Fairly recently, Kris and I had played through Lady Layton on the Switch. It wasn’t the best game but it did have some pretty great characters.
Katrielle Layton, most known as Kat, is a detective following in the footsteps of her father, Professor Hershel Layton. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Professor Layton puzzle, detective games. Kat stars in her own detective game, Katrielle and the Millionaire’s Conspiracy which originally was released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2017. She also stars in her own TV series, Kat’s Mystery Solving Files. There are about 50 episodes with cases taken from her game and brand new ones as well.
As I said earlier, Lady Layton isn’t a great game. In terms of solving crimes, it was a bit bland. However, the characters were strong and I absolutely loved Kat’s personality. She’s strong-willed, knows what she’s talking about, smart, funny, and doesn’t care what other people think. Plus, she’s constantly hungry and has a soft spot for chocolate. I found that to be a fun quirk about her.
In terms of Kat solving crime, I often found that she seemed to pull the answer out of her rear, but I think that was mostly because the game didn’t truly allow you to solve the crime yourself. Her answers always made sense so she was clearly the smartest in the room. Although, she could act like a know-it-all about it.
Overall, Kat’s not a bad character and I wouldn’t mind seeing her in other games. I’m curious to see the TV show about her as well. I’ll have to look that one up at some point.
Do you love Katrielle from Lady Layton? How many of his games have you played? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.
When I was a kid, I didn’t play video games on a console. At least, not until I got a little older. I played a lot of simple games on the computer. Here are just a few.
Petz (Dogz & Catz)
Let’s be real – if there’s a pet simulator out there, you bet I’ve played it. Petz was a series that had five installments. It was always Dogz. Catz wasn’t introduced until the fourth installment, I believe. These games were as it sounds – you adopted a dog or cat (as many as you’d like), play with them, give them baths, feed them, and breed them and take care of the puppies and kittens. You could name them and dress them and it was so much fun. You couldn’t take them on walks, but you could take them to other places to play mini-games where you could win toys for them or something.
What was really special about this game to me was that there were different rooms to the house. If you wanted to feed them, you needed to bring them into the kitchen and open the fridge to get their food or a bottle, if they were a puppy or kitten. Using the cursor, you picked up the bottle and feed the pets until they were done or the bottle was gone. It was small touches like that that made the game unique.
I believe we still have this game in our office. If only we had a computer old enough, I would totally play it again.
Arthur’s Computer Adventure
I was recently reminded of this game. This was a gem, even though it was buried deep into my memory. In fact, I don’t remember too much of this one. Arthur plays too many computer games and you play the computer game he’s addicted to. It’s some underwater adventure, that’s all I can recall. It’s on Amazon and the cover may seem familiar to some of you. It brought back some nostalgia for me… I just can’t remember the actual gameplay.
Disney’s Activity Center
We had quite a few of these. Although I have to admit, I can’t remember which ones we had exactly. I know we had The Lion King and I believe 102 Dalmations. We had a 101 Dalmantions game but I don’t think it was exactly “Disney’s Activity Center.” I couldn’t find it, but I believe it was a storybook type of CD-ROM with mini-games and the like.
I remember spending hours on these games. There were pictures to color, mini-games such as Timon catching bugs from Pumbaa, or playing a matching game in 101 Dalmations trying to match the dogs with their owners. They were short games, but they were games I played all the time, on a loop. I never got tired of these.
What are some of your favorite expansions for The Sims? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.
Does anyone remember Nintendogs? That game existed… it wasn’t great, but it was still a good one.
Nintendogs is a series of games for the Nintendo DS originally released in 2005. There are ten games in total within the series, all being essentially the same game. There are just more breeds (or different breeds) of dogs within each installment, eventually adding cats into the mix.
I had two of these games. Maybe three, but at least two. I only played one of them though. I had the idea that I would have every single breed and, eventually, get all the games in the series so I could complete my collection of dogs (and cats). That never happened, of course. I played the game on a regular basis much like Animal Crossing or The Sims. I needed to check up on my pups every day.
Of course, I soon got bored of the game, thus leaving poor Buddy and Julie behind.
Yes, I had two dogs – a male, orange Shia Inu named Buddy, and a female, white Shiba Inu named Julie. I don’t know why I remember those details exactly, but I do.
