Nintendogs... Catchy title, but what about the game? That is what we have gathered here to find out. I have been looking forward to seeing this title on the shelf for months. At least since May or so. I got to play it just a bit at E3 because my sidekick was standing in line for Zelda: Twilight Princess, so I had to be quick about it and get the free keychain of a dog. So September gets here and I am so excited. I purchased the game, and wanted to know how to do everything possible, so I read the booklet. I give the booklet alone about a 9. There were all sorts of disclaimers in it about owning a real dog. Unfortunately for Nintendogs that I can't judge a book by the cover. Here is why.

The graphics are amazing for a handheld. It's no PSP, but do you really need that for a game like Nintendogs? We used to play with Tomogatchies and those didn't have good graphics by any standards. We were just happy that it had graphics. So the graphics are way better than you might expect for a game like this. There were a few glitches in graphics, but those were nothing. I would give the graphics about a 9. Great job Nintendo.

The controls are pretty good. I guess you'd include the voice recognition in the controls section of the review, so that would bring the score down a bit. I can't tell you how annoyed I would have gotten if I was sitting next to myself while I was playing Nintendogs. I probably would have kicked myself in the face. And don't even think about playing in the car. Those dog's can't understand their name because of all the background noise. The touchscreen was cool though. Seeing each dog's reaction after petting each of them in differen't places. The touchscreen just WORKS with this game. It doesn't work that well with Metroid Prime: Hunters or Super Mario 64 DS. So, great system for Nintendogs. I don't think it woulda been as good on the Gamecube. Controls gets maybe about a 7.

The sound was catchy too. One of the first records you get in the game is called the 'surprise' record or something. It's funny because if you play it, there's a point in the middle of the song where there is a very loud noise instantly. Needless to say your dogs will jump every time. Another cool thing with the sound is the blank record where you can record like 5 seconds of your own voice. Sound would get a 8.

Batting next for Nintendogs is the gameplay! Things flowed pretty smoothly at first. And then they flowed pretty smoothly again when I did the exact same thing. Okay, it started to get ridiculous the third time I did the same exact thing. Here's the game in a nutshell... Teach, compete, practice, compete, practice, buy a bow for your dog, compete, buy a new dog to do the exact same thing. Score for gameplay would be about a 6 the first time I did it and a 2 the next 8 times. Sorry, that doesn't give it a 24... If you enjoy watching grass grow and doing the exact same thing multiple times, then get this game!

Unfortunately, there was no story, and the replay value would probably be close to none. You do the same thing over and over anyways. I appreciate the creativity with the game, but this game makes me realize how much time I'm wasting playing games. If you got far in this game then go buy a dog... You will always remember to feed it and give it baths normally. I would like to give Nintendogs a high rating, but I would hate myself in the morning when a possible consumer went out and bought it. Just go out and rent it, and if you can still play it in a week, you should buy it. It's not like you'll mind doing everything again... By that time you woulda already done it 6 times already. Either way, Nintendogs scores a 5 in my book. Sorry Nintendo, I really, really wanted to like this game.