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First look at EA's animal intensive Littlest Pet Shop DS

EA has a stab at casual gaming with cute dogs and cats

First look at EA's animal intensive Littlest Pet Shop DS
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DS
| Littlest Pet Shop

Despite what the title implies, this isn't a game about a pet shop with very limited floor space - the RSPCA wouldn't like that.

Nor is it an experience that paints a realistic view of pet shops to youngsters - there are no frozen day-old chicks on sale for people to feed to their pet snakes for instance. Not to mention the lack of children jabbing at glass of a cage-full of baby hamsters and screaming "I want!" at the tops of their lungs.

Instead, Littlest Pet Shop is the cutest and least literal translation of what it takes to own a pet shop anyone could imagine. And one that's based on the Hasbro-owned franchise of miniature pet toys of the same name. EA, you might remember, recently announced a deal it had struck with Hasbro to publish games of the company's assorted licences, and Littlest Pet Shop is one of the first games to emerge as part of that deal.

The game gives you 20 different pets to collect, from puppies and hamsters to the more exotic turtles and monkeys. Which pets you get will depend on which version of the game you've bought though because - as we learned at a recent EA Casual event - there will be three versions of the game - Jungle, Garden and Winter released - Nintendogs style.

So the Garden game will give you traditional pets such as dogs, cats and rabbits. Jungle will contain monkeys and frogs and Winter has polar bears and penguins.

Still, what you actually do with these pets doesn't vary from version to version. In your bid to keep all of your furry friends happy, you visit areas on the map and each offers you a different way to interact with your pets.

So at the Train Station, new pets arrive with each train. And at the Salon you can wash and preen your pets. There's also an Arcade which has 15 mini-games to play for when you've had enough of all the hard work.

Well, we say hard work but Littlest Pet Shop isn't actually designed to be a chore or even much of a challenge. Like the toys it's based on, it's far more just something to play with, like a toy set in your pocket. So all outcomes in the game result in positive feedback for the player and there are no tasks like having to clean up after your pet or do any of other things that otherwise results in your animals being miserable and flea-ridden.

There are plenty of incentives to keep you playing though - most of which are made up of unlockable accessories, trophies and new pets. Kibble is rewarded for playing and this can be spent on any one of 100 accessories, which can then be placed on your highly cute pet.

Luckily you don't then have to keep your beautiful bow-tie wearing parrot (or whatever you've gone for) hidden away on your DS. All the mini-games are playable wirelessly and you can show off your pets to friends at the same time. You can't exchange them though - EA's special 'kid tests' have demonstrated little girls don't much like to share their toys. I can vouch for the fact that older ones don't really much like to either.

Aimed at ages six to ten, it's unlikely Littlest Pet Shop is going to much interest our more game-centric readers. But, as an experience for youngsters, it could be as much of an "I want" game as a hamster in a real pet shop.

For example, the rhythm based mini-game we played which had you tapping one of four segments in time to the music was simple but nicely done, and the game's visuals and its doe-eyed pets should be as appealing as pink roller-blades to its target audience.

It's not going to be as universal as Nintendogs then, but it should make a lot of eight year old girls very happy. It's due for release around October.

Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.