In the game, you can take your pup for walks, give them a bath, feed them, and teach them tricks. You can also enter them in competitions such as obstacle courses or frisbee throwing. From what I remember, the game did have some meat to it. However, it wasn’t easy to hold my attention for too long. Once you had fed your dogs, given them a bath and a walk – maybe not necessarily in that order – there wasn’t much else to do for the day.
Eventually, I got out of the habit of playing the game every single day, and, soon enough, I stopped playing altogether. I still have the games, of course. I’m sure if I turned on my original Nintendogs, Buddy and Julie will still be there waiting for me.
Overall, I remember it being a pretty fun game. Even after I stopped playing, I still hoped to collect all the games. If not to play, but just to have. You know, similar to collecting all the Pokemon games even though they’re fairly similar to each other.
While writing this article, I have the urge to take out the game and turn it on. Maybe I’ll try playing it again and do a review for it. It could be fun. I think it would be cool to revisit the pups again.
Did you ever play this game? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.
I have to admit, there’s one character from Animal Crossing that I’ve been missing in New Horizons. Since he’s been long retired anyway, I thought it was appropriate for him to have a chance in the spotlight.
Tortimer is a turtle from the Animal Crossing series. He has appeared as the mayor in the village you move into in all the Animal Crossing games, except for Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS. His first appearance was in Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Gamecube from 2001.
Aside from having the title as mayor and running the Acorn Festival as “Cornimer,” Tortimer didn’t do too much. He hung around the plaza or was inside an office. He didn’t wander the village at all and mostly kept to himself.
He retired in New Leaf, which is why he wasn’t in the game. He’s not in New Horizons either, though I would love to have him visit my island once a year or so, still in his retired get-up with a tropical drink in hand, thinking your island is a vacation spot.
He doesn’t have to do anything but wander around complaining he’s on the wrong island.
Overall, there’s not too much to say about good, old Tortimer. He didn’t do too much but he didn’t have to do much. He was always a favorite NPC of mine and I would love to see more of him.
Do you love Tortimer from Animal Crossing? How many of his games have you played? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.
Title: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Category: Simulation
Release Date: March 20, 2020
How I got the game: I pre-ordered a digital copy from the Nintendo Switch eShop
Guys. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is here. I mean, it’s been here for a month now, but… it’s here and we can actually play it.
I have to say, I think Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the best Animal Crossing game yet. It’s been a month and, while I have skipped a day or two here and there, this game is hard not to put down and I’m addicted to it. Given to what’s going on in the rest of the world right now, I think Animal Crossing: New Horizons is exactly what we all needed at this time.
For the most part, this isn’t too much different from the previous games in the series. Yet, there are a lot of brand new features.
The point of Animal Crossing is that you move to a new village – or, in this case, a deserted island – and you build up your home, paying off your debt to Tom Nook. In order to make money, you can fish and catch bugs to sell, sell furniture, sell fossils, and the like. There’s a shop where you can buy furniture and other items for your home along with wallpaper and flooring. There’s a clothing store, a flower shop, and so much else to make your village and house your own. No to mention, helping out the museum by donating bugs, fish, art, and fossils.
In New Horizons, you start off on a deserted island that you build from scratch. The island has nothing but fish, bugs to catch, fruit trees, and rocks. Your house first starts off as a tent and the “shop” is a tent as well. Plus, it’s just you, Tom Nook and his two kids, and two villagers. With that said, you’re building a brand new place for people to live. You’re not just concerned about your own home, but the island in its entirety.
You can collect materials such as tree branches, stones, various types of wood, and iron nuggets to craft an abundance of items. These items are tools such as a bug net, fishing pole, shovel, and more. Plus, you can create furniture and other items that you can use to decorate your house or your island. Which is another difference between New Horizons and previous Animal Crossing games – not only do you collect materials and craft things yourself, you can use those items to decorate the whole island.
Now you need to worry about which couch to place in your living room and where to put a picnic table outside.
