The first virtual pet simulator Little Friends: Dogs & Cats is available to buy from today onwards in the UK exclusively on Nintendo Switch™. We are delighted to gain early access to meet our best friend in life!
This game offers a choice of 6 breeds of puppy and 3 cute kittens, including Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd and French Bulldog. You can play with them, feed, pet and dress up in an adorable simulation!
First, you choose the breed of your pet and give him/her a name. Ms C loves dogs and she picked a Japanese Shiba Inu out of the six breeds (Shiba Inu, Chihuahua, Toy Poodle, Labrador Retriever, French Bulldog and German Shepherd).
As you’ll see, certain features won’t start to unlock until you reach a specific friendship rating with your pet. Most importantly, the Friends Plaza (which you can use to unlock cats) cannot be unlocked until your starting dog’s friendship rating reaches level 15. There is a cap of 10 levels per day, depending on how quickly you level up your friendship rating, you’ll probably open the Friends Plaza (and get access to cats!!) on the second day. She did mention that the breed of the kittens are not as adorable, which I can understand if you are not a cat lover. The kittens are slightly less realistic.
Then slowly you get to know the dog’s personalities and feed him his favourite food! You can play with your pet with their favourite new toy and use the Nintendo Switch touch screen to pet your new friend, or take your puppy pal out on walks to keep them as happy as you can. Ms C played on our new 55” television and found it quite hard to point her controller to pet her dog. I do think this game is better to play on the handheld console than on the big screen. With a smaller screen, it will be much easier to control your pets.
This game is unlike Tamagotchi where you have to look after the pets 24/7. The pets will not die even if you don’t play every day! This is definitely a relief for us parents. We have been so busy this half term that we haven’t had much chance to play with our pet!
This game allows children to play whenever they want and not get trapped to play with the pets regularly. Of course, the more you feed and play with your pets, the more it will increase your friendship level with the pet. This friendship level will then allow you to purchase better quality food, toys and clothes for your pets, or furniture and room styles for your digital living room, provided you have enough vouchers from the flying disc competition, earned by taking your dog for a walk and randomly through other aspects of play. You can play with up to three pets at the same time, or use the hotel to keep up to 12 furry friends.
There are over 600 stylish accessories to make them look their best. Once they’re ready, take screenshots to remember their amazing outfits.
If you like Sims type of games, then you will love this pet simulator game. It is very easy to play especially for young children and the visuals are very enjoyable. Although she doesn’t play it daily, Ms C loves her cute virtual pet and has continued playability.
Want to know more about this game, watch this trailer!
Disclosure: We received the early access Nintendo Switch sample code for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own. Images used with permission.
