until they realized they were leaning forward and practically yelling into the DS mic. The mic is very sensitive, and you only need to speak clearly at room-level volume with the DS at a normal distance, and the game will recognize your voice much more clearly.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Here in Italy on eBay they're selling a Nintendo DS that will be signed and delivered personally by Eva Henger (formerly a pornstar) including a copy of Nintendogs.. guess what will be the final price..
No. I've heard you can get other games for the DS too.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
"The fact that Nintendo has tried to revive it is pathetic."
No, the fact that is pathetic is that you think Nintendogs could possibly be an attempt by Nintendo to revive Tamagotchi. The only resemblance it has to Tamagotchi at all is that the player takes care of a virtual pet. The game itself is extremely innovative, but with comments like you're making you don't seem the type to actually know about something before shooting your mouth off, so I doubt you'd know innovation if it hit you in the head. Your comments are uninformed and insipid - get a life and stop polluting the net with your feeble attempts at commentary.
Another pathetic fact is that for some reason Nintendogs is not considered a game because it doesn't adhere to the established formulae. That is a very narrow view to have. It begs the question, how do we define what a "game" is? Well if you believe what's printed here http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=game you might get the idea that "game" has a pretty broad definition.
Nintendogs is not only a game, it's a good game. The industry needs a lot more innovation like this if it's going to survive the deluge of cookie-cutter crap churned out by the likes of EA and Sony.
Could one call this non-fanmail?
You can buy it here: Nintendogs - Chihuahua . And if you use the "secret" A9.com discount, you can save an extra 1.57%!
Bah, my pets were never that well-behaved. Bringing the frisbee back to you after you threw it - what is the fun in that? No, with my dogs you had to chase them down and pry it out of their mouths, while defending from the other dogs that were also trying to get at it. It made for some awesome games of base^H^H^H^Hcalvin ball.
Which brings me to the question of why these role playing games never include any decent side games. From everything I have talked to this game has the pet-owner emotional attachment parts down to a tee, but then you have all the boring things, that you would have in real life. I guess it has the redeeming factor of teaching kids responsibility, but as an adult I have enough of that, so it just comes acrossed as meaningless busy work - the infamous grind. Why not make the contests where you earn money more fun mini-games?
If you look at the old Atari games, most of them were nothing but mini games, and they fun. Now you have all these MMORPGs, where advancement and community is the entertaining aspect of the game, while the things you do to advance are dull, dull, dull. Something that Nintendo does very well in nearly all their games is combining fun gameplay with the opportunity for advancement (new things to unlock). I am still waiting for someone to create a MMORPG, take a cue from the old Atari games and newer games like Super Monkeyball, Mario Party, and approach the advancement tasks like they were mini-games that are fun to play in and of themselves. They would have to do a little more work to integrate them into the game (for immersion and all that), preferably happening in the same world. For example, being in a race should be implemented more like vehicles in FPS, rather than like Mario party where map screen and game screens are completely different. They would also have to include multiplayer coop games for the community aspects, and have different characters classes and stats would result in diffent advantages in the games. If anyone ever did this, it would be pure crack.
The nice thing about this game is that it can appeal to gamers and non gamers alike... Nintendo is really trying to reach out to the people that typically wouldn't pick up a gaming system, which is smart IMO. An untapped sector of the market.
Last week, the comic strip Foxtrot dealt with the mom and her wanting to play Nintendogs... it was pretty funny. Here's the first day's comic, click "next date" to read the days following.
I wanted to try this game but Nintendogs was sold out at all the local stores I tried. I was told that they don't expect any more until the end of September. I easly found a major online retailer that had it in stock and ordered it from them.
This is a trial game to make sure they have the controls and gameplay working....then....
We will get the POKEMON version, where you actualy raise and train your pokemon before going off to fight with him/her.
Then watch the sales rocket (people will then dump their Pocket Pikachu's).
I am so sick and tired of Zonk and his bullshit around here I seriously am thining of ditching Slashdot altogether. After many years of faithful readership, I'm pretty much done.
/. yet.
It can't have been all that faithful if you haven't figured out how to remove articles from your personal view of
Go to http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=edithome. Click the Homepage tab at the top. Turn off the checkmark next to "Zonk" or anybody else you don't want to see.