I love gathering materials and crafting items. It really adds a lot more depth to the game and gives you more to do on a daily basis rather than constantly fishing and catching bugs just to sell to pay off your house or buy things from the store to decorate your home. I have to say though, my favorite new feature is being able to decorate outside of your home and the whole island. I have a plastic kiddie pool in New Leaf that’s in the middle of my living room and it makes absolutely no sense. Now, I have that same plastic kiddie pool in front of Astrid’s house – she’s a kangaroo and I’m sure the little tyke in her pouch would love to go for a swim.
Speaking of things to do, a new feature called Nook Miles has been added. These are achievements for the game. Nook Miles+ is something extra which are daily achievements. Once you reach one, a new one will appear. It makes it so that when you’re playing and you’ve already hit all your rocks and shaken all your trees but don’t necessarily feel like farming fish or bugs for money, you can take a look at some achievements to do in order to gain Nook Miles.
Nook Miles is sort of a reward point system from Tom Nook. You can use these miles to buy certain DIY recipes for crafting or other furniture for your house and island. You can also use these miles to go on Mystery Island Tours. Similar to the island in New Leaf, you can head to another deserted island at random. This is a way for you to gain extra materials. There are rocks to hit and trees to shake. Sometimes, the weather will be different on these random islands than what’s currently happening on your island and you’ll be able to catch different bugs or fish.
All the mystery islands are randomly generated and no two are alike – or so I’m told – however, there are different kinds of islands you can come across. For example, the bamboo island will have bamboo trees for collecting. You can take them back to your island with you and farm bamboo for DIY crafts. The most common island is one that looks normal with your native fruit. The next most common, but rarer than that, is a regular island that has fruit trees that are not your native fruit. There’s also tarantula island, money rock island, and a few more.
On these islands, if you have space and have a house for sale on your own island, you can run into one villager. You can either invite this villager to live on your island or leave them behind. I think this is a pretty cool feature because there are nearly 400 animal villagers to move into your island and you can only have ten. I’ve always loved how random the villagers were, never knowing who you’re going to get, and always hoping for that one special villager. With this, you can pick and choose. It’s still random so if you’re looking for a specific guy, you could be searching for a bit.
The villagers have always been my favorite part about Animal Crossing and now they’re better than ever. They have more dialogue (not much, but still more), they have more emotion behind their words (the reactions do help though), and they do more than just aimlessly wander around. They eat donuts, sit under the trees, run like Sonic, sing… it’s great. Plus, the higher your friendship with them, the more they’ll interact with you and say more things. It’s great.
Speaking of villagers and friends, it’s so easy to have friends over to your island. You can invite anyone locally or via online. If your Switch friends have the game, you can just invite them instead of opening your gates to the world. Also, when you invite someone, you can become best friends with them and there’s an option to only open gates for your best friends. On the flip side, you can use a code to only invite certain people in. Just in case you’re not feeling very social but someone wants to sell their turnips because you have a better price that day, you can use a code to let that person in only.
The best feature of all though? If you’re best friends with someone, you can mail them letters. And it gets to them immediately. I can’t thank Nintendo enough for that one.
Overall, I have little complaints about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I guess I would say I wish you can craft multiple things at once. I made a bunch of birdhouses one day because it the hot item at Nook’s Cranny and I had to build them one by one. If you have the materials in your pocket, it should ask how many you want to make. Although, I can live without that. It’s really just a nit-pick because I honestly can’t find anything else wrong with this game.
I mean, really… what can I say about the graphics and music? No matter what I say, it won’t do them justice. The music, as always, is great. It’s relaxing and calm but catchy. Animal Crossing was always known for its hourly music and also depending on the in-game weather and, for some reason, you need to unlock the hourly music. I don’t mind this and it doesn’t take long to unlock it at all. I just don’t understand why they made it something that needed to be unlocked.
The sound effects are a huge plus as well. It was always satisfying but now you can hear and see the wind blowing through the trees and your character’s hair. You can hear the ocean waves when you’re at the beach and listen to the waterfall. The positional audio is a nice touch as well.
As for the graphics, the villagers look so good. They look much more realistic than they ever did before. They have some texture to them – not a lot, but enough to make it noticeable and for it to look good.
I’m going to be playing this game for the rest of my life. I may get to the point where I don’t check the island every single day, but… I’ll play it for the rest of my life, yes.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets… 5 out of 5 lives.
