My daughter, who is 20 months old, just recently gave up her nap time and the challenge was now how to have her sit still for some much needed daily relax time.  Our Nintendo DS has always been a popular item at our house, the kids love to watch and play themselves.  You may think that there are no games that young kids can play but you’d be wrong.  

Nintendogs by Nintendo DS

·         Realistic Graphics            

o   The puppies don’t have a cartoon look to them they are realistic and kids can relate to them

·         Feeding the puppy

o   Kids get to feed puppy with wet/dry dog food, water and milk.  The dogs breathing becomes louder and eventually doesn’t respond to anything an obvious indication (when explained) for young kids that it need to be feed.

·         Playing with the puppy

o   Kids get to throw balls, discs, blow bubbles and many other toys.  All are fun and teach coordination with the DS.

·         Interacting with the dog

o   Kids get to call by name, touch and pet the dogs.  My daughter loves when the puppy licks her hand, many little laughs happen with this reaction.

·         Naming the puppy

o   Kids get to come up with their own names and feel ownership when the dog responds to it.

·         Walking the puppy

o   You can map out a path for your kids and they can walk the puppy easily.  There are parks to visit, shopping to do and presents the puppy comes back with.  They can control the puppy with the leash it is on and pull it away from eating garbage, see that it pees and learn to even pick up its poop (with a touch automatically into a bag)!

·         Grooming tools

o   Kids can take care of puppy with a brush or even a bath.  It indicates if the dog is dirty visually so they don`t have to read in order to know when its needed. There is even an option to dress up the dog which is usually creates some giggly good fun.

·         Variety of different breeds

o   Kids can learn the different type of breeds and recognize the different looks of each dog.

Nintendogs had been a great game that my kids have had a lot of fun with while learning too.  There are very basic skills of caring for a pet that becomes knowledge and without any messy clean up and headache of a real pet!  My daughters have had many hours of fun while sitting, relaxing and enjoying the fun activities the game creates.  I do have to say that there some aspects that are beyond the scope of young children but that is where I have either joined in on the fun or taken care of on my own time while the kids were in bed in order to keep the game running smoothly.  The game is very forgiving though because my kids have had fun playing and forgotten to feed the puppy but simply by feeding it all fun was restored.

My reasons to buy are very simple

·         Learning all about pets is important

·         Concepts are easy for kids to understand

·         Skills needed are very straightforward

·         Nintendo has made the pets realistic visually and with the puppy’s behaviours