It's not that difficult, guy.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I don't have a Nintendo handheld, but I do have my own dog who will forever think he's just a little puppy. Besides that, I've already spent hundreds of dollars on him, I can ACTUALLY pet him, ACTUALLY feed him, and ACTUALLY watch him and his antics as he tries to "play" (read: hump) the cats. So this sounds even dumber than the Tomaguchi game-thingy.
I really applaud Nintendo for wanting to pushthe boundaries of what people can enjoy on portable devices. That is what it is in the end. We are too obsessed with the word "video game" that we don't think beyond that word.
If you work in the games industry, stop right now. Change your way of thinking. You are not in the GAMES industry. You are in the INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT industry. You are also in the business of creating FUN.
With those two labels in hand, you can see that your job is not coming up with a yet another way to move a stupid character around collecting and shooting stuff. Your job is to come up with things for people to have fun with.
I just hop people listen to what Nintendo is preaching.
I got Nintedogs about two weeks ago, and I enjoyed it for about the first week. Now it's starting to get old. The problem is that you have to actually feed the dog everyday. Shouldn't a virtual pet have the benefit of not having to be fed and washed like a real dog? I even tried setting the DS's game clock backwards to try to fool it, but it somehow knows if you've done that. The last straw was when one of the virtual people in the game yelled at me for not picking up my dog's virtual poop. Nintendogs needs a virtual shotgun so that I can end it Old Yeller style.
Perhaps you could tell us which publication, web site, or whatever you write for, so we could sample your work, and from it, form a more informed evaluation of the merits of you criticism?
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
I am becoming more and more worried about the big N. They are falling into the same hole that they started digging around the time the 'cube was released; the only truly innovative games (Warioware, Kirby, Nintendogs, etc.) are only being released by Nintendo. The GBA and its predecessors were vastly supported by many third parties. The gamecube hasn't been and it appears that the DS might now have the same problem. With the mystical controller of the Revolution I am concerned that any special features on it will only be supported 1st party.
http://www.tomandemily.com
Obviously if Nintendo can make such a game with dogs, they can also do the same with cats, mice, rats, rabbits. Taking some of these for a walk might be a problem, although I did have a neighbour who used to keep a cat indoors in her flat and take it out for a walk while on a leash.
But if anyone enjoys taking dogs out for walks for real while not having the space for a pet at home, then they should consider a visit to their local animal sanctuary. They are usually always in need for "dog walkers" - someone who will take one or more dogs out for a 30 minute walk, and occassionally "cat cuddlers" - someone who will give cats the attention they want.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
If you think the obstacle course is hard you are doing it wrong.
/me is off to go to a real training class with my pup now //much cuter than any virtual pet
You are probably doing what I was doing, just tapping and hoping your puppy will go there. The trick is to keep the stylus on the screen and drag the route, your pup will follow it and you can guide it perfectly. (after a few tries for the pup to learn)
Also remember to slow your pup down on the see-saw bye dragging the stylus to a point behind him after he crosses the middle, to let it drop, or your pup will get scared and jump off.
Logic brings Victory
like Playboy mansion?
I really like helping my little Heugh Hefner get some tail and take naughty pictures.
Just a nit -- I find the agility contest control to be about the most precise control in the game. The key is quick reflexes to steer your dog away from potential distractions. I've got three dogs in my game and they all get distracted differently; it's about learning how they react, I think.
I've had this game since August 11 and have played it every day since. Awesome game.
In Japan, this game is getting a LOT of casual and female gamers into the DS, which is good for Nintendo and good for the DS and good for gaming.
In general, the Nintendo pocket systems (GameBoys, and now the DS) have had more games that appeal to girls than any other system. My son, age 16, and daughter, age 12, have been gamers since they could push buttons. We have at least one of nearly every game system ever made. My son plays many different games on all of them - there are a lot of games that appeal to males. My daugther rarely useses anything except her GBA or DS - that is where the games that appeal to her run.
Funny story - my daughter had a DS on day one, and was the first on her school bus to have one. Quote from a jealous 11 year old boy: "You got a DS!! No way! Girls can't play video games!"