Have you played this game? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
We all know I love to play The Sims. I’ve been playing the game for years and I always get excited when a new expansion pack comes out. There a few of them, however, that I always wish for whenever a new Sims generation is released.
Pets
You can’t not have pets. If you’re going to create a virtual family to love and cherish (or perish), you need to throw pets into the mix. Cat, dog, horse, hamster, whatever. You need to have a furry companion.
A lot of times when I play The Sims, I tend to create myself and see what my virtual self would do in certain situations. With pets, I can create my real-life pets: Chip the dog and Chase the cat. Unfortunately, I can’t have a pet turtle in the game, otherwise, Raph would be there as well.
The pets don’t necessarily do anything (although they could get jobs in The Sims 2) but they’re fun to watch and it’s great to see your human Sims interact with the pets.
Seasons
The Sims is realistic but it’s not at the same time. You buy a house, get a job, pay bills, get married, have a social life, have children, get pets, of course, and there are so many other things.
I remember playing The Sims 2 and seasons hadn’t come out right away. The game was sort of bland without the weather and season changes. I don’t know why, but there’s something so cool about your Sims looking out the window amazed at the snowfall and a then a few in-game days later, they’re having a water balloon fight in the front yard with their neighbors.
There’s just something so cool and extra about The Sims having different activities to do based on the season as well as different outfits to wear based on the season.
Get To Work
I have to admit, I never really cared too much about going to work with my sim. I think it’s a fun experience and it’s cool to go with them once or twice, but I don’t necessarily enjoy the timed quests they have to do in order to do a good job during the day. The first time is fun but after doing it a couple of times, it’s repetitive.
Still, I’ve always liked the option to go to work with them, especially since you don’t have to go with them all the time. Not to mention, more job options. The Sims has a decent amount of jobs to begin with, including self-employment options which is nice, but it’s always great to get the pack so you can have more job options and even more stuff based on the jobs.
What are some of your favorite expansions for The Sims? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.
Title: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Category: Role-Playing, Adventure
Release Date: March 6, 2020
How I got the game: I pre-ordered a digital copy from the Nintendo Switch eShop
For years I’ve been wanting another Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game. I would have loved to have a brand new game, but having a remaster of the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeons felt like playing a whole new game anywhere. I’m happy they haven’t forgotten about the Mystery Dungeon series.
You turn into a Pokemon without having any memory other than the fact that you once were a human. You don’t know how you got to the Pokemon world or why you were turned into a Pokemon in the first place. You wake up from another Pokemon, your partner Pokemon, and together, you unravel the mystery as to who you were before and why you turned into a Pokemon in the first place.
All the while, you start a rescue team with this Pokemon. You go into mystery dungeons to help other Pokemon in need. Meanwhile, natural disasters are happening all over the Pokemon world. You head out on an adventure to find out what’s causing them and how to get them to stop. This involves tracking down certain legendary Pokemon and not only battling them, but asking for their help.
You’ll soon find out that you’re connected with these natural disasters, but… I won’t say anymore due to spoilers in case you’ve never played the original games (or simply forgot, as I did).
The game begins with a fun quiz to determine what kind of Pokemon you are. These questions are simple since the game is generally targeted at a younger age anyway. Most of them are “what would you do” situations with multiple choice answers. Taking the quiz was always one of my favorite parts of playing the game. Your result will share some personality information about you depending on your answers and, most of the time, it’s pretty accurate.
This time around, I was a Torchic, which is fitting. I always go for the fire starters so I didn’t mind being a fire-type Pokemon. Then you get to choose your partner Pokemon, of a different type. So, all the fire-type Pokemon were taken away from my choices. I ended up choosing Psyduck – he’s one of my favorites.
Then the game officially begins with you waking up on the beach and your partner finding you, poking you, to wake you up. As the two of you get slightly acquainted, you’re interrupted by a Butterfree worried about her baby Caterpie, who is lost in a mystery dungeon somewhere. Thus, you and your partner Pokemon go on their first adventure.
