After a release on the Nintendo DS, the Purr Pals kitten simulator is now available for the Wii system. Like the DS version, players adopt a kitten and then must take care of it by feeding, grooming, and playing with it. Money awarded for proper kitten care and several minigames (a round of Cat Hero, anyone?) is used to buy food, kitty litter, toys, and a wide selection of kitty toys. The game is all the fun one would expect of a virtual kitten simulator.

The game starts by presenting a wide variety of kitten breeds to adopt, choose one and after making a few (minor) coloration changes, you’re sent home with your new pet. Every kitten has several needs: affection, food, cleanliness, and play. While each breed differs slightly in their needs, players will spend most of their time making sure each need is sufficiently met. Affection is increased through petting using the Wiimote to pet your kitten. Toys, such as balls and wind-up mice, can be purchased at the game’s store and are then used during play time. Kittens will quickly get hungry and need to be fed (food is also purchased at the store) regularly. Finally, a dirty kitty will need to be brushed, but be sure to keep the litter box clean (and change it regularly with more store-bought kitty litter) or your kitten will get dirty faster.

Much of the game focuses on earning enough cash to keep your kitty fed and in kitty litter. Extra money is then spent on toys, outfits, and room decorations (there are several rooms in your house in which to play). Some money is earned as a daily allowance if your kitten is happy and healthy, but playing minigames is the quickest way to earn some fast cash.

The minigames are the best part of the title. There are several little games you can play with your cat. They range in style from sporty titles like minigolf or basketball to more mental challenges like copy cat (a sort of memory/simon says game) and even a rhythm game complete with a singing chorus of cats. My favorite is a game where you are a mouse trying to escape the cat by scurrying between hiding places while the cat casually walks around the garage. The better you perform in a minigame the more money you will earn. Some games, like the singing game have different difficulty settings which also affect your winnings. The biggest cash prizes are awarded for doing well in a cat show. Owners can sign up for shows one or more days in advance. When the show occurs, scores are tabulated for how well the kitten was cared for during the intervening days. Obviously, cat shows that you sign up for far in advance garner much higher prizes. Rather than use the Wii’s internal time clock to keep track of days (as found in the DS version of the game), time passes while playing the game at about one day per hour or so. Thus, one needs to play the game for several hours between competitions for the larger cat shows.

While the game has no glaring problems and some of the minigames are entertaining, it still boils down to a cat simulation. While a puppy simulator might allow players to teach their pet tricks and have a bit of long-term development, there are very little long term goals to reach within Purr Pals. There are many outfits and items to collect, but cats are notoriously hard to train. There isn’t much training to be had in the game other than training your cat to not jump up on the counter top. Some of the minigames are entertaining for awhile, but there just isn’t a lot of game to be had in the title. Fans of cats and kittens who simply must have a cat simulator title will get reasonable use out of the game (my toddler son requests to watch me play the game frequently), but there isn’t that special spark present that would make it a game that gamers who aren’t cat fans would need to try.

Tags: Game Reviews, Misc