Proud dad story - daughter got the DS because son bought it for her, with his own hard-earned cash!
If God had meant for man to see the sunrise, He would have scheduled it later in the day.
I know that this comment will be trashed to hell and back and yes, I know that Zonk was just using a phrase but please, those of you who are considering getting a pet do not go to puppy mills (or kitten mills).
The animals are kept in cramped, deplorable conditions. Instead of having some semblance of a decent life the females are impregnated as fast as they can. It doesn't matter if the one doing the impregnating is one of her offspring, so long as she is pregnant is all the breeder cares about.
If you're considering getting a pet please go to either your local Humane Society or a reputable non-profit animal shelter. Your new companion will thank you for giving it a good home where it is wanted.
Also, please remember to spay/neuter your new friend. If that simple act were done the tens of thousands of animals a year who are dropped off at shelters or abandoned along a road would be significantly reduced.
I now return you to your normally scheduled rantings about whatever you think is worthy of your time.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The frisbee toss is relatively easy once you get the hang of it, but the control for the obstacle course is terrible. Even with practice it's hard to know what the dog is going to do. Whether it's going to understand your stylus clicks enough to go through the little doggie tube in a timely fashion is critical to success in the contest, and the control just isn't there.
... almost running parts of the course on his own.
Take a walk and visit the gym before trying the Agility Trial. You'll have a chance to run your dog through each obstacle enough times to really get the hang of it.
After a while, the dog will run through the tube on his own, learn to manage the see-saw on his own, and even do the slalom on his own.
Hell, mine's started to figure out where the next obstacle is
"When you first start the game, you're presented with a trip to the puppy mill."
Thanks for promoting the unnecessary breeding of dogs in shitty conditions, Nintendo. Does the game let you pick out a lovable (and often healthier) mutt from a rescue group or shelter?
Relax. The guy that wrote the review was just trying to be "funny" apparently. When the game starts, you go to the Kennel to get your dog, not a puppy mill.
Back in the Tamagatchi era, I worked in a retail store that sold them. I could never get over the emotions attached to the toy - specifically the sadness people would have over their deaths (read: battery loss, water, older brothers, fights, etc). At one instance a little girl was balling over her Tamagatchi's death (due to battery loss) and refused to have her mother buy her a new one - she wanted her old one back. She was so distraught that I decided to step in and be the humanitarian. I told her I would try to bring it back, and took her toy over to the batteries department. Luckily they had the right size, so I popped the back off, slapped the new battery in, and replaced the facing. At the initial chirp the girl freaked out, latched onto my leg in exuberant gratitude, while the mother thanked me (apparently the girl had cried non-stop for two days now) for pacifying her daughter. Soon after other parents of this girl's friends approached me - all asking me to help bring their kids toys back from the dead. Smelling a pretty penny to be made off the irrational suffering of children I started dolling out my phone number and made house calls on the side. I was raking in $15.00 per house call off of a dollar battery install. Unfortunately the replacement batteries outlived the Tamagatchi phase. Such is the whim of children.
This irrational concern for the artificial seems strange to me. I have seen girls all out ignore flesh and blood cats for the Catz program, or in the same vein shun real dogs for Sony's Ibo. I would be curious to see a study on the empathetic relationship between people and their real animals versus people and their real animals plus the artificial ones. I would think the latter would be a bit more twisted since digital pets reinforce the "use, abuse, throw away" relationship. *shrug* I guess that is why there are alligators in the sewers, and feral cat colonies in the country - some people just cannot take care of something.
Well enough of memory lane..
Did the non-reviewer try out the wireless mode of play, or would that make the non-review a true review?
ch ch ch chia
Well, his profile on his blog says he is a network administrator, so I'm betting he writes game reviews only on said blog. Here's a sample sentence from his review of the latest Harry Potter book:
"What I find myself thinking through this one is if only all of the series had been written as this one, just how much better they could have been."
Pure poetry. Here's another from "Buying a Game Cube."
"Mario Party 5 was the first to get some action and it was a fun time, I was a bit lucky and still trounced her but it was as competitive, even, and fun a non-gamer and a hardcore gamer can have together."
Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
A cat would be easy, it just eats and sleeps most of the time, though you could enjoy the thrill of virtual litterbox cleaning and dragging a string around while the cat chases, or even give it a brown paper shopping bag to hide in.
You're forgetting about putting a sock on its head.
A non-game game where you enter numbers into spreadsheet cells. Sounds like non-fun to me.
Way better than Yet Another FPS that seems to be all the industry cranks out now.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Virtual pets are ALWAYS more fun to abuse than treat properly. I used to have a tamagotchi, and I would punish the animal after every time I fed it. I was kind of surprised when it started associating punishment with feeding and started refusing food.
Of course, then I started punishing it for not eating...
...welcome our virtual puppy overlords
$ cat
?
?
hey cat theres a mouse overthere go get it
hey cat theres a mouse overthere go get it
asdf
asdf
quit
quit
^C
$
Stupid cat.
Those chickens aren't wild. No chicken is.
However, have you ever tested the intelligence of a chicken? Wily hunters they are not. They are good at pecking, and thinking about one thing at a time. Usually it's "what do i peck?" or "blink, eye"- then they peck. Then they think "what do I peck?" - then they peck again, or maybe they look in another direction or take a step, then it's back to picking a pecking target.
Chicken: Bug? >peckstrutblink
Cat: prey. must. get. low. stalk. and. KILL!!!!
The only thing I wish for is that the dogs could grow up. I always thought it was fun watching that happen in older games like Dogz.
Maybe you'll be able to import your Nintendog into a Nintendog Show game for the new Nintendo platform when it comes out.
Makes sense, as you have to have a DS to play it, so it would encourage people to buy both and "trade" dogs or take them for the "dog show circuit" for extra training.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"If you just want to sit around and rub your dog's tummy all day, that's cool."
What if I want to be like Eric Cartman and play red rocket with the pup? Can I do that?
Click here. Uh oh. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
and now it's rubbing its bottom across the carpet and getting brown bits all over it...
BAD NINTENDOG!! BAD BAD!!!
So I guess none of us should criticize poor **insert ANY kind of job/skillset here** unless we can do better?
So it's OK for your car mechanic to do a poor job, because YOU can't do better yourself? We can't criticize the President because we have not been President?
If it looks like shit, smells like shit, you don't need to be a shit expert to call it what it is: SHIT!
There is not much wireless to speak of. Both my GF and I have DS's and Nintendogs, and the extent of "Bark Mode" is that you transfer your dog and trainer info over to the other person's DS and then the wireless shuts off. It then becomes identical to meeting another dog in the park where you play with your puppy and the other person's puppy.
We figured this out the hard way when my GF asked me if she saw the amazing catch my dog made with the frisbee, when I was throwing a tennis ball around on my screen. Eventually the dogs "go home" and that's the end of Bark Mode. Pretty disappointing.
i'd like to see the following:
seGazelles - avoid cheetahs and stuff
xbOxen - pull heavy loads, enter into county fairs
playstatioNarwhals - check out that horn!
or wait, better yet
uniXorns - friggin' unicorns, yo!
MS WindOWLS - hoo! hoo!
ok im retarded.
"when the sun sets on the ghetto, all the broken stuff gets cold"
Warioware Touched and Kirby Canvas Curse typify the ways that Nintendo wants game designers to begin thinking about using their hardware. Nintendo wants game designers to touch their hardware?!
...Zonk does really, really suck at this. That Hulk review was unbelievably, painfully bad. This one is a POS, too. Get lost, Zonk!
Just don't get a dog at all. Stick to the ones in software. That vast majority of dog owners are ass-holes about it. I can't count the number of times I've heard a dog owner rationize leaving their dog unleashed because "my dog doesn't bite". Every dog owner tells the same story. "But I treat my dog right". Well, unless your a duck hunter or a seeing eye dog trainer, you are problably one of the ass-holes.
Dogs are pack animals that work off of an alpha-male system. Dogs WANT to be commanded. This tells them their place in the pecking order. When you treat a dog like a person, you confuse it. You let it believe that it is the alpha, and that means your excuse of "my dog doesn't bite" is just guess work.
