Dog's Life Review

By Kristan Reed Published 10 November, 2003

Dog end or the Dog's bollocks?

Version tested: PlayStation 2

We like to think that age doesn't really come into it when we're playing videogames. In the mixed up muddled up shook up world of the gamer, one minute you're burning around the cuddly cartoon landscapes of Mario Kart: Double Dash, the next you're engaged in the stark horrors of World War II, ducking Nazi lead in the retaking of Red Square. So should you really care that Dog's Life is a kid's game? Surely we're all big kids anyway? Move over Rover and let Jake take over. We've got bumholes to sniff.

Drawing heavy inspiration from all those 'hilarious' animal talkie movies such as Babe, 101 Dalmatians, as well as the various Pixar movies, Dog's Life is a typically feel-good tale of Jake and Daisy, who one day find their idyllic Mid-Western lives of country smells and leg cocking antics shattered when they're bundled into the back of van by a couple of dog-napping grunts, intent on taking them to the pooch-hating Miss Peaches.

The quest begins when Jake's cage falls off the back of the van, leaving the dazed hound with a vow to rescue his best friend/love interest and literally follow the scent to the lair of Peaches and her dog-napping henchmen.

Give a dog a bone

1

Although Dog's Life comes replete with some fairly amusing canine innovations (more of which in a moment), it's immediately apparent that Frontier Developments has followed the third-person collectathon rule book, with plenty of jump and run elements to boot. Guiding Jake (or his many four legged friends) around the environment follows much the same formula as any other videogame character; left stick to move, right to tweak the camera, X to jump, circle to pick up, square to bark (wuff!) and triangle to enter a first-person 'dog's eye' view.

From the 'Smellovision' view, you're effectively able to 'see' different coloured scents that emanate from all manner of sources and any kind of progression hinges around the 'collection' of these stenches (odd - we thought dogs couldn't see in colour). Gathering of all the nasty niffs ultimately rewards you with a bone, but most require the successful negotiation of numerous mini-games first, be it a Tug O' War, a race, Sheep herding or even a peeing game that involves marking your territory quicker than your opponent. Often the game requires you to swap control over to one of the many other dogs, which might be able to reach previously inaccessible areas due to their smaller or larger size, while interaction with humans is essential in order to get all the juicy bones in return for performing one of the many 'go-and-get-me-X-number-of-these-random-objects' type tasks.

To an experienced gamer, it's plainly 'not for us' and Sony makes no bones about it [groan], delivering an inordinately simple experience in a targeted attempt to snare the impressionable young (and when we say young, we mean under 10s) gamer who's just been given a PS2 for their birthday. But Dog's Life is rescued largely by its warm sense of humour, cute visuals and the fact that, well, controlling a dog around is actually quite cool.

Elite with dogs?

2

Although Brit developer Frontier (yes, as in Elite) has set the game in Mid-West USA, it doesn't alienate its home audience with too much obvious humor, and the likeable hound Jake is full of self-depreciating wisecracks, quips about bodily functions, and a generally endearing obsession with foul smells (he'd love the EG office). If Frontier had taken the concept a stage further and strapped it to a more substantial game then this could have been one of the better PS2 titles of the year, but instead it's the kind of game that any parent would be happy to let their kid loose with, safe in the knowledge that the content is targeted precisely at them and with a pick up and play premise that won't have them whining (too much) about being stuck.

With more fart gags than Viz, it's bound to have parp-tastic kids in stitches, and rarely makes a concerted attempt to be especially challenging, presumably in the name of keeping the nippers entertained from the word go. The only difficulty you're likely to encounter is in the less than polished camera system, which finds all manner of curious ways to trip up on the scenery. Combined with a really quite rubbish jumping mechanic, an otherwise simple-as-breathing task can require a frustrating number of repeat attempts before you finally work around the stupidly imprecise system employed.

The problem appears to be exacerbated by some unfinished-looking animations which result in the furry fiend going from a standing position to a lurching leap with no apparent inertia or transitional movement required. Not only does it look extremely odd, but it feels sluggish and causes all sorts of problems when you attempt to do the most basic things such as leaping onto a bloody great platform. Combine this with some rubbish camera work, and you've got a recipe for frustration where none should exist; it's just bad design and sloppy programming, and kids will accept it even less than hardened grown ups who are used to this kind of incompetence. And they were doing so well.

Don't lick me, I know where you've been

If you don't let such things worry you, then there's a lot to be admired. The structure of each area is pleasingly freeform, allowing you to wander around and tackle the various tasks in the order of your choosing, and the standard of the visuals is well above par for what we expect from kids games - in particular the dogs, which are full of detail and will have animal lovers everywhere cooing in admiration as they bound eagerly around the landscape, tail-a-wagging. Apart from the ludicrous jumping nonsense we've highlighted elsewhere, the animation is excellent, and goes a long way to capturing all the endearing cuteness of man's best friend.

