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The Sims 2: Pets (DS Version)
I like to consider myself pretty understanding when it comes to handheld and console video games, particularly the under rated sim series of these platforms. However, there is little i can say to defend The Sims 2: Pets for the Nintendo DS seeing as the many negative reviews scattered across the web are right. I wasn't expecting much when I bought this game. I wasn't expecting "The true sims experience" with a whole neighborhood of sims for mne to create, such as in the console and PC versions of this game. However, even with my low expectations I was disappointed.
In Pets you create one sim and then take on the role of town vet, caring for sick dogs and cats. The creation process is very minimal. There is very little room for creativity. Fortunately you only have to make one sim, because if you were creating a neighborhood all your sims would look the same or close to it due to the lack of options here.
After creating your sim you get to create one pet for them, either a dog or a cat. Although the breed selection isn't as vast as it is in trhe PC and console versions (or even Nintendogs) there is still a good amount of variety here. You can also customize your pet, but don't get too excited. All you can do to customize it is alter the shape of the animal's head and body slightly and put another breed's coat colour onto it. If you want, you can create a dog or cat with the front half the colour of one breed and the back half the colour of another. It sounds mildly cool, but it looks aweful.
After creating your pet you'll likely never touch it again. If you wish to teach it tricks you might spend the extra five minute with it, but other then that owning your own pet just wastes kennel space that could be given to a client. I usually just sotre mine, which means you put the pet in your inventory. However, after I first tried this it took me ages to figure out how to get my dog back. The manual doesn't explain it at all.
You also don't get to build your house. Instead you start by living in a small, furnished house with attached vet office. There is very little room for everything you need here, so you'll want to save up and buy a bigger house. There are two more houses that you can buy, and even though they're bigger, it's still hard to fit everything into them. So what do you do with your old furniture after you replace it? Since there's no room in your house you sell it, right? Wrong. You can't sell items in this game. As a result, your inventory will quickly become cluttered with stuff you'll never use.
Once you're established, your clients start to arrive. Some sims will bring you sick pets, others will bring you dirty pets. Your job is to use a series of mini games to diagonose the pet, and then decide how many days it will take you to fix what's wrong. At first this is new and exciting. It's something that's never really been done before, or at least, hasn't been done to death. However, your excitment will soon disappear when you discover that this is all you do. The lack of options for diagnosing and healing pets results in stale and repetitive gameplay. Does that Border Collie have worms? Feed it dewormer for three days. Does that Persian have a broken leg? Put a cast on it and let it rest for five days. Is that Pug ugly? Dress it up and send it home the next day. Oh, that Tabby has worms? I'll feed it dewormer for three days like the other pet.
When it comes to taking care of your needs, things couldn't be worse. They might as well have left this part out of the game entirely as it's completely pointless. If your hygene is down, go stand in the shower with your clothes on for one second and it'll be back up. Need to go to the bathroom? Go sit on the toilet for a second with your clothes on and it'll be back up. As for upping hunger, you have to once again play a mini game that gets to be a pain pretty quickly.
There is also a town park, but it's just as pointless as the rest of the game. Apparently you're supposed to go there to befriend neighbors so that they'll come to your clinic, but that doesn't matter. They come anyway. Going to the park is just a waste of time that could be better spent earning money to buy furniture that won't fit in your house.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that there never seems to be enough hours in the day to look after both your patients and yourself. Some might say that this is an added challenge. I say it's bull. Your clinic closes at about 5 o'clock, at which point you automatically go to bed and sleep until opening the next day. Why can't you go to be when you want, like in other sim games? Just because you aren't accepting patients doesn't mean you can't look after the ones you've already got, or relax on that new couch you just bought and relaized didn't fit anywhere in your house.
And the graphics! Do not get me started on the graphics! I'll admit they're not all bad. A lot of the furniture looks fine, a little squarish, but not too bad otherwise. However, the sims and worse, the pets, are 100% fugly. They look like really badly draw cartoons. Really, are there any excuses? Nintendogs was one of the first DS games to come out and look at those puppies. Now that's the kind of pet I want, cute and adorable, not ugly and scary.
Like I mentioned earlier, I consider myself pretty reasonable when it comes to The Sims on handhelds and consoles. That's why I really suggest that you don't waste your money on this game. If I think it's bad, trust me, it's bad.