Animal Paradise Review

Based on Japanese animal photographer Yoneo Morita’s HanaDeka brand, Animal Paradise by Empire Interactive attempts to consolidate the glut of pet-based games on Nintendo DS by combining eighteen different animals in one package. The premise of the game is predictably simple: after a short story sequence, which explains that the goal of the game is to befriend the animals in a farm so that the farm owner can take pictures of them, you are presented with your first animal, a dog. There are eighteen different types of animals in the game, and your job is to befriend them all. You do this by petting the animals, feeding them, and occasionally taking them out for a walk. Once you have befriended the animals to a certain extent, the game rewards you with photos from Yoneo Morita’s catalog of animal pictures, which all look pretty excellent, even on the DS’ tiny screens.

The meat of the game involves you interacting with the different animals. You have a sort of overworld map and you can see new animals appear in different locations (Mountain, Farm, Park, etc.). You select which animal you want to befriend, and get to work doing the minigames to gain hearts. As I stated above, you can feed them, take them for a walk, or pet them. You unlock additional activities as you play, including a brush (which is essentially petting with a tool), the ability to bathe the animal, and also toys. The activities themselves are pretty much identical to the ones featured in other animal-specific games such as Catz and Hamsterz, but the fact that you have all those animals included in one package is nice. Also, the mechanic of gaining hearts by interacting with the animals, so that they can take pictures, gives you some motivation to attend to the animals beyond unlocking Yoneo Morita’s animal photographs. Finally, you unlock more and more animals and activities as you play, so there’s always a new animal or activity. This also helps with the motivation and keeps the game somewhat fresh, though that mostly depends on how much you enjoy the core mechanics of feeding, brushing, walking, etc.

Those mechanics feel a bit plain in their execution. Petting, for example, requires waving the stylus around the different parts of the animals, while receiving feedback on which areas they like petting and which ones they don’t. The areas you pet are generally broad, and you don’t get enough feedback in the form of new animations from the animals. While they’ll change their stance if you do a good job of petting, it seems mostly random and detached from what you are doing with the stylus. Feeding is a bit interesting because you are asked to feed the animal in a certain order (main course, dessert, etc.), but unfortunately you are just treated to the same generic eating animation from your animal, which again creates a sense of detachment between your actions and the animal itself. Some actions, like bathing the animals, are especially lame. The toys are animal specific, and again range in quality from acceptable to lame.

The graphics in Animal Paradise are actually pretty sharp. The dogs are modeled almost as good as the ones in Nintendogs, although the animations are a bit stiffer. They’re also not as smart as the Nintendogs so you can’t really teach them anything. The rest of the animals are a mixed bunch graphically. The cats look pretty bad, for example, while the hamsters look fine. The story itself unfolds with 2d sprites that are as bright and cheerful as you’d expect from this type of game. The photos from Yoneo Morita are presented in the top screen and of course feature really nice photography of animals frolicking about.

The music in Animal Paradise is surprisingly catchy, even though it’s relatively simple. The music reminded me of NES/SNES soundtracks, with their simple yet memorable tunes. My daughter got a kick out of the music too, so that’s a good sign for parents with young kids.

With its simple style and presentation, the game is perfect for young kids. There is a bit of reading involved, so the game is probably best suited for pre-teens, though I’m sure any fan of pet games is going to find something to like here. Overall, Animal Paradise seems like a great fit for its target audience, and can provide a short diversion for more hardcore gamers. The photos from Yoneo Morita are a good bonus and the presentation itself compares favorably with those of other DS pet games.