This is a tutorial, showing you how to play the game. You’re in front with your partner Pokemon behind you. However, in this version, you can switch the leader. So, if you wanted to play as your partner, you could have him be the “leader” thus switching roles. Whoever the leader is, the partner will follow behind and, if an enemy Pokemon gets too close, they’ll attack. You can tell your partner what to do by either having them go off on their own (which will show you more of the map and help you find where the stairs are faster), have them run when an enemy is nearby (which is useful when their health is low), or have them attack when they see an enemy. I personally had them always attack because it made it easier for me and it made it seem like the AI was smarter in that sense.
Each dungeon is randomly generated. The map appears as you enter new rooms and hallways, however, you can see where enemies (represented by a red dot) and items (represented by a blue dot) are. The stairs are hidden until you enter the room where the stairs are and then you’ll see a white square appear on the map. If you need to rescue a Pokemon or have to find an item for a Pokemon, that’s represented by a light blue dot and, once you reach the floor of your destination, the game will tell you so you don’t accidentally move onto the next floor. Once you go up or down the stairs, there’s no going back.
Each area has a certain number of floors. The farther you are in the game, the longer the dungeons are. However, these dungeons are quick for the most part and (fairly) easy to get through. A lot can happen in the dungeons other than searching for the Pokemon you need to rescue or for the stairs to keep moving forward. Something new added in this game that wasn’t in the original is that sometimes you’ll find fainted Pokemon in the dungeons. If you give them an apple, they’ll be revived and ask to join your team.
Allowing other Pokemon to join your team isn’t a new feature. However, if I remember correctly, you could have teams of four (including yourself) and only add one or two more Pokemon to trail behind you if you find new recruits on your journey. In this version, you can only have teams of three (but can create multiple sets of teams) and you can recruit up to five or six Pokemon. (I believe. I honestly forget the right number.)
Once the job is complete, you can either exit the dungeon right away or continue until you reach the highest floor. If I was in good shape, I often continued until I finished the whole dungeon so I could collect more items and battle more Pokemon to earn experience points.
Yes, just like any other Pokemon game, you earn experience points after defeating a Pokemon. You level up, boosting you stats, and ultimately, being able to evolve. However, evolution only unlocks once you beat the main story. I don’t understand why, but that’s the way it is.
Aside from the main story, your rescue team can accept rescue jobs. After completing a job, you’ll earn rank points. Leveling up your rank gives you team a boost such as being able to accept more jobs, unlocking new areas, and – the best part – having more inventory space.
I have a great time with this game. My only complaint about it is that I wish it were longer. Sure, you can continue to play the game once the main story is over. (The main should take less than 20 hours to complete.) However, I would have loved to see more meat for the story and have the opportunity to do more. Plus, my Pokemon and partner were around level 30 when I beat the main story. A main Pokemon game needs to have your team in the 60s or so when you beat the main story. I would have liked to further them a bit more before defeating the final boss.
After playing Pokemon Blue Mystery Dungeon and Pokemon Red Mystery Dungeon on the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance respectively, it was great to see the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon in HD glory with crisp graphics on the Nintendo Switch. Other than remastering the graphics, I don’t think they wanted to stray too far from the Mystery Dungeon graphics that we all know, love, and easily recognize. This was fine with me. I think it worked.
As for music, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games were always on my favorite soundtracks list. The music in this game is, I’m pretty sure, the same as it was when the games originally came out. (Though remastered a bit, I’m sure). I love every bit of music in the game. The soundtrack is awesome. One of my favorite gaming soundtracks is Paper Mario from the Nintendo 64. The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon music is similar to Paper Mario, which I think it why I love it so much. It’s always so catchy.
I can see myself going back to this game. I hoped there would have been more than one save file unlike the original games, but alas, there’s still just the one save file. However, on the Nintendo Switch, if you have multiple profiles you can easily restart the game without deleting your original playthrough. Whether you start it over or not, there are other things to do in the game once you beat the main story. You can still take on jobs and level up your Pokemon. I’m sure I’ll pick this one back up again in the future, especially while I wait for either another Mystery Dngeon remake or a brand new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game for the Switch.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX gets… 4 out of 5 lives.
Have you played this game? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
Like everyone else in the world, I’ve been playing so much Animal Crossing New Horizons. I’ve always had “daily chores” I liked to do in the previous Animal Crossing games, but New Horizons takes it to a brand new level.
