An Island of Dogs

Since acquiring full time employment recently, I've had a bit less time for games, but I'm still plodding away doggedly at the final path of Fire Emblem Fates. I'll have plenty to say about Revelation once I've finally finished it, despite the considerable Fire Emblem fatigue I feel has overcome me. I'm perhaps more excited about returning to a slew of games I abandoned before embarking on a journey to play all three chapters of Fates, including Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Yokai Watch, and Transistor. I'll be getting back to those soon, but in the meantime my girlfriend and I have managed to complete a quirky little Wii game by the name of The Dog Island in three different sessions over the course of a few weeks.

"The Dog" is a line of artwork and merchandise initially popular in the mid 2000s featuring dogs photographed with a fisheye lens, lending them cartoonish proportions. These adorable puppies were featured in calendars, on folders, and notebooks. Of course, this franchise came straight from Japan--and for whatever reason the brand's popularity led to the creation of a couple of video games, one of which is The Dog Island for the Nintendo Wii. It's easy to dismiss the game out of hand as "shovelware" created in an effort to market a line of doggie plushes--and admittedly this might be a large part of why the game was created. Even so, Japanese developer Yuke's put a lot of care into a game about a bunch of cutesy big-headed dogs.

The Dog Island could best be described as an adventure game with RPG elements not entirely unlike The Legend of Zelda. Unlike more traditional offerings of the genre, it has very little emphasis on action or combat. Although your dog protagonist (one of many different breeds, chosen by the player at the beginning) will find him or herself beset by poisonous cobras, buffalo, and bears, you won't be tasked with defeating them. It is frequently necessary to run from or to avoid these foes, but in some cases you can simply sneak up on them and bark at them to stun them for a time. You might even receive a special item from some enemies.

The majority of the game's thrust comes from its many quests, in which the Dog will solve the many and varied troubles of the canine inhabitants of the Dog Island town of Pupsville, Gigili Village, and others. Although his initial goal is to cure his ailing sister, the game's scope gradually broadens beyond that as he discovers that he'll have to become a Sniff Master by uncovering the game's dozens and dozens of unique scents. The majority of quests in the game will involve the Dog sniffing out particular items that must be returned to an NPC or used in other ways to solve problems. In some areas, it is necessary to bait elephants or alligators into spots so they may be used as stepping stones to reach previously inaccessible locations.

The breadth of exploration in The Dog Island surprised me. I was expecting it to keep us occupied for just a few hours, but we found ourselves trying to beat the heat in the desert, braving the cold in an icy tundra, exploring a deep ruin and sniffing for clues, putting together a circus troupe, bribing giraffes into carrying us onto high ledges, and running countless errands for a particularly pushy pooch named Henry. It's a surprising gem not only because of the subject matter but because the developer is primarily known for wrestling games.