Make the constant meowing stop! (A Purr Pals review)

I was able to pick up a copy of Purr Pals, one of the DS games I mentioned in my last post. Bear with me as I’ll try not to compare it to its canine predecessor, Nintendogs.

Let’s start with the good stuff. Number one: 40 different kitty breeds in one fun cartridge! You’ve got the popular Persians and Siamese mixed in with the Tonkinese and Singapuras. And by god, they’re all cute. At the beginning of the game you’re given about 100 dollars to choose one breed. Then when you get more money with that one breed, you can eventually get more. This part is also where you get to customize your new pet’s hair color, and no, you don’t get to have a neon pink Abyssinian since the choices are only limited to what colors really exist for each breed. Well, except for whiskers. For some strange reason, your pet CAN have funkily colored whiskers. Honestly? I find it really weird.

The main screen is also pretty simple, with six icons representing Food/Feeding, Play, Grooming, Litter, Love, and Extras. I’m sure the first three speak for themselves. Litter is where you need to clean up your pet’s litter box. Love is where you, well, “pet” him. Extras contain links to supplies and accessories stores where you can shop for your pet, as well as shows your kitty can join. There are also four mini-games included–Alley Oop!, which is a basketball-type game; Cupid, where you get to shoot floating hearts with arrows; Copycat, a matching-type game (I don’t know how else to describe it); and Music, which is like DDR and Ouendan… except there are four cats singing, I mean, meowing.

Beginners are given a small tutorial by a resident female vet, or at least I’m assuming she’s a vet because it looks like she has a stethoscope on.

Now for my gripes. Unfortunately, the graphics aren’t as smooth as Nintendogs. (Oop, there I go with the comparison. I can’t help it!) The kittens, although cute, look very pixelated and their movements are almost robotic. When I groom my Himalayan, sometimes it feels as though its head detaches itself from its body when it turns.