Nintendogs: Labrador & Friends

Nintendogs is a real-time pet simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS portable video game console. It was first released in Japan and later in North America, Australia, Europe and other regions. It was originally released in three different versions: Dachshund & Friends, Lab & Friends (Shiba & Friends in Japan), and Chihuahua & Friends. It has since been re-released twice, first as a bundle with a special edition Nintendo DS with a new version called Nintendogs: Best Friends, and later as Nintendogs: Dalmatians & Friends. Nintendogs uses the DS's touch screen and built-in microphone. The touch screen allows the player to pet a dog and use various items that can be found or purchased. These range from balls and Frisbees to toys and grooming products to keep the dogs happy. Using the microphone, you can call your dog by speaking the name you gave him at the beginning of the game and teach him tricks like "sit" or "down". Players can take their dogs on walks and to the park if they want. Using the DS's wireless connection, they can interact with other players in multiplayer mode. The game also uses the DS's internal clock and calendar to make the dog get hungrier or dirtier depending on the elapsed time. Nintendogs has received critical acclaim. It has an overall rating of 85% on Game Rankings,[3] and has won many awards, including the 2006 Innovation Award from PC World and Best Handheld Game from Associated Press. As of March 31, 2015, all versions of Nintendogs combined have sold 23.96 million copies worldwide. This makes it second only to New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS best-seller list.[4] Due to the success of Nintendogs, Nintendo has released several related products, including Nintendogs toys[5] and a series of Nintendogs trading cards.[6] At E3 2010, it was announced that a sequel titled Nintendogs + Cats would be released for the Nintendo 3DS.