Because, um, you didn't read the review or any other descriptions of Nintendogs, which does include what you're asking for? Whatever "everything" you're talking to, it seems not to have played this one.
My kids have a copy of Nintendogs. They play some sort of frisbee contest, a lot, and then there are actual agility training schools and contests. Both of those run as separate little arcade sequences, almost, with slight variations on the control system for each. The side games let you unlock various equipment and so on, as well as earning you money to purchase that stuff. Does this ring a bell, "mini side game" wise?
(And let me say, your Calvinball chases were a great example of positive reinforcement training. The game the dog was playing was called "keep away." They learn to do that because they get reinforced for doing it -- they enjoy the attention, running around, and so on. Check out a basic operant conditioning book for a description of how you trained Fido to do that. It's kind of an interesting topic -- and to its credit the Nintendogs model seems to "get" that sort of training, which a lot of real-life dog owners don't understand at all.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
well, seing as how you are looking at my personal BLOG, and it is not a professional outlet for me... that surely must be indicitive of my work.
/. lately and good 'ol Zonk's non-stop crap then welcome to my ignore list.
I am a network admin for a mid-sized bank, most game reviewers are not "full-time" per say. If they are they live in their parent's basement and eat Ramen Noodles.
My work has appeared in Stuff Magazine, Rotten Tomatoes, GamePaK, GamezCore, ps2insider.com, Snowball.com Network, UGE Network, and I provide playtesting for Atlas, Capcom, and NCSoft. So yeah, I must be full of shit.
My girlfriend also posts things on the blog, and it is by no means a serious thing. Say what you will, I really could care less. If you honestly enjoy the path of
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
This type of application will get a lot more interesting when displays get so cheap we can paper our walls with them, so virtual pets can literally roam around the house - following you or playing hide'n'seek.
I am well aware of the feature. Why is this everyone's response to a shitty editor? Do you understand that people PAY to get the latest stories on Slashdot? If you paid to get Zonk's stories 10 minutes earlier than everyone else, would you feel like you were getting your money's worth? I don't think so. I'm not a subscriber, nor will I ever be to get midless drivel a few minutes before everyone else has to suffer through it.
Go back through Zonk's posts, notice a pattern, yeah.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Thanks ;) Nicer words have never been uttered by an AC.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Well, to be honest, /. has been going to hell for years. Zonk isn't that bad, but he's not that good either.
Hopefully you edit the stuff you write professionally better than the stuff you blog. No offense, but the things I read on your blog are no better than the things Zonk writes. You should work on the run-on sentences and punctuate a little better.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Don't get me wrong, I like the 'game,' its a very interesting simulation, but I ran out of things to do. you can walk the dog, go shopping, have it compete in contests, or just play with it in the house. the game has no real sense of purpose, and no real progression, and everything you can do in the first day of owning the game is exactly what you can do on the 8th. I really wanted to like nintendogs, but its already boring me. i've moved on to a new guilty pleasure for ds: "Nightmare Troubadour," which I can HIGHLY reccomend to anyone interested in collectible card games but doesn't want to spend a fortune making the perfect deck.... but i digress.
I wish I still wanted to play Nintendogs, but it has gotten boring already.. which makes me sad, because it could have had real potential.
If more than 5 people looked at it including my girlfriend and I, I may care a bit. I actually worked as an editor for Snowball.com Network (which used to own IGN) and also was a National English Merit Award Winner in 1998. I sometimes just write off the top of my head, and quickly, while on the blog as well as here. I know that is a poor excuse, but honestly I try to make my posts easily readable and with close to perfect punctuation and such. Honestly, if you look through my posts they don't come anywhere near eye-bleed levels as some do.
I have no problem with criticism, but to base my entire credibility on a few personal blog entries is a bit of a stretch.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
If I wanted to raise a dog i'd be playing Black&White at least over there I could teach it to:
1) Toss villagers
2) Eat villagers
Not at all. If you want to look at the effort done by somebody and offer specific criticisms of it, fine. To issue blanket statements that just blast somebody's work without ACTUALLY CRITICIZING THE WORK ITSELF, and just insulting the person who wrote it, then yeah I'll ask you to put up or stfu.
So it's OK for your car mechanic to do a poor job, because YOU can't do better yourself? We can't criticize the President because we have not been President?
