Sega goes all soppy with Dream Cats DS
If Nintendo won't give us Nintencats then Sega will
Sega is set to pip Nintendo to the post by releasing Dream Cats on DS in Japan in April.
Following the success of Nintendogs (as we reported yesterday, the game has sold over 8 million copies in Europe since its release), there have been a few coy hints from Nintendo that it might one day expand on the series by introducing another cute, fluffy animal but never any proper announcement.
Sega's Dream Cats is based on a range of Japanese Sega toys called Dream Cat Smile. The toys' sensors means they act just like the real thing - if you stroke them they purr, if you stand on their tail they screech, if you get down on the floor and hiss in their face they scratch your eyes out. Okay, so we're assuming with the last one.
However, the game - which was first shown at last year's Tokyo Game Show - is looking a lot like a Nintendogs clone. You interact with your cat with the stylus, talk to it using the microphone and can apparently even throw a tennis ball for it. Someone on the development team has obviously never played with a real cat. There are also a variety of cat breeds you can choose to own.
The game's official website has a generous helping of bright-eyed cats which are viewable to chokingly sick-inducing music. There also seems to be some sort of cute cat competition going on, although Sega's going to have to try harder than that to beat the cute puppies Nintendo paraded for the release of Nintendogs (then probably tied bricks to and threw into Shigeru Miyamoto's private lake).
Dream Cats is scheduled for released in Japan on April 24th. Currently there's no news on the UK release, or even confirmation there will be one. But we'll be stalking it like a cat that's spotted a bird bath so expect further news soon.
