The popular line of Zhu Zhu Pets toys are going to the dogs…literally! First it was scurrying hamsters, then wild animals, and now puppies! Now your kids can play with and take care of their own puppy with Zhu Zhu Puppies on Nintendo DS.

When you first start the game, you’ll have your choice of about half a dozen puppies to adopt. Zhu Zhu Puppies has two main game phases. First is the chores phase. Here you’ll have about three minutes to complete a chore list to take care of your puppy. Each of the chores is a simple activity using the touch screen and stylus. Rub your stylus on the puppy to pet it, tap food and water bowls to feed it, and scrub your puppy clean with the stylus at bath time. If you can do all your chores in the three minutes of allotted time, you’ll get your full allowance money to spend on goodies for your pup (don’t worry, the chores are short and easy to complete).

After the chore phase, you enter Free Play where you can play games with your puppy. Flick the stylus to throw a stick and play fetch with your pal, or drag the stylus around to make your puppy chase a flashlight. You can also go to the store and use your allowance money to buy new toys and accessories to dress up your dog. Zhu Zhu Puppies runs on the DS’ real time clock, so each day you play, you’ll unlock new activities, chores, and items to buy in the shop (the shop won’t be unlocked the first day you play, though).

Kid Factor:

No reading skill is needed, as the game has spoken voice and picture cues to show your kids how to play. While older kids might get bored with the limited activities, very young gamers who may have trouble playing Nintendogs might enjoy this simpler outing. The lighter difficulty won’t frustrate them and the game could almost be considered educational as it teaches pet care basics. There is a limited edition version of the game that comes with a toy puppy, but it doesn’t have a hard case for the DS card, so that makes it a bit harder to store your game if you like to keep them in cases to take care of them. Zhu Zhu Puppies is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews