If there was a trophy for missed open goals, Nintendo would have quite a few in the cabinet. For example, why didn't we get a new Donkey Kong game when the movie Super Mario Bros. launched last year? Why wasn't the Wii U called 'Wii 2'? And why on earth isn't there a Nintendogs game on Switch?
There was a part of me, clearly swayed by some kind of Mandela Effect, that was convinced that the simulation of a doggy daycare had moved on to walkers on our beloved Nintendo hybrid in the last eight years. But no, I consulted the Ancient Scrolls (our game database) and ventured to the Switch eShop, and no such game exists. That is, except for Little Friends: Dogs & Cats which look eerily similar, but it's not a purebred Nintendo puppy.
This isn't a franchise I've thought about for the better part of 20 years, but in hindsight, the absence of a dog in the Switch window seems like a glaring omission. OG sold like hell on the DS (hell, with 23.96 million copies sold, it was the second best-selling handheld device after New Super Mario Bros.), and while the creatively named sequel, Nintendogs + Cats, on 3DS wasn't such a big moment™, I struggle to think of many people who have never experienced the pain of trying to teach one of these virtual dogs to react to your name.
You'd think Nintendo would do everything in its power to bring some of that DS and 3DS crowd to the new system after the dark years of the Wii U, but Not! Little known curiosities like 'Zelda' and 'Maria' were clearly a 'better business decision', whatever that means.
The question is: why? The sales numbers are clear as day, the cozy gaming scene has blossomed on the Switch, and if deep cuts like Another Code and Endless Ocean got a seat at the table this year, why not a prize puppy? I can only assume there is one simple answer: Nintendo hates puppies Switchable hardware.
I played Nintendogs because I wasn't allowed a real dog (which I, a fully grown adult, am completely done), and all the appeal was in replicating the 'real dog' experience without any of the messy real-life stuff. The catch is that all of that fun was tied to the DS and, in most of those cases, the Switch won't play.
Think about it; pet the puppy, play with it and clean it using the touch screen. Training is an unusually realistic case of yelling into a microphone with varying degrees of impatience. You meet other dogs by putting your device in 'Bark Mode' and crossing paths with like-minded users in the real world — hey, StreetPass has a lot of answers. A game without any of those features isn't Nintendogs, it's more like… well… Little Friends: Dogs and Cats.
I guess I could give mine Good boy belly scratch on the Switch's touchscreen, but docked mode won't deliver the same dopamine hit. I understand that Little Friends are included in the motion controls as a replacement, but I have clear memories of mindlessly stroking the air on the Xbox Kinect Kinectimals and a sequel to the hilariously titled Kinectimals: Now with Bears! (an attempt at filming Nintendogs fever if ever I saw one), and let me tell you, it was not same.
This, combined with the lack of a microphone and — the biggest sin of all — the absence of StreetPass-style wireless functionality, makes it hard to imagine what Nintendogs on the Switch would look like. Maybe things would be different if the Switch 2 provided all of the above, but unless the form factor changes drastically to favor handheld gaming over everything else (and, looking at those rumors, it won't), I may have to start being satisfied with the idea that this is a Nintendo franchise, it's better to go live on a farm.
See? Your make they still have a reason to keep that DS charged.
But what do you think? Is there a home for Nintendogs on Switch and Switch 2? Would you like to see the show come back one day? Share your thoughts in the comments.
