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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Entertainment Developer: inXile entertainment Publisher: Crave Entertainment |
Virtual pets games show up everywhere on the Nintendo DS, but the genre never really made its way to the console systems. There are
a few games that have made their way to the consoles, but overall it is still a new market. “Purr Pals” is Crave Entertainment’s latest
entry into the genre and it arrives as the first virtual pet game on the Wii that allows players to own and interact with cats and kittens.
library.
library.
“Purr Pals” first appeared as a Nintendo DS game a year and a half ago, and when it did it proved to be a decent game. It had some
odd bugs the caused it to freeze occasionally and its overuse of in-game advertising for Purina brand pet foods felt a little bit off, but in
the end it was a passably playable experience. The best thing about the game was its depth in breed selection and customization, it
offered over 40 different breeds of cats to choose from and once players select one they can get pretty precise about how they made the
pet their own.
The game on the Wii seems to be made from the exact same design as its Nintendo DS counterpart, and so it also features the same
selection of 40 different types of cats and a huge collection of customization options. Players are able to specify what color their cat’s
eyes are, what type of a pattern can be seen in their fur, how long their tails are and much more. Everything in the game looks good on
the front end of the experience. It is only after they are done making their own custom cat and launch into the core game play that the
problems really begin to appear.
Since there is no core game play to the game, there is little excitement for players. The game has players placing their new cat in a
room, in a house and it walks around. Nothing else happens. There isn’t even any music playing in the background. Players will
spend a majority of the time just looking at their cat. There are of course ways to interact with the cats, but players will have to call up a
menu in order to do it, players are not allowed to even pet the cat without choosing that as an action from a variety of icons. The menu
lets players pick to pet their cat or groom it, feed it, dress it up, clean its litter box and play a few mini-games, but that is it.
The game play associated with each of the choices in the game is fairly weak. Petting is just moving a two dimensional cursor over the
cat’s body using the Wii Remote pointed at the cat, and grooming is exactly the same, though the cursor changes to the shape of a
hairbrush instead. Feeding has players tilting the Wii Remote to turn over a box of food, but that is all there is to do. Dressing it up is
just choosing what pieces of clothing players want to have their cat wear, different menus and cleaning out the litter box is achieved
through more basic pointing and clicking.
The only thing in the game that seems to save it from being a complete waste of time are the mini-games, but each of the seven
designs there seem to be limited too. Four of them are holdovers from the DS original version of “Purr Pals,” while three of the games
are new. None of the games are much fun; there is a music game that plays a lot like “Guitar Hero” but with screeching cats singing
out each note instead of a guitar chord. There is a Copy Cat game that is a lot like the game of Simon, players need to memorize a
pattern of notes and then recreate the combination. There is a Mouse Hunt game that have players sending virtual mice to their death
trying to sneak past their own cat, but even that one tends to be fairly shallow and boring.
That is about all there is to the game. The game encourages players to buy a wide variety of toys to use while playing with their cat, but
the animals in the game always seem to be unresponsive, even when they’re purchased the most interesting and expensive toys for
their cats amusement. Earning enough virtual money to buy the toys, the clothes to dress up their cat, the food to feed the cat and more,
only means constant and repeated play of the monotonous mini-games. It is much too repetitive to be worth it, but most players will
stop playing the game long before they have invested the time to have a large collection of clothes and toys for their cat.
“Purr Pals” no longer freezes like it did on the DS version of the game and its product placements are much more toned down, but other
than those two particular improvements the game hasn’t done anything but lose ground since its first appearance. What works on a
handheld doesn’t always translate to a home console, which must be why players still love to play any virtual pet game. While cat
lovers will absolutely adore the fact that “Purr Pals” allows players the depth of customizing their cats, the rest of the package doesn’t
live up to the initial promise. Nowhere is the game realistic and kids wanting a pet will quickly be turned away from the constant and
boring tasks that they must complete, so for some parents maybe it is the perfect game to get their child.
a few games that have made their way to the consoles, but overall it is still a new market. “Purr Pals” is Crave Entertainment’s latest
entry into the genre and it arrives as the first virtual pet game on the Wii that allows players to own and interact with cats and kittens.
library.
library.
“Purr Pals” first appeared as a Nintendo DS game a year and a half ago, and when it did it proved to be a decent game. It had some
odd bugs the caused it to freeze occasionally and its overuse of in-game advertising for Purina brand pet foods felt a little bit off, but in
the end it was a passably playable experience. The best thing about the game was its depth in breed selection and customization, it
offered over 40 different breeds of cats to choose from and once players select one they can get pretty precise about how they made the
pet their own.
The game on the Wii seems to be made from the exact same design as its Nintendo DS counterpart, and so it also features the same
selection of 40 different types of cats and a huge collection of customization options. Players are able to specify what color their cat’s
eyes are, what type of a pattern can be seen in their fur, how long their tails are and much more. Everything in the game looks good on
the front end of the experience. It is only after they are done making their own custom cat and launch into the core game play that the
problems really begin to appear.
Since there is no core game play to the game, there is little excitement for players. The game has players placing their new cat in a
room, in a house and it walks around. Nothing else happens. There isn’t even any music playing in the background. Players will
spend a majority of the time just looking at their cat. There are of course ways to interact with the cats, but players will have to call up a
menu in order to do it, players are not allowed to even pet the cat without choosing that as an action from a variety of icons. The menu
lets players pick to pet their cat or groom it, feed it, dress it up, clean its litter box and play a few mini-games, but that is it.
The game play associated with each of the choices in the game is fairly weak. Petting is just moving a two dimensional cursor over the
cat’s body using the Wii Remote pointed at the cat, and grooming is exactly the same, though the cursor changes to the shape of a
hairbrush instead. Feeding has players tilting the Wii Remote to turn over a box of food, but that is all there is to do. Dressing it up is
just choosing what pieces of clothing players want to have their cat wear, different menus and cleaning out the litter box is achieved
through more basic pointing and clicking.
The only thing in the game that seems to save it from being a complete waste of time are the mini-games, but each of the seven
designs there seem to be limited too. Four of them are holdovers from the DS original version of “Purr Pals,” while three of the games
are new. None of the games are much fun; there is a music game that plays a lot like “Guitar Hero” but with screeching cats singing
out each note instead of a guitar chord. There is a Copy Cat game that is a lot like the game of Simon, players need to memorize a
pattern of notes and then recreate the combination. There is a Mouse Hunt game that have players sending virtual mice to their death
trying to sneak past their own cat, but even that one tends to be fairly shallow and boring.
That is about all there is to the game. The game encourages players to buy a wide variety of toys to use while playing with their cat, but
the animals in the game always seem to be unresponsive, even when they’re purchased the most interesting and expensive toys for
their cats amusement. Earning enough virtual money to buy the toys, the clothes to dress up their cat, the food to feed the cat and more,
only means constant and repeated play of the monotonous mini-games. It is much too repetitive to be worth it, but most players will
stop playing the game long before they have invested the time to have a large collection of clothes and toys for their cat.
“Purr Pals” no longer freezes like it did on the DS version of the game and its product placements are much more toned down, but other
than those two particular improvements the game hasn’t done anything but lose ground since its first appearance. What works on a
handheld doesn’t always translate to a home console, which must be why players still love to play any virtual pet game. While cat
lovers will absolutely adore the fact that “Purr Pals” allows players the depth of customizing their cats, the rest of the package doesn’t
live up to the initial promise. Nowhere is the game realistic and kids wanting a pet will quickly be turned away from the constant and
boring tasks that they must complete, so for some parents maybe it is the perfect game to get their child.
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