Little Friends: Dogs & Cats - Tested Nintendo's new pet sim

Lovers of management games and our animal friends will surely remember Nintendogs, the pet simulator published in various editions and reworkings on Nintendo DS portable consoles. With the now consolidated success of Switch, the Japanese house tries again with Little Friends: Dogs & Cats, entrusting its development to Imagineer. Given the "puppy" theme of the title, Nintendo invited us to try its new pet sim in a more than appropriate location.

Between a cup of coffee and a chocolate brownie, we got to try for about an hour Little Friends, noting immediately the legacy due to its predecessor for Nintendo DS. In fact LFD & C follows the same gameplay system, providing the palyer with six breeds of puppies and three different kittens. The player has the task of looking after his virtual puppy (using the joy-con or the touch controls of the Switch in mobile configuration), he must feed him, keep him clean and dedicate a few moments of leisure with cuddles and games. Obviously there is no shortage of costumes and aesthetic improvements to customize the animals. There are more than 600 unlockable objects, a truly remarkable number of accessories and dresses, able to engage the most passionate completists for several hours of play.

At the beginning of your experience with Little Friends: Dogs & Cats you can only choose between some breeds of dogs (each of them has different character and needs) but only by progressing in the game will you be able to unlock the cats. In the build with which we performed the test we had to look after two dogs and a kitten. By paying attention to the indicators of the needs of the puppies, we made them play for a while at home (in the full game you can change the furniture), increasing their level of trust and earning coins to spend later on accessories and utilities for friends. four paws.

Basically, the actions that can be performed to pamper our four-legged friends are two: caress them or brush them. Although it is easier to do it using the touch screen, the simulation experience is more fun using the movement sensors of the joy-con (whose use is perfect in fresbee races), which will reproduce our actions very well, whether they are simple caresses. or affectionate pinches on the kitten's cheeks. Compared to dogs, cats have a more limited range of interactions: in fact, actions such as walking, and participating in running competitions can only be performed with a dog. The latter by completing the walks, playing with the Frisbee or competing, will increase his level and will learn new "tricks", ie he will be able to obey a larger number of orders given by the master.

There is also a large choice of foods and toys. It is up to us to decide if croquettes based on chicken, beef or fish are better for our virtual puppy. The same goes for toys: some are more suited to the fun of dogs, while dusters are the prerogative of cats. To buy them we will obviously have to spend a lot of time playing and taking care of our puppy, earning the necessary coins and credits.

While the gameplay does not differ almost at all from Nintendogs and in a short time you can perform most of the actions in the game, Little Friends: Dogs & Cats striking for the accuracy in recreating the six different breeds of dogs and the three cats, characterizing them just enough from having to adopt different solutions to make the various puppies happy according to their needs. Good animations: body language is very important in this game and often the movements of our furry friend (virtual) will tell us if we are doing the right thing. However, the game environments are rather "anonymous" and the graphics quality is not excellent, considering what a title of 2019 can offer.

Little Friends: Dogs & Cats certainly aims at a small audience, but perfectly embodies the spirit of pet sims. If you are an animal lover and want to try to take care of a virtual one, then this title is for you and will satisfy your need for "pucciosity". The game is already available in Japan, while we will arrive exclusively for Nintendo Switch on May 28th.