Nintendogs

Did You Know?

• A microgame based on Nintendogs appears in WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
• A Nintendogs Labrador Retriever puppy appears as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, blocking the screen rather than fighting.
• Multiple Nintendogs-themed items are available as downloadable content in Animal Crossing: City Folk and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

Development

A precursor project called Cabbage, a pet creature breeding game for the Nintendo 64, was first publicly mentioned in 1997. It was codeveloped by Shigesato Itoi, Tsunekazu Ishihara, and Shigeru Miyamoto, and its four-year development relied on the 64DD peripheral's real-time clock and mass writability. A subset of creature maintenance was planned for the Game Boy with synchronization via the Transfer Pak. Cabbage was expected in 1998 and then 2000, but development was distracted. In 2006, Miyamoto noted that the conversations and design techniques from Cabbage connected to Nintendogs and other projects. The project that became Nintendogs began as a technical demo on the GameCube before being moved to the DS while the handheld was still in development. Miyamoto conceived the idea after his family bought a dog. Originally called Puppy Times, the game was planned with fifteen versions, one per breed, as suggested by Satoru Iwata to mimic choosing a dog from a kennel. Debugging constraints reduced the number to three versions, each with six dogs, with the rest unlockable through gameplay.

Merchandise

In late 2005, Nintendo of America released the first series of Nintendogs '6-Card Fun Paks' in three pack designs based on the US game covers. Each pack randomly contained two of 18 Breed cards, one of nine Dog in Training tip cards, one of six Miscellaneous cards, one of 18 Pop-Up Cards, one of six sticker sheets, one of four temporary tattoos, and one Sweepstakes card. A second series, released in early 2007 by Enterplay, LLC, kept the '6-Card Fun Pak' name and included two of 20 At the Kennel cards (featuring all eighteen breeds from the games, including Dalmatian and Jack Russell Terrier), one of nine tip cards, one of four Miscellaneous cards, one of 20 Pop-Up Cards, one of six sticker sheets, one of four temporary tattoos, and one Sweepstakes card. The second series had three package designs featuring a Dalmatian, Beagle, and Pug. A line of Nintendogs plush toys was released in Japan, featuring the most popular breeds, and were also available at the Nintendo World Store. Various T-shirts were sold there as well. In Europe and Australia, plush toys with an electronic sensor were released; shaking the bone made the dog walk and bark. Nintendo also commissioned specially designed DS systems, including a diamond-studded pink DS by Peach NYC that went to auction in 2024 with bids exceeding nearly $20,000.

Reception

Nintendogs received positive reviews, with an average score of 85% on Game Rankings. Famitsu gave it a perfect 40/40 score in May 2005, a rating achieved by only four other games at the time. Nintendo Power scored it 8.5 out of 10, and Game Informer gave it 8 out of 10, noting the lack of an ending. Game Oracle awarded 85% and recommended it for its depth. In its first week in Japan (April 18–24, 2005), the three versions sold a combined 168,000 units, and DS system sales rose to 95,000 units from 22,000 the previous week. By 2008, cumulative Japanese sales reached 1,850,984. In Europe, it was the top-selling Nintendo game of 2005 with 1.6 million copies. Worldwide sales reached 23.96 million, making it the second best-selling DS game. The majority of owners were female. Lab & Friends received a Double Platinum sales award from ELSPA for at least 600,000 sales in the UK; Dalmatian & Friends received a Platinum award for at least 300,000. By August 2006 in the US, Chihuahua & Friends had sold 570,000 copies, Labrador & Friends 620,000, and Dachshund & Friends 730,000.