Topic: Puppy Love

[Karl Castaneda #2]

It's official. Nintendogs is a huge hit in Japan.

Japanese Judges Rate Nintendo's Puppies 'Perfect' as DS Sales Increase Fivefold    

Animal lovers and Nintendo fans in Japan are proving that it's almost impossible to say no to a puppy. Nintendogs(TM), the new puppy simulator for Nintendo DS(TM), hit Japanese stores April 21. In its first week, it boosted daily sales of hand-held Nintendo DS systems more than five times the average daily sales rate of the previous seven weeks. It has become the fastest-selling DS game ever for Nintendo while receiving top marks from critics.    

Nintendogs, which launches in North America later this year, lets players pick a puppy from a variety of breeds and train it to chase a ball, go for a walk or learn tricks. The realistic puppies respond to voice commands and to a rub or a tap on the touch screen of Nintendo DS. Nintendogs makes use of amazing artificial intelligence.    

But the appeal of Nintendogs goes beyond cuteness. Four notoriously tough game reviewers scrutinized Nintendogs for Weekly Famitsu, Japan's leading video game magazine. All four reviewers returned with top scores of 10, for an extraordinary overall perfect score of 40.    

Some English-speaking fans already have imported copies of Nintendogs for their Nintendo DS systems and are blogging about their experiences. One example can be found at puppytimes.blogspot.com:
 "Here I am, 30 years old and I'm talking to my virtual dog. Even more alarming is how totally disarmed and attached I feel to the little bugger already." In addition, Nintendo has video and screen shots of the adorable puppies in action at www.nintendo.com.

[Pale]

According to the MagicBox, it spiked DS sales up to 96,000 last week as well.  It will be interesting to see if it does that well in the states.

[Knoxxville]

It's too bad that this killer app doesn't arrive on these shores for quite a while.  The import looks pretty text intensive....

[NWR_Lindy]

 Somewhere there's a localization manager who's under a lot of pressure right now.

[Bill Aurion]

It's all in the boxart...Noone can resist puppy dog eyes!

[Strell]

First Superman 64.

Now this.

...

There is no god.

(Yes I know the irony of the statement since Superman got abyssmal scores and Nintendogs got the 40 from Famitsu.)

[Robotor]

I'm really conflicted on this game.  I mean, it's just a puppy simulator, I already have a dog.  But such goood Famistu scores lead me to belive that I should purchase it, and train a digital dog of my own.  We'll see what happens when it hits the states.

[MaleficentOgre]

I just got it today. it's much much fun

[TheYoungerPlumber]

I wonder if NOA's official response to complaints about the system's current game library is "import something!" But seriously, at least this gives me hope that someone over at NOA knows how much PGC forum mebers and I love Band Bros.

[Mario]

I think their response should be "there are games out, why aren't you playing them?"

I wonder if they're targeting a holiday release for this game, it could be the biggest thing ever with the right marketing at the right time.

"What do you want for christmas son?"
"NINTENDOGS!! DUH!"

[Deguello]

Quote
First Superman 64.

Now this.

...

There is no god.

What?  Superman 64 was a heap.  Nintendogs seems to not be.

[KDR_11k]

Well, both games are related to dog poo...

[Pale]

This would be the ideal August game in my DS Dream release list....  Here is what I want...and no, there is no fact involved...

August - Nintendogs  (puts some new systems in people's hands)
September - Animal Crossing and the launch of the online system (People start going crazy)
October - Another Code (plus several 3rd Party games with online support)
November - Mario Kart online on the same day as X-Box 360
March 2006 - Pokemon Online

If those releases are all that happen between now and next march, I would still be ecstatic.

What a pipe dream that is.  

[Kamek_X]

I'm wandering how the commercial will be for this game once we near the release date . Will it appear too childish turning off those who will most likely dismiss it and miss out on a great experience. I'm interested in how the ad wizards will handle this one. Lets just hope the commercial doesn't feature - WHO LET THE DOGS OUT - music during the whole commercial.  

[TheYoungerPlumber]

*Shudder* You've jinxed us, Kamek!  Now it will have that horrible music for sure!

No, I'm hoping they go a route similar to that of Japan: people playing Nintendogs.  Maybe they show obscured visuals first, so it seems liek someone is talking to their dog.  Then we see it is a DS, and it shows the dog responding on the DS.

[nickmitch]

Here it is: You see a stop sign. Then the camera moves to the base of the sign. Yo see a pile of dog doodie. "Who are you?" fades on to the screen and then whilst gameplay footage is being shown you hear: "Nintendogs, comming soon for nintendo DS. Touching is good, but not always in real life." Then you see a guy wih a rubber glove on his hand. End commercial.

[Karl Castaneda #2]

That's brilliant.

*quiet claps*