My daughter couldn't wait to get I Love Puppies! The way some young girls are horse-crazy ... well, she is puppy-crazy. There was no way we weren't going to get this game. I first opened the game with some trepidation. I was certain I was facing another micro-management style pet-care game, and I don't think I can stand to muck out another virtual stall, clean another virtual cage and scoop another virtual litter box without having a not-so-virtual nervous breakdown. I can't tell you how delighted I was to find nary a virtual pooper-scooper in sight!
I Love Puppies has four save game slots. Each save is a different puppy picture that you can name — though the game doesn't care if the names are the same or different — it's the puppy that's holding the actual save. I know this because my daughter named all four of her saves “Mia.”
There are quite a few minigames in I Love Puppies. The games are divided into three sections: Training, Care, and Fun & Games. I'm not sure why the games were divided this way, since they were just different minigames. There's also a Treasure Chest area, which has four unlockable pictures of puppies that you can print. It says something about them being puzzles, but if so, they're not in-game puzzles. I'm not sure why the pictures are locked, and there's no indication within the game of how to unlock them.
The Training section includes: Frisbee Throwing, On the Dogs' Pitch, Steeplechase, Swimming Course, Tending the Sheep, The Big Competition, The Race and The See-Saw Game. Steeplechase, in particular, involved either having the puppy jump over obstacles or duck to go through tires or pipes. The longer you go, the faster the puppy moves through the course. Miss an obstacle, and the game is over.
The Care section includes: Catching Puppies, Fleas!, Jumping Over the River, My Dog Hotel, Sweets for Puppies and The Sweet Chase. On my computer, at least, the Fleas! game never actually did anything. The puppy was there, and I could click the flea-zapper, but no fleas ever appeared. My Dog Hotel was the closest thing to a traditional pet-maintenance type game. You have the dogs in a large room with stations for food, a door outside, a bedroom and a shower. There are bottles, a bucket, a plant and a push broom. You have to watch the puppy to see what it wants and use the broom to clean up objects getting knocked over. Flies on the dog tell you to give it a shower. The Zs tell you the puppy needs a nap. Puppy with a wagging tail and its tongue out wants food. Puppy with a wagging tail and not so much tongue needs to go outside. You have a countdown once a puppy indicates it wants something. Ignore three of your canine guests too long, and the game is over. The Sweet Chase was pretty much a game of doggie Pac-Man, only you're avoiding other dogs and collecting treats and not little dots.
My daughter has declared Fun & Games to be her favorite section. Chaos with Duke — the first on the list — is her favorite of all the games. Basically, you have a dog with a saddle/basin structure strapped to his back on a lower level, and you can see the lower part of a human on the upper level. The human is dropping things, and you have to move the dog back and forth to catch the items on its saddle. When the tower of goods gets too tall, hit the space bar to summon another dog to take your place. This game continues until you miss three items and let them fall to the floor. The other games in this section are: Food Paradise (swimming on ropes of food), Invasion of the Beetles (neither one of us really understood the mechanics on this one), Merry Tree Trunk Ride (avoiding obstacles while riding a tree down a river), Sliding Party, The Dogs' Fairground, The Terrific Ball Game (pretty much doggie Pong) and Through the Wind.
All of the games were played using the mouse, the arrow keys on the keyboard and, occasionally, the space bar. None of the controls were particularly complicated, though sometimes the instructions for a given game were less than clear. My daughter says she loves I Love Puppies, and the games were “just right,” but she also admitted on some of the games (Invasion of the Beetles is one example) that she didn't understand the instructions.
For the age demographic, I Love Puppies certainly has some good points. Most of the games are easy to learn. The graphics are cute, and the music is inoffensive. My daughter certainly loves to play the game. If you asked her, she would definitely recommend I Love Puppies.
As the mom, I did have certain issues with this game. In no particular order, here are my issues:
If your child wants to play cute minigames filled with puppies, you may want to give I Love Puppies a try. While some games are probably too hard for a younger child, there are certainly plenty of other options within the game. At just under $20, you're certainly getting a reasonable value given the sheer number of minigames included. While this wouldn't be the game of choice for me, the game wasn't designed with me in mind. My 7-year-old daughter gives the game a big thumbs-up.
I’m a working mom – married with one child. My daughter is 7 and she has autism. Everything else in my life moves around this core. Online gaming has been a big part of my social life over the last several years due to the difficulty of going out and about. I have to say that my daughter Alissa is awesome at computer games. She has skills with electronics that amaze me. When I get away from the computer, I like doing craft projects (knitting, crocheting, sewing, painting, quilling, whatever sounds fun) and reading. I mainly read suspense these days but I have a pretty eclectic collection and a library of about 6000 books. I’ve been using a computer since grade school – I started with an Apple IIe and have upgraded considerably and many times since then. I played Dungeons and Dragons for at least a few decades. I met and married my husband through gaming. He was my DM. I stopped tabletop gaming more from lack of time than anything. It’s easier to meet and game with friends online than it is to coordinate real life schedules around my daughter’s needs.
