At the pre-E3 Nintendo E3 briefing, Nintendo exhibited acclaimed puppy sim, Nintendogs. With the help of Tina, a well-known (I’m told) US presenter, a U.S version of the game was demoed on stage. First, she showed us the impressive voice recognition abilities of the game, with her shouts of ‘Ganon’ eliciting an angry response from the dog, although saying ‘New Zelda’ didn’t have any effect, to the embarrassment of Reggie and Tina. Even better, we then got to see the wireless multiplayer in effect, with a DS ‘auto-search’ feature waking up the console when another dog-owner moves into wireless range. A voice message from no less than Shigeru Miyamoto was beamed to her system, and the two dogs were able to play with each other. Impressive stuff indeed. Smooth, 3D graphics and advanced AI and voice recognition have earned this game an almost unheard of 40/40 score in Japan’s influential weekly Famitsu, and our excitement in the game has just been bumped up another few notches. More as we have it.

Mark Cullinane