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August 29, 2005
Nintendogs
I remember when Tamagotchi first took over Japan, many years ago during my first summer there. People everywhere were scrambling to get ahold of one of these cute pixelated pets that demand constant attention and care. Street vendors were selling special editions for as much as 140,000 yen, and there were reports of some children who committed suicide after their pets died. Although I was detached from the entire obsessive craze that was taking over the country, I was curious enough to purchase one of my own - a Tenshi-chi (Angel Tamagotchi) - for only 2000 yen at a small vendor in Chichibu. I considered myself pretty lucky because back then Tenshi-chi was selling for over 120,000 yen in Tokyo. It was a cute novel toy, but I quickly lost interest in being a parent to something that wasn't really alive and promptly put it in my box of forgotten trinkets.
Now there is a new gaming craze that is taking over Japan, and it's poised to take over the US too. Like Tamagotchi, Nintendogs for the DS has you taking care of a virtual pet, but this time you have cute adorable puppies under your care. Nintendo developers have reportedly taken great care and detail to capture every single aspect of these puppies, from the colors of their coats, to the mannerisms of each breed. With the voice-recognition software in the game, you can actually train your puppy to remember its name, and train it to do cute puppy tricks. You can also 'pet' the puppy with the stylus. Wow. And if you have a friend who has his own copy of Nintendogs, you can sync with his DS and have the puppies interact with each other.
This has got to be by far the cutest game I've ever encountered. I'm so tempted to go out and purchase a DS just so I can have my own virtual puppy. In any case it's definitely more advanced than a blob with wings that hatches from an egg. So cute. So cute.
Posted by Charlie at August 29, 2005 03:20 PM