It's not ok for me to say, "God my mechanics is an incompetant douchebag" without providing any evidence of my specific complaint, or demonstrating that would know a competant mechanic from a shitty one. Compare and contrast.
"This is a game interview? How about addressing blah blah or touching on blah blah. When you review games, you ought to blah blah blah and Zonk just blah blah blah."
Versus:
"omg stfu zonk u suq omg lol"
Or, to use your analogy.
"My car mechanic is a total stupid moron who can't fix cars to save his ass." This is just an insult.
"My car mechanic is completely incompetant, I brought my Toyota in for a battery change and he somehow dislodged the air hose and then clearly never drove it because when I got it on the road it wouldn't shift out of 2nd gear." If it looks like shit, smells like shit, you don't need to be a shit expert to call it what it is: SHIT!
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
Anyone have a good reason?
Is anyone really interested in this?
I'm not saying its not a good game, just that it has no place on slashdot.
I think you are full of shit. Suck my cock and get back to work.
At least the puppies can't throw bitter cynicism at you like Seaman
-ZMorek
Having just picked this up for my DS a few days ago, I have to say it's one of the most interesting things I'm ever played with... at least from a technical stand point. The AI is incredibly adaptive to the environment and the user, developing your dog's personality over time. As a tech demo of things to come, Nintendogs is amazing and deserves some respect.
Now, imagine some new applications for the Nintendogs AI system, such as Nintendo's Pokémon franchise. For example, instead of depending on sheer numbers to play out a battle, a user's Pokémon could each develop its own distinct personality and moves, based entirely on how well the user trains it. Even with the same exact type of Pokémon facing off against each other, one may have a distinct advantage over the other based on how it was trained.
In short, it turns what is normally monotonous gameplay into something that is no longer entirely predictable.
Overall, i would not consider Nintendogs to be the end result of years of work by Nintendo. Instead, it may be a sign of things yet to come.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Yeah, same here with Nightmare Troubadour. Absolutely great AI setup compared to the GBA versions. Though I kinda wish the interface moved a bit more quickly than it does.
8==8 Bones 8==8
First of all, Nintendogs is definitely a game. It has clearly defined objectives and ways to reach these objectives. Of course, you don't have to reach them, but the fact that you can race the tracks in Need for Speed backwards and still have fun doesn't mean that Need for Speed isn't a game.
Second, I think the "microphone problems" Zonk mentions are an intentional part of the game. I've noticed that some dogs respond better to commands. I have a dog which actually responds to commands my girlfriend gives to her own dog while she's sitting a few metres away. Having played Bomberman, I know the voice recognition of the DS can be made to work pretty well. The fact that some dogs don't immediately respond to commands seems to be part of the gameplay - it reflects the fact that real dogs don't immediately respond to all commands, either.
I actually find the competitions to be quite exciting. The two commenters are annoying for sure, but the games themselves are pretty funny, and I enjoy playing them a great deal.
I suspect Nintendogs works so well mainly because it's so unbelievably believable. If you throw a ball and your three dogs run to get it, fighting each other for it once one of them picks it up, you simply don't think about how they're not real dogs even for one second. There's hardly a situation where you're reminded of the fact that they're only virtual - and when it happens, it's mostly because you go "wow, I wonder how the heck they did this!" because your dog did something so natural, you simply don't expect a simulation to act like that.
Lastly, I want to respond to all the "Nintendogs sucks because you should get a real dog" comments. Let me put it like this: Screw you. I live in an apartment where I can't have pets. I'm a student, so I don't have enough income to simply move somewhere else. I don't actually have enough money to take care of a pet at all, and I'm not home most of the day, anyway. What kind of crappy life would my dog have? And what about kids? I read that in GB, Nintendo works together with an animal charity in order to promote Nintendogs. It's a lot better for parents to get their children Nintendogs so they can learn to take care of an animal each day, than to get them a real dog, only to get rid of him again after the children lose interest a few months later.
