Unleash the animal in you with the The Sims 2 Pets

In the days before Pokemon on your GBA and My Dog on your mobile phone, the most fun a boy could have was nurturing a living, breathing creature, throwing it a stick, cleaning up the mess afterwards, and eventually wishing he'd got a bike instead.

Hard but true.

Today, of course, we can instead take our pocket games machines with us when we go for a walk. They're cheaper, they're quieter, and they don't crap all over the carpet, whatever critics might claim.

And now The Sims 2 Pets is coming to unite these two passions / squeeze the Sims franchise til it bleeds (delete according to cynicism). What's more, unlike its big rival, Nintendogs, EA is promising all dogs, cats and 'caged animals' will be covered, not just the canines that Nintendo puts to the fore.

There's a philosophical angle to all this too – you'll be caring for your digital Sim folk, who will in turn care for their own digital life-forms. JG Ballard would have a field day…

Special versions of The Sims 2 Pets are being created for each of the DS, PSP (pictured right) and GBA. All promise to enable you to express the kind of animal loving that even the tabloid newspapers would admire.

You'll be able to choose from existing cat breeds or hot mutts of the moment, or you can turn Dr Frankenstein and roll your own with the Create-a-Pet feature. With the latter you can pick your pet's body shape, pattern and colouration, and even its personality, from soppy to snarly. Sadly, there's no mention of you being able to cross a canary with a guinea pig (at least not until the aptly-named homebrew crowd can get hold of it).

You'll also be able to teach your pet tricks, care for and clean them, tell them off when they shred your Sims' couch, and swap unlockable pet stuff with other players.

In terms of the specific pocket formats, we're promised:

PSP

You'll be able to take your Sim and their pet for a walk in the park, and see how they get on with other Sim's pets. You can then head over to the Town Centre, where you can buy cheap pet tat to tart them up.

DS

Nintendo owners get two rather more mercantile modes. You can create a drop-in centre (Erm, surely 'local vetinarian practice' – Ed) with the Pet Care Centre feature, where you can look after all the local pets in a special establishment you create and customise. Or you can set up your own pet store, where you can sell pets and their accessories to other Sims.

Game Boy Advance

Sims on GBA can specialise in caring for other pets by taking on a career as a vet, a pet trainer or other animal-orientated activities. You can also train your pets to compete in the World Championships. Make that budgie bow! And so on.

The Nintendo DS and GBA versions of The Sims 2 Pets are due out in October. The PSP version should follow in November, but as to the reliability of those dates, you know what they say – never work with animals…