Nintendogs for Nintendo DS: Editions, Score and Facts

Nintendogs is a pet-dog simulation that Nintendo EAD developed and Nintendo published for the Nintendo DS, first in Japan in April 2005. Metacritic prints 83 for the Chihuahua and Friends edition, and Wikipedia records 23.96 million copies sold across all versions.

Overview

Players adopt a puppy, name it, and look after it with the touch screen and microphone. The dogs never grow old, die or breed, so care mostly means keeping up daily routines.

Wikipedia traces the idea back to a Nintendo 64 prototype called Cabbage, a creature-raising game announced in 1997 that was worked on by Shigesato Itoi, Tsunekazu Ishihara and Shigeru Miyamoto and never released. Nintendogs began as a GameCube technical demo and then moved to the DS while the handheld was still in development. Miyamoto came up with the project after his family bought a dog. In 2006 he said the talks and techniques of Cabbage carried over into Nintendogs and other work.

How it plays

Petting, playing, walking and grooming happen on the touch screen. Calling the dog by name and teaching tricks such as sit or roll over uses the microphone. The DS clock and calendar make a dog grow hungrier or dirtier as time passes, and its condition is tracked with labels from Full to Famished for hunger and from Beautiful to Filthy for the coat.

A player can keep three dogs at home and up to five at the dog hotel. Money comes from contests and from selling items, and pays for supplies, new puppies and home decor. There are three contests, Disc Competition, Agility Trial and Obedience Trial, each with five classes from Beginner to Championship. Placing third or higher moves a dog up a class, and the commentary comes from two announcers named Ted Rumsworth and Archie Hubbs. Walks around the neighbourhood turn up other dogs and presents.

Bark Mode links two nearby DS systems wirelessly. Before it starts, a player can choose to give the other user a present, and a voice message recorded on the White Record can be heard by the visitor.

Release and credits

Wikipedia lists the first versions as Japan on 21 April 2005, North America on 22 August, Australia on 22 September and Europe on 7 October. North America received Best Friends on 24 October 2005, packaged with a special DS, and Dalmatian and Friends came to Europe in June 2006, then to North America in October 2006 and Australia in November. Metacritic’s page for Chihuahua and Friends gives 22 August 2005. Wikipedia names Nintendo EAD and Nintendo, with Hideki Konno as producer.

In Japan, Shiba, Miniature Dachshund and Chihuahua editions sold 75,000, 49,000 and 44,000 in their first week. Europe’s top-selling Nintendo title of 2005 was this game, at 1.6 million. In the United States, by August 2006 Chihuahua and Friends had sold 570,000 copies.

Reception

The score on Metacritic’s page for Chihuahua and Friends is 83 from 55 critic reviews. Wikipedia reports 85 percent on Game Rankings. Famitsu gave a perfect 40 out of 40 in May 2005, a mark reached by only four games before it. Nintendo Power gave 8.5 out of 10 and Game Informer gave 8 out of 10, adding that the game has no ending. The Associated Press chose it as Best Handheld Game and PC World named it an Innovation Award winner in 2006. Nintendo said most owners were female.

Can you still play it?

Any Nintendogs card runs on a DS, DS Lite or DSi, and the 3DS family plays it in DS mode. It cannot be used on a Wii U or a Switch. Under Wikipedia’s account of region locks, non-DSi DS cards are not locked to a region, so all editions work in all regions.

Bark Mode was local wireless, and the game was not tied to an online service, so the Wi-Fi shutdown of 20 May 2014 left it as it was. The microphone needs a working DS or 3DS microphone, and Nintendo ended 3DS production on 16 September 2020. A 3DS successor, Nintendogs + Cats, exists, and Wikipedia says it launched in all regions.