Ah, I'm just being a dick. I write like that too when writing informally. To be fair, you were being a bit of a dick to Zonk. Not that he doesn't deserve it at times. Really though, his game reviews aren't THAT bad and they do qualify as "news for nerds" if not "stuff that matters." I'm more peeved by the fact that none of the editors seem to actually read their own site.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I found some of your stuff from ps2insider.com. I am not one to judge the writing quality of anyone (because mine is horrible) but here is the link to ps2insider for the curious.i nsider.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=in dex&myfaq=yes&id_cat=1&categories=Bag+1:+Playstati on+2+Trouble+Shooting+and+General+Questions
http://web.archive.org/web/20020614222912/www.ps2
Here is your report on a Mike Tyson fight:
Mike Tyson Has Been Defeated
Author: Dominicp2i on Sunday, June 09 @ 01:10:03 EDT
My personal wait of over 10 years for this fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson has finally come and gone.
Lennox Lewis started out the fight with some dirty tactics and holding, and Mike Tyson held his ground in a fight that was not meant for him to win. Mike Tyson took every punch and hold and stayed right with Lennox till the end. Ultimately Lewis' height and reach advantage would prove to be just too much for "Iron Mike" to overcome, especially at this point in his career.
Not too many were behind Tyson, nor did most expect him to have even a chance at glory, but he proved tonight that he is a true champion and in the end just as heart felt and normal as the next guy. Graciously accepting his defeat, and bowing out to his opponents superior skill, Mike Tyson may have lost the fight but won the war.
It was a great fight, with anticipation soaring, and in the end there can be only one... so from a Mike Tyson fan through and through: Congratulations Lennox Lewis.
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
Well, it was the number one selling game in Japan for over a week when it came out there. Its U.S. release, couple with Advance Wars DS, spurred a huge spike in new DS buys. Brick and mortar stores are having trouble keeping it in stock. I guess people wanted to know if the game was really worth all the buzz?
A strain of paranoid prevention can be worse than the disease, whate'er the intention.
Did it even occur to you that there are people who:
I'm glad that a real animal works so well for you, but it doesn't for many people, and that doesn't make them dumb.
be surprised
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel
Zonk now posts 98% of the gaming news on the site.
And if the quality is bad, why should it just be ignored, anyway?
Read Pynchon.
If other sandbox titles like The Sims can be considered games
Because it's something easy for all these fuckers to bitch about. Seriously, don't ask why something get's reviewed, ask why people post their fucking hate filled drivel about every god damn post like they're better than somebody.
Mod parent -1 sick please.
and buddy your URL is missing a T.
How's it good for gaming? It's just another tamagotchi. As soon as the fad runs out again, the DSes will be in the back of the cupboard never to be seen again.
Putting masking tape on top of one - four of your cats paws.
At 3-4 my cat can't decide for a long enough time which paw to deal with first....so none of them get fixed, he just keeps changing paws. Funniest thing in the world.
Why is this everyone's response to a shitty editor? Do you understand that people PAY to get the latest stories on Slashdot?
-Do you understand that what you think is just your opinion?
-Do you understand that some people read Zonk's stories and don't have a problem with them?
-Do you understand that not everybody agrees with you and that they're not necessarily wrong because of it?
Didn't think so.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Thanks for giving away the ending. Now I'll have to wait for the sequel.
Make love, not reality television.
...I'll take your word for it, if it makes you feel better. I was just basing my opinion on the downright illiterate snips taken from your blog. I suppose the other places you write for have editors who correct your grammar, though. *However*, your response above is full of errors (e.g., "My personal Blog...of which my girlfriend posts stuff on too...") No serious journalist would crap that out, even under the harshest deadline. If you write well, you make typos here and there. You *don't* make blatant errors like that one. *Neither* would you use a mismatched "nor", but that's pedantic of me. I'd say your own ability to write proper English is all I need to evaluate your journalistic creds, as is my own.
you no your right coz, i am a chik and in thic magazine i'm reading "dolly" they have this big two page ad for nintendo and nintendogs, i got and i'm hooked. my frends were paying out on me for it but now they're asking their rents for one. :)
yer, guy who's like boo hoo theyll be at the back of the cuboard, show you nkow wat ur talking about!i still play with my ogther gameboys that are like 5 yrs old and nintendo 64 and tamagotchi, pathetic, but wen i need to pass time its fine.