Ubisoft goes all puppy-eyed for My Pet Hotel and My Vet Practice

With millions of tiny European hands daily stroking their Nintendogs, there's clearly plenty of potential to introduce other animals into playlife. So before Ricky Gervais gets his Flaminals onto a cart, Ubisoft is piling ahead with its (and we joke not) Pawly Pets series – My Pet Hotel and My Vet Practice.

There's a world of difference between spending the night in a hotel or dossing at the vets , of course (although, to be fair, I've never actually struggled into a cage, merely winked at the receptionist, but that's another story entirely...)

Ubisoft appreciates there's a difference too, sort of: its vet pet game uses voice recognition, while its pet hotel game offers interactive pet care via a stylus.

My Pet Hotel throws you into the deep end of caring for horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, budgies, and tortoises. Your job is to feed them, keep their enclosures clean, play with them, and get new toys for them, while building up your ideal Pet Hotel.

On the other hand, My Vet Practice sees you dealing with the medical emergencies of guinea pigs, rabbits, budgerigars, cats, dogs, and horses. Once again your duties include feeding, playing, cleaning up after and saving the lives of your cuddy chums.

In both games, you can relax by riding horses, which pins down the target audience rather exactly.

The game blurb also outlines the opportunities – 'For very demanding horse-patients, you can experience interesting things about horse whispering' it says – but, despite the badly translated German, we're not going to rise to the bait.

My Pet Hotel and My Vet Practice will both be released by Ubisoft on February 2nd.