3/5: Fun and can be challenging, but the game's cheap flaws renders this as some thing mediocre.
DEVELOPER(S):RELEASE: 2008-01
Premise: Peter and Sofia's elderly friend Nana is out on medical leave, and it's up to you to care for her adoption shelter. However, just before she leaves, she presents you with the pet of your dreams, and should things work out, you might even be able to adopt that lovable fur ball.
Gameplay: The game, while predominantly a "time management" game (think Diner Dash), also features a mini' game where you fulfill all of your dream pet's needs within the allotted amount of time. But before all this, you get to create your own dream pet. You start with choosing a cat or a dog, its sex, name, size, fur colour, eye colour, and coat pattern. In exactly that order. Seriously. It's a bit annoying. At least only if you didn't click the "skip" button in the whole walk through of the process (which I didn't learn until I made a new user to check out the game's hard mode). But the game does let you change the details in whatever order you want directly after. Note that after you confirm this you can't change the details.
Stray pets are constantly coming in, along with their prospective owners. Each patron has a stack of dollars above his or her head, which tell you how much money they're willing to pay for their new (not necessarily furry, as you'll find out in later levels) best friend. Waiting too long or being offered an animal they're not interested in lowers the cash you'll ultimately receive. And, no matter how high the stack of moolah is, if you give them a sickly pet, they'll give you at the most $11 give or take when you couldn't gotten at least $50 or so if you're a decent player. Each patron also gives you a hint about their dream pet, whether it be size, species, colour, or fur length.
There are four difficultly levels to choose from, which can't be changed unless you make a new game: Kiddies, Easy, Normal, and Hard. I have to say, a Kiddies game is vastly different from a Hard game. I wouldn't be surprised if a retarded chimpanzee got through the whole game on Kiddies. A Hard game would definitely make children and even some adults cry. Either difficulty, Peter and Sofia are slow as hell. At least compared to Flo from Diner Dash.
Even if you play Kiddies, you are guaranteed to make mistakes in the game. A patron's requested size can be pretty vague (wtf is that cat really as big as a lab'?), and so can colours, especially when it comes to orange and brown in the later levels. Tip, that chestnut "husky" is actually brown. And so on... There's also the matter of clicking; more than once you'll definitely find yourself accidentally offering that chihuahua to the old lady who wants a cat when you really meant to give the chihuahua a bath. It'll take some trial-and-error and time (maybe an hour of total gameplay or so?) to get used to deselecting the little girl before you give that kitty a good scrub down. It's a bit annoying, really.
Last, and probably least, is the feature which allows one to take "photo' shoots" with your dream-pet. You simply scroll through a pet's various expressions, and then... Well, you can save the picture, and even send it to your friends. While it may be fun showcasing your freak-of-nature that is your cat, I guarantee most players will actually be playing the game.
Graphics: They're passable, decent, but not so great. The occasional jaggy is acceptable and understandable, but they're so prevalent the game can become a bit of an eyesore (for me, at least, and just to let you guys know I have OCD). The character design isn't worth mentioning about, and the colouring is something I'd expect from a budding hobbyist or some game made around the mid '90s or early 2000s. And in my opinion, the dream cat "template" is as ugly as hell. And I love cats. (Well, I love all animals.) Then again, it could be just because I have OCD. Could it be the fact it has eyebrows? Or maybe it's the snout? Or is it the head, which makes the cat look like it has some sort of feline hydrocephalus? Cats can get acne, so why not hydrocephalus?
While I can complain about the quality of the graphics, I sure as heck can't complain about the quantity and variety of everything. The farther you get into the game, the more patrons and pets you'll see, including something that looks to me like a Jerboa, though I'm not an expert on rodents. Things can get very interesting very fast. At least if you don't mess up with offering the biker dude a hamster by accident, whoops.
Sound: The music fits the game exactly, though it really is mediocre and extremely repetitive. Lucky for us gamers, we'll be too busy scrambling to get that anorexic "cougar" (she's not beautiful at all, actually) that snake to pay any attention to the music at all. But it's that damn mini' game where it really gets to you! or at least me. Jesus, people, I know you need to be all upbeat, cheery, and juvenile but come on. Do you have to be annoying, too? Not that I think the core audience (youngsters) will take notice of any of this. Thankfully the SFX aren't as nearly as annoying. Not that they're pleasant, but they're not unpleasant, either.
Overall: Even with all its flaws, this game is really worth giving a try. Especially since there aren't many games like this; I like things that make me use deduction and reasoning skills as fast as I can. But alas, because of the game's myriad of flaws, I can hardly say this warrants a buy at all, unless it's for your little ones. The game doesn't have much replay ability either, unless you want to take a shot at the hell that is the Hard difficulty.
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