Zhu Zhu Pets are a line of award-winning popular electronic pet hamster toys. These furry critters intelligently roll around their own tracks and habitats. And now they’re ready to scoot and scurry around on your Nintendo DS in a virtual pet game that captures the zippy spirit of the toy line.

There are two parts to the game: Nurturing Mode and Adventure Mode. In Nurturing Mode, use the stylus to drag your hamsters to their food dish, water bowl, potty, and bedroom when they are hungry, thirsty, and sleepy. Or you can drag carrot treats to your pets for a snack or a heart for a cuddle. It’s your job to keep your hamsters healthy and happy.

When your hamsters are ready for some action, take them out to Adventure Mode. In this mode, you control the hamster’s direction directly with the stylus, as you help them navigate around race track-like mazes. Collect coins, carrots, and other goodies to increase your score. Hidden in some mazes are lost baby hamsters. Find them and they’ll be taken to a special nursery in your hamster habitat. Reach the finish line quickly to earn trophies that unlock more Zhu Zhu Pet hamsters for you to play with as well as upgrades to your habitat and more tracks to zoom on. There are more than two dozen tracks in all.

The initial release of Zhu Zhu Pets for DS comes with a special extra: a limited edition baby Zhu Zhu Pet toy. It even has a cute little diaper and everything! Only problem is that the box that the game and toy come with doesn’t have a hard case for the DS game card, like other DS games do. So it’ll be a little tougher for your little ones to keep up with the cartridge if they’re used to putting them away in the hard cases. Also, it would’ve been nice if the game had some kind of two player link up support for some competitive hamster racing.

While Zhu Zhu Pets may bore older kids and hardcore gamers, it’s perfect for very young Zhu Zhu Pets fans. Controls are easy, challenge is light, and all the instructions are in spoken voice. Also, the hamsters will tell you what they need with pictures cues as well, so reading skill isn’t needed. Zhu Zhu Pets is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews