Pet lovers have a reason to rejoice as Little Friends: Dogs & Cats is officially coming to US shores on May 28. The game is being released for the Nintendo Switch and is available from the Nintendo eShop. The game had already been released in Japan last December. This latest release not only covers North America, but includes Europe.
Little Friends: Dogs & Cats is pretty straight-forward. As the title implies, players get new friends to interact with. Players can choose from these pet breeds currently available:
- Toy Poodle
- Shiba
- Chihuahua
- French Bulldog
- Labrador Retriever
- German Shepherd
- Japanese Cat
- American Shorthair
- Scottish Fold
When you're browsing the menu and just can't decide what you want. We've all been there! pic.twitter.com/cdfE93Ul3R
— Little Friends: Puppy Island (@LittleFriendsEN) May 3, 2019
Players get a chance to own as many as 12 pets, but are allowed to play with, at most, three pets at once. Activities that players can do with pets include petting, feeding, playing, and dressing them up. The goal is to develop a special bond with each pet. Aside from looks, each pet has its own behavior and personality, which determines what activity or food they like or dislike.
Sold Out Product Manager Katie Clark shared in a press release that the game “is an adorable pet simulator that we hope animal lovers of all ages will fall in love with.” She added that there has been a growing need for pet simulation games and they are truly “excited to be releasing the first game of its type on Nintendo Switch.”
Pet simulation games became popular back in the late 1990s with the Tamagotchi craze, those keychain-sized virtual pet games that had players take care of a virtual creature from an egg to a fully-grown adult version.
Social networks have also taken advantage of this craze, with games like Pet Society and PetVille. On mobile, some of the more famous ones include the My Talking Tom and My Talking Angela games.