Daily chores
What do I mean by “daily chores?” I mean some things that you can do on a daily basis that should get done, things that only happen once a day. I tend to have a fairly organized routine in real life (I’m a sucker for a schedule) and I’m no different when I play Animal Crossing.
Animal Crossing New Horizons has so many more things you can do during the game rather than make money to pay off your debt. You can gather materials and craft your own decor, you can visit mystery islands and sort of have a say in which villagers you want to join your island, there are Nook Miles which act as “quests” or “achievements,” if you will. There’s so much to strive for and if you were to attempt to 100% complete this game, it’s going to take you a few years.
Things have been busy so I haven’t been able to play as much New Horizons as I would like. I’ve had to skip a day here and there and sometimes when I do get to play, it’s only for an hour or so. I get my daily chores done and that’s it. But I have a good time anyway.
Talk to every villager
One chore I do every single day is to talk to every villager on my island at least once a day. There are sometimes I see certain villagers wandering around and I run into them all the time. Others, I need to track down. Sometimes they’re hiding somewhere in the museum or they’re inside crafting something waiting for me to enter so they can share the recipe with me. (I honestly think they’re stuck like that until you go in, so yeah. Go visit them inside their houses on occasion just in case.)
Side note: my island is filled with birds and cats, I realized. I started with Leonardo (a leopard) and Plucky (a chicken). I visited three mystery islands and got Ava (a chicken), Anchovy (a bird), and Bangle (a tiger). I’m still searching for Fang but I also feel obligated to keep this cat-and-bird-theme going.
Give your trees some love
And by love, I mean shaking them vigorously until something falls out. This can be tree branches, money, furniture, fruit (if it’s grown, of course), or bugs – watch out for those bees. Have your net out and handy when shaking trees. That’s an official rule of Animal Crossing, I’m sure.
To show how much you care about your trees further, take out your ax and chop it to bits. Your stone ax, not your heavy-duty ax unless you want to knock the whole tree down. Using your stone ax allows you to get three pieces of wood per tree.
Shower your flowers
While we’re taking care of nature, make sure you water your flowers. Sometimes you villagers will do it for you, but they don’t typically go around the entire island watering all the flowers. If you want them to keep growing and cross-breed flowers beside each other, then watering them every day helps. Plus, they sparkle afterward and it’s really pretty at night.
Hit all your rocks
But don’t break them. Don’t eat fruit and then hit your rocks. They will break and rocks cannot grow back. Hitting your rocks once a day allows you to get materials such as iron or gold nuggets, stones, or clay. One of your rocks will also be a money rock. The best way to hit rocks is to dig two or three holes behind you so when you hit it with your shovel (you can use your stone ax but the shovel is faster) and you recoil backward, you won’t recoil too far to not be able to reach the rock anymore. Then you get all eight items from the rock in one go.
Dig holes
Keep your shovel out and keep an eye out for the Xs in the ground. Four fossils are hidden somewhere as is a small light which, when dug up, is bells.
Buy everything
If you have the shop open or Mabel is visiting before the tailer is open, be sure to buy everything that’s available each day. The more bells you spend, the faster their build their shop and upgrade.
Claim your Nook Miles
There are a ton of achievements you can get and claim Nook Miles. However, the Nook Miles Plus feature adds quests to your day. The first five of every day are worth double. If you can do it, be sure to claim them and make the most of it.
There’s a lot more to do
Of course, you need to keep fishing and catch bugs. Donate any new creatures to Blathers, sell all that you can so you can create a bigger and better house. However, if you’re only able to play the game for a little bit, your best bet is to do you daily chores. You’re making progress and you’re keeping your island nice.
Do you have anything in the game that you like to do every day? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.
I started playing this game because I enjoy pet simulations. Who doesn’t want a virtual dog or cat or fish? We all had Tomogachi growing up… right? We all walked with our Pokemon inside the Pokewalker (and now the Pokeball Plus). There was Nintendogs, that computer game I played with as a kid… Catz and Dogz, I think it was called. It’s a lot of fun.
Do you know what’s not fun? Bad pet simulation games.
I don’t get my hopes up too much for mobile games being good (because let’s face it, there are a lot of awful mobile games out there). But honestly, how does one mess up a dog simulation game? There’s no control in this game whatsoever. You need to go with the flow and wait.
