Nintendogs is not your average video game. No deaths, no game overs, no standard video game concepts. Instead, Nintendogs is a much more elaborate version of all of those virtual pet games you're probably familiar with: Tomagatchi, Dogz, the list goes on.

This game is all about having fun raising a dog. That's all there is to it. So why is it any better than any other kind of pet game? Because the Nintendo DS allows greater interaction than standard button based controls.

The Nintendo DS is famous for its two screens, the bottom one being a touch screen, built-in microphone, and wireless DS to DS play. Nintendogs takes advantage of each of these unique new ways to play games and incorporates them all into this game.

You start out by purchasing a puppy from the kennel, naming it, and getting it used to the house you live in. Of course, you don't just type in its name, the game has you say it's name out loud a few times, and pretty quickly the dog will remember it's own name by sound. At that point, anytime you say your dog's name, it comes running up to the screen, being all cute, and demanding attention.

It's at about this point that all of my roommates started making fun of me. Not just because I was playing a totally un-macho game that didn't involve shooting everything that lives, but because I was talking to my DS. "Clare," I would say, "Here girl! Come here Clare!" Pretty soon, talking became quite a normal thing, as did the rolling of my roommates eyes.

I've played some pet-care simulation games before, but this one is, by far, the most enjoyable to play. This is all made possible by how you interact with the dog. Aside from just talking to it, you could also pet it and interact with it using the touch-pen.

There's no real story to the game, it's just all about playing with dogs. Cute ones, by the way. Pretty quickly you'll start taking your dog for a walk, where you might run into some little presents sitting around on the street. Open one of those up and you might just get a cool accessory like a baseball cap or sunglasses for your dogs. You'll run into other dogs during your walks and you can check out the discount store for buying food and liquids for your dog.

What I liked the most about taking your dog for a walk is that you choose the path you want to walk around the block by drawing on the map. On the first walk, your dog has about enough endurance to walk around your own house, but the more you walk, the farther your dog can go. This, of course, allows you to find new places such as the gym.

You always have the chance of finding other owner's dogs while out on a walk.

This brings us to the competition section of the game. If you were to continually spend your money on food and dogs and other houses to live in, you would eventually just run dry. So how do you make money? By having your dog try their best at a few different competitions. Going to the gym while on walks allows you to train your dog to run through a type of obstacle course. This "Agility Trial" is pretty fun - especially since you don't control the dog. You kind of clap in the direction they should go, and if you've practiced enough with them, they'll do what they're supposed to do.

The "Obedience Trial" lets judges grade your dog on how well it can do tricks you taught it like "sit down," "beg," etc. And, of course, the "Disc Competition" is just classic dog stuff. You can beat these in practically your first try, but then you realize that there's different levels of difficulties. You'll start moving into the Master Class and realize that you really need to train your dog well to earn more money.

With all this money you can start buying new dogs, new houses, and toys from the store. It all gets a little addicting - especially since the toys are so cool. One of my favorites is a little "Mario Kart" that you control with the D-Pad that plays the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! theme song and spins out like in the game. The dogs will chase it around - it's pretty neat.

Washing your dogs, taking them for walks, feeding them, putting them in competitions, teaching them tricks, and finding new toys and items is pretty cool. And it's all done really well thanks to the dual screens, the microphone, and especially the touch screen.

One thing that's always bugged my roommate is that there are three different versions of this game available - each with its own set of dogs and a few houses. What's nice though - is that if you play through this game a lot - you'll start unlocking things from the other versions. Just don't expect it to be real cheap. I remember when I first saw the price for the ultimate house - yikes.

There's plenty to do, and it's a lot of fun. The only real problem with this game is that after playing it enough (like any other game) the dogs become less realistic. This is simply because you can start to predict exactly what movement animation it will be next after doing a certain task. I also wish there were just a few more items and a few more houses - there's a lot already, but it just always seemed like not enough.

It's a fun game - and I recommend it to those of you who like dogs and like taking care of them with no real responsibilities attached.

Verdict: You've got to try it. You'll understand how creative the DS allows games to be.