A central weakpoint in the people of Europe has now been exposed: They simply can't resist the charm of
Nintendo's obscenely adorable polygonal puppies. Nintendogs has now sold 2 million copies over there, with no
signs of slowing down. Nintendo attributes this massive success (which eclipses both Japan and North America) to the
game's wide appeal that incorporates female gamers. Yes, they have those in Europe too.With the news out of the way, I should express my personal dislike for posting about Nintendogs. I got tired of the game quite a while ago, feeling that I didn't have enough time to properly take care of my puppy. Reminded of this by the news story, I quickly dismissed the urge to go play the game again. "Bah, I don't care about neglecting my dog. He's probably run away by now. I'm over that game." No sooner had I reached the end of the paragraph than I experienced the guilt, eating away at me like a termite infestation in a log cabin. "How could I be so cruel? I have to turn on my DS and check to see if little Gonzo is okay."
Damn you, Nintendogs, for making me worry so about a cleverly disguised chunk of programming code!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-17-2006 @ 6:21PM
Jon said...
"Damn you, Nintendogs, for making me worry so about a cleverly disguised chunk of programming code!"
Every games are cleverly disguised chunks of programming code. Including those Dead of Alive 4 babes.
Remember nerds, they do not exist!
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2-17-2006 @ 6:35PM
Ludwig Kietzmann said...
True, but very few chunks of programming actually trick me into being concerned about their living conditions. :)
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2-17-2006 @ 7:36PM
mandarin said...
Is that a pic of a real dog jumping up in the air???
The ears kind of remind me of Gremlins....
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2-17-2006 @ 7:45PM
tribalmasters said...
Just remember one thing: UK female or even male citizens of the United Kingdom do not exist! Even tho Over in the US, the land where a faulty toaster won't blow a plug but the whole breaker of a whole building since fuses are in no way integrated into the US mains plug there rely on the breaker panel, requiring the reset of the VCR etc and anything faulty will take out the whole circuit instead of just a dead plug ohh and NTSC "Wee need HDTV" PAL is so cool here in europe because it just does not bother us because PAL is high quality and we have never experienced such poor colour on our screen that Ameeeericaaans have!
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2-17-2006 @ 8:48PM
Max Galactica said...
"Just remember one thing: UK female or even male citizens of the United Kingdom do not exist!"
What? I live in the UK... so I obviously exist.
Anyway, I got Nintendogs ages ago and got bored very fast. I don't understand how it can sell so well here in Europe, when there are much better games like Phoenix Wright, Animal Crossing, Trauma Centre, Advance Wars and Mario Kart are around. (Then again, three of those games aren't even out in Europe yet.)
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2-20-2006 @ 6:23AM
sockatume said...
tribalmasters, what the heck are you on?
Anyway, it doesn't matter how mystified gamers are at the game's success: it's going for non-gamers. The average non-gamer may not be especially taken with the idea of being a surgeon, lawyer, general, cartoon character or go kart racer in their spare time. Looking after a puppy, though? That's got loads of appeal to the right people. Having Bill Oddie voiceover the cinema and TV adverts was genius too.
Next big success: I'm betting it'll be Brain Training. They've been sponsoring Countdown, for crying out loud, and they've had a banner over the front of The Express. It'll ride the sudoku popularity wave all the way into the history books.
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