Can a man find fun in a girly world full of pets? Not quite.
From Electronic Arts Inc.’s Casual Entertainment label, LITTLEST PET SHOP™ brings the magic of owning your own pet shop to your home.
LITTLEST PET SHOP is a game targeted at girls of age 6 – 12. Available on Nintendo DS™ (3 versions).The player will spend most of her time exploring her Pet Shop and earning Kibble Coins as she plays in either the free play mode or in mini-games. Kibble Coins will buy her over 100 accessories for her pets as well as tons of playsets for the 2008 toy-line. The LITTLEST PET SHOP video game is the newest addition to her growing LITTLEST PET SHOP collection.
Key features
Your favorite LITTLEST PET SHOP pets come to life!
Collect and play with 32 of the most popular pets from the LITTLEST PET SHOP on the Wii and PC. The Nintendo DS versions have 20 pets.
Explore and Play in Pet Sized Worlds!
Explore and interact with your pets in four unique worlds, pet plaza, winter, jungle and garden.
Collect Pet Playsets!
Complete and achieve 16 puzzles and mini-games to earn new pets, accessories and playsets.
Plan Parties!
Celebrate and host LITTLEST PET SHOP style pet parties on the Nintendo DS using the Evite Party Planner.
I’m a fan of Animal Crossing, despite each version being very similar. There was just something quirky and unique about it, but that doesn’t mean I’d ever consider playing Littlest Pet Shop Winter unless I had to. It’s one of those games that are pretty simple to play and are clearly designed for younger girls, so it does exactly what it says on the box. It’s not a game that I particularly enjoyed playing, being a Male of 21…it’s hardly my specialty to play games like this in the first place.
Out of the 3 versions of LPS for the DS, I got the Winter one to review. Since I didn’t have the other versions, I can’t compare them and say whats different other than the obvious. The other two are set in the Jungle and the Garden, there are also PC and Wii versions but I’m praying that I don’t get them to review, these younger type of games are tough for an older gamer to write about, especially since I don’t have kids of my own just yet, I can’t hand it to them and ask for their opinion…I’m completely alone on this one.
The game seems to be more focused on simple and quick mini-games like painting your pet, putting on items like glasses, hats and so on. You can get new pets to join the area by buying their ticket to come, although it’s incredibly easy and without much challenge. I didn’t have a sense of satisfaction from doing anything in LPS, I just found it to be annoying and boring. Having said that, I can definitely see the appeal that younger girls will find with the game. I just can’t see how it would appeal to me or to any other male gamers over 5. Graphically, the game looks fairly good but it won’t win any awards, nor will it for its soundtrack that gets annoying too easily.
The Verdict
Littlest Pet Shop Winter is a game that will please young girls in playing with pets through mini-games and host pet parties with friends, there’s no online play and the gameplay can be very repetitive after a while…it won’t appeal to most people, but that audience of girls at 6-12 will find some enjoyment out of it.
