Nintendogs + Cats - Golden Retriever + New Friends (Nintendo 3DS)

Starting with the graphics, as usual Nintendo's pets aren't just the random pet you came across, but instead designed to be the cutest of the lot. Especially good in this version is the fur of the animals. While Nintendogs DS used clever texturing to make less detailed objects look good, this time they've had the graphics-power to make the animals look like a decent friends of hollywood animation movies like the Ice Age series, very good! (However they look like real pets, their eyes aren't half their head like cartoons.)

When you turn on the 3d feature of the machine and see how they animate, then Nintendogs + Cats look like very real, cute, liveable pets with fluffy fur. If you make the mistake of looking into their cute 3d faces with begging eyes, then you'll even have difficulty realizing how other virtual pets could look cute compared to this! Showing it to a girl who plays Hamsterz she just looked at the dog at the screen for 15 seconds and simply admited "Yeah, I got to get that one..."

Sound is also superb, from the different dogbarks to the purring cats. (I think the 3ds speakers have gotten better than the DS ones too.)

Getting into the game is a breeze thanks to the usual friendly-one-thing-at-a-time-approach like the DS version. I started out with a gold retriver looking very much like the one on the cover. All the dogs and cats at the start looks good, I'm sure it holds true for the later unlockable races too.

The next thing you'll notice is how good the backdrops and sceneries looks. You start out in a cosy Country House with a fire place. The 3d really makes differense when you looking out of the window into your garden. Also when going for a walk with your dog you'll now walk from a first-person perspective towards the horizon (not left to right like Nintendogs DS), which is perfect with the 3d. The backdrops are more of the cartoonish style, but very pleasant looking with roads leading to a mountain forest, city and sea side. You can meet other walking their dog and it's nice to finally see the dog owners as a Mii-character rather than just a dog held my no-one like the DS version. There are parks, gyms and discount shops just like the DS. However with the new graphics, and even when you turn off the 3d feature it's a whole new experience. For example you can decide where to go as you progress at street signs rather than having to decide the whole walk in front like in the DS. Another dog owner might invite you to the park or the dog cafe. So it's more fun and dynamic.You can also go on walk as often as you like, and they tend to be shorter(rather than sitting and waiting for an automated walk to complete in 20 minutes on the DS). My personal new favourite on the walks is to finally being able to enter the Dog Cafe. You can actually order Coffee, Juice or Tea for yourself and dog cakes and flans for your pet. For virtual simulation purists it's the ultimate relaxation to have virtual afternoon tea, in the virtual dog cafe!

The competetion parts is where the excitement is had and the number of competetions each day has been doubled, which is welcoming on the wallet, as new pets and equipment is expensive at first. So you can now compete twice in disk trial, twice in obedience and twice the new event lure coursing. In lure coursing you reel in a lure and try to get your dog to chase it at the optimum speed. It's a fun event, but initially I thought it was dumbed down from the gym even in Nintendogs DS. However as the event progressed obstacles was added to the course so it's at least as challenging as the obstacle course on the DS.

Closing comments:

While much has stayed the same from the DS version Nintendogs + Cats, the new 3d graphics and more powerfull hardware makes for a much richer game world. Initially this would be more then enough the warrant the usual second version 4-stars score. However a few new things makes me think this version deserves the full 5-star score:

+ The game has a tendency to saying more "yes" while the old game said "no". You can now go for walks as often as you like, making it easier to save up extra money on presents found on the street, very nice in the start with low money. The number of contestes per day has been doubled. You can now also choose wether you wanna go for the harder competetions or keep going at the junior events for "safer" money income. Nice option if you need just that extra 100 bucks for your first cat, rather than wasting a loss at the pro event because you're dogs skill in disk catch is too low. Another (minor) "yes" is that you don't have to wait 24 hour to change your house interior. So if you can't stand the dreamy Contry House, you may change to the the more "boyish" japanese style right away. Btw, the girl I know will be overjoyed when I tell her there's a pink Fairy Tale princess interior, spesifically for princesses of all ages.

+ It's easy enough for a kid. Still it's enough to do and plan to keep grown ups entertained.

+ There's also the usual Nintendo-quality to this product. They have managed to make a game with the best real looking dogs on a handheld, then there's cartoonish backgrounds and Mii's walking them, however it never looks odd with this combination, because they know how to make things look good.

+ The final argument for giving it a 5-star (and this might come back to hit me), is that in the current life cycle of the Nintendo DS, no 3rd party virtual pet game have beat the now many your old original. Nintendo has a long lasting quality to it's titles. So it's very likely that Nintendogs + Cats 3DS in fact is the best virtual pet game for the 3DS... even 3-4 years from now. So the added extra star stands for the very likely lastability of the product.

5 stars - Nintendogs + Cats is a must have for any virtual pet fan, young or old.

This is a fantastic title for the 3DS, I had the original for the DS and this is a huge improvement on it, as you can now get cats too! but be warned, the cats are very life like(as in they ignor you alot and sleep mostly!) so the cats do their own thing where as the dogs you can teach tricks to, take for walks, and play with alot!
the 3D effect is amazing, especially when you go for a walk as you can see far into the distance!
This is a very relaxing game, one that you can pick up and put down easily when you want 5 minutes of fun but relaxing fun, this game is perfect

I love Nintendogs and cats. And it's not just because I love dogs and cats. No. Not at all.

I had three nintendogs games on the DS, and I loved them. I really wanted this game. So I went onto a nintendo website and I found one about Nintendogs & cats. I looked on it about 5 times that day! The next day we were going into town, So, I begged mum for that to be my only Christmas present.

and...she said yes! we went into GAME and I got a aqua blue (I didn't like cosmo black!) 3DS. When I saw the colour I was amazed... it was nothing like the colour it says it is. it's more Beautiful!

So I got back home and set up the 3DS. When I'd finished I checked out the games on the 3DS and they had some really good ones.

After that I went onto Golden retriever nintendogs & cats.

It asked me to choose a puppy. That was the hard bit. There were so many that were cute! but I finally decided on a golden coloured beagle. Then it asked me to name her. I went with the name Millie. Cute but simple.

There much easier to train. It takes 3 times for you to do it!

I taought her sit and then the fun began! I got a doggy bed for her, and some accessories for her to wear. Then I took her for a walk. I loved it and it's much more fun than last time!

I also used the pedometer. it's really good and, whenever you open the screen up to check up on your puppy she/he brings you a gift.

I love this game and it's much better than the first one!