I think that Nintendogs: Dalmatian and Friends does have its charm, but it's very repetitive overall.
The presentation is very basic. You can have up to three dogs at a time, chose a different type of dog, and even name it. You can train them to become obedient, skillful at games like frisbee throw, and even take him or her for a nice walk outside. You can also feed them, dress them up with different hats, groom them, give them a bath, and have them listen to some classical music etc. For the multiplayer modes, both players require a copy of the game to share their items and have both pets play around with each other. It's too bad that you can't play online to share dogs with random people around the world. All of these additions are nice, but they seem to be overly repetitive because there isn't much to do in this game.
The graphics are very basic, but very detailed at the same time. The dogs look charming, detailed, and just plain adorable. Everything else especially the environments are just overly redundant because the buildings look almost the same as other buildings.
The music is still very generic and kind of boring at the same time. There really isn't a whole lot of background music. There is some background music for walking your dogs and do tournaments like frisbee throw. You can also select some music to play when you just play around with your dogs. The sound effects like dogs barking are pretty accurate for the most part.
The controls are still tight and responsive. You use the stylus to take control of your dog. They are obedient for the most part, but sometimes they might not obey you because they tend to make their own choices.
The lasting approval is a charming, fun game to play with your virtual pets. Pet owners who already own dogs might pass this one up because they prefer to take care of pets in real life. However, the very repetitive gameplay and the lack of online modes hurt this game slightly.
the good- fun to play around with virtual pets, impressive graphics, can share dogs with a friend
the bad- no online modes, limited gameplay, limited sounds
Presentation- 7
Graphics- 8
Sound- 6
Gameplay- 8
Lasting approval- 5
Overall 6.8 out of 10 Gamespot Score 7.0 out of 10