Surprise Dog: Just Wait. (This is the new title I’ve come up with for the game.)
I don’t mean to rag on the game too much. It actually has fairly good reviews in the app store and I understand this is a game meant for children. However, there’s not much to this game at all so I can’t understand how it holds a child’s attention.
The dogs are cute, sure. However, you don’t get to choose which dog you get. There are cards you receive as rewards or you can open a free pack throughout the day. These cards can be coin rewards, dog food, or a dog. If you don’t own that dog, you can get it right away. A puppy will appear in your room. If you already have the dog, you can hold onto the card because the dogs need to grow up.
In order to let them grow, you need to feed them dog food and they’ll visibly grow a bit bigger. After feeding them so many times, their level will go up. After so many levels, instead of food, they need one or two of their cards in order to level up. This is why, instead of getting multiple dogs of the same breed, you need to hold onto their cards. Who knows when you might collect the same card again since it’s random?
So, the food acts like experience points and the cards either act like experience or allow you to get a new dog. But why do the dogs need experience points and gain levels? For quests, of course!
These quests are the main gameplay. What do you do for these quests? Wait. Each quest will ask for a specific dog type (toy breed, hound, etc.) and there will also be a level. The dog type is required and the level isn’t, though if your dog is below the level, your chances of having your dog succeed at the quest are worse.
These quests weren’t anything interesting. A building was on fire so the firefighters reach out to you to borrow your dogs so the dogs can go into the building and rescue people. A school teacher calls asking if her class can play with a couple of your dogs. These were laid out as a “story” to make the game seem like it had more depth. It didn’t work for me.
At the beginning of the game, the quests take as little as five seconds in real-time. The longer you play, the farther you get, the quests take long such as a few hours – just like any other mobile game that is based on real-time and waiting.
Other than that, the only thing you can do in the game is buy furniture, decor, and dog toys for your room. Also, you can add more rooms or upgrade a room you already have since only a certain amount of dogs can be in one room at a time.
Oh, and the dogs can breed as well. But… it doesn’t even make sense so I’m going to get into it.
Dog Town: Pet Simulation Game gets a rating of…
Play It | Download It | DELETE IT
Overall, Dog Town: Pet Simulation Game has cute graphics. That’s all I can say about it though. When I play a pet simulation game, I expect to be able to play with my pets, take them for walks, and watch them interact with each other. There was none of that in this game.
Have you played Dog Town? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below! If you like this post, please share it around.
I’ve been playing my fair share of Animal Crossing New Horizons and I honestly can’t get enough of it. There’s a lot to do in this new version of Animal Crossing and it’s hard to get everything done in one day. I’m enjoying my time with it though and I’m loving every minute of it.
Go fishing
Fishing is something that’s been part of the Animal Crossing games since the very beginning. It’s my favorite thing to do in Animal Crossing. I find it relaxing and New Horizons makes it all the better. The graphics are great, but the sound effects of the ocean waves crashing against the rocks or the rain creating ripples on the surface are wonderful. It completes the experience and I enjoy walking up and down the sandy beaches in search of the rare fish that will pay the big bucks.
Pay off my debt
Another one of my favorite things to do in Animal Crossing is to pay off my debt. I know, it’s practically the whole premise of the game. I never get excited about paying bills in real life, but Animal Crossing makes it so easy. There are so many things to collect in the game as well that discovering something new to see how much it is, is fun for me. (Yeah, I know.) Not to mention the reward for paying off debt and then expanding your house again so you can collect more stuff to fill your house is a great feeling. Paying off my debt over and over again is always the first thing I do in any Animal Crossing game.
Visit mystery islands
I realize my favorite things don’t cater much to New Horizons. Fishing and paying your debt is something that’s in every game. Visiting the mystery islands is a fun new feature that’s been added to the game. Plus, it’s a unique way to add villagers to your island. Even though the villagers are random you can still choose whether you want them or not.
Even though you can’t have more than one island, I enjoy the mystery islands as a way to get more materials for the DIY projects. The rocks on my island can only go so far and sometimes it’s nice to occasionally get different weather where ever I go.
What are some of your favorite things to do in Animal Crossing? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.
Happy Tuesday!
5 out of 5 lives.