Knowing what some of our dog-owning friends are like when it comes to seeing dogs in action, and given the £29.99 price point, Sony's probably pulled off a masterstroke of EyeToy proportions by releasing this. The end result, though, is that by aiming low, Frontier has soiled on its own doorstep by making a fairly innocuous curiosity rather than the great game it could have so easily been. Still, it's an interesting experiment, and one that could eventually build into something special if they took a leaf out of Pixar's book and made something for everyone.

6 / 10

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Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Errol #1 9 years ago

    Strange.

  • Fizzy #2 9 years ago

    Damn, I thought this game was just some sort of joke. But its real.

    Once it goes below £20 Ill pick it up.

  • Thamuhacha #3 9 years ago

    The first team to sort out this camera nonsense should really think about stopping making games and just selling the thing as middleware. How many games have been "good, but the camera ruins it"?

    (Except for Nintendo, who are basically brilliant)

    I like dogs though. Can you chase cats?

  • sickpuppysoftware #4 9 years ago

    /me cocks leg

    Does that make me first \o/ in a doggy sense?
    Edited by sickpuppysoftware at 10/11/03 @ 13:16

  • renzo #5 9 years ago

    Surely a game about cats has more potential than one about dogs? Cats can do much cooler stuff than dogs.... like lay around all day... and eat... and sleep... and meow (repeatedly until fed)... and and...

  • Killerbee #6 9 years ago

    Cats ROCK!

  • Lutz #7 9 years ago

    /shares renzo's love for cats.

    And the sit at opposite ends of an alley not moving yet playing some sort of mental judo that only zen masters can comprehend...

    Back on Topic...

    This si about the only thing Frontier have released in 2 years isn't it? Where's Elite IV? You know that's all anyone cares about...

  • renzo #8 9 years ago

    Cats can climb up virtually anything, including 90°-angled surfaces, and they can do these cool Matrix-style fight scenes where they run at each other at the speed of light, jump high up into the air and do this twist-thing with their bodies, and try to hit each other as they fly past... it looks damn cool (well, my cats can do that). And you can add it plenty of stealth bits cos they're good at that too (just imagine some bird-catching minigame).

    All my dogs do is piss on my car tyres and hump any visitors legs. Oh, and they lick their own balls too.

  • Thamuhacha #9 9 years ago

    Ball licking sim?

    Oh dear. Acclaim will be all over this idea ...
    Edited by Thamuhacha at 10/11/03 @ 13:50

  • El_MUERkO #10 9 years ago

    Ah... 'Smellovision' brings back memories of Disk World Noir, which I never did finish... hmm... I think I know what I'm going to do this weekend (i r broke) :D

  • Ted Cuntablast #11 9 years ago

    How many games have been "good, but the camera ruins it"?
    (Except for Nintendo, who are basically brilliant)
    Hmmm beg to differ there - have you played Sunshine much? But I do agree that it's a joke that camera issues still arise after all this time of 3D gaming.

  • Thamuhacha #12 9 years ago

    > Hmmm beg to differ there - have you played Sunshine much?

    I'll let you have that one. The red coins on the flying sandbird mission nearly broke my wavebird. I do think that the camera in Windwaker was excellent though.

  • bungalooBunny #13 9 years ago

    I agree. Mario Sunshine camera is horrendous, its just the myth of the Nintendo name working. Zelda is better but it's far from perfect.
    The best ones so far are Jack & Daxter 1, Sly Raccoon and Ico.

    As for doing a 'cat simulator' I'd rather go for that than go around sniffing other dog's butts and boring stuff like obeying your owner brainessly. Cats can climb trees and run away from dogs in crazy ways. The bird-catching idea is wicked too. Maybe Frontier will get it right with a Cat's Life?
    Edited by bungalooBunny at 10/11/03 @ 14:14

  • BradlayLaw #14 9 years ago

    This si about the only thing Frontier have released in 2 years isn't it?

    Did they not make the recently released wallace and gromit game.

  • Sko #15 9 years ago

    I'd have to disagree with you on Jak & Daxter 1. Finally sprang for a PS2 and got that with it.

    Can't describe the area exactly but it's the tower where you have to go to fix the Mayor's windmill. Anyhoo, on the way up the tower, the camera decided it'd much rather be outside, staring at a wall than inside the tower with Jak. Not very helpful :)

  • Thamuhacha #16 9 years ago

    > The best ones so far are Jack & Daxter 1, Sly Raccoon and Ico.

    Ico's camera was good not because the camera itself was well designed, but because the levels were designed so that the camera worked well within it. And surely that's the point. Just knocking up any old level design and trying to then write a camera system that works regardless means that there will ALWAYS be problems.

  • Feanor #17 9 years ago

    Get Fuzzy is a great cartoon about a guy, a cat and a dog and you should all check it out.

  • Abscido #18 9 years ago

    Having played through Dog's Life myself I have to say it really is a great kids game. There's an endearing 'happyland' atmosphere going on that makes you want to get through the game regardless of the crappy mini-game bits. One area in particular, where you can run around a field with crows and a scarecrow in it, is actually very relaxing. Still, having to collect 'smells' over and over does get damn tedious.

  • pjmaybe #19 9 years ago

    Played the demo of this - it really is as bizarre as it sounds...

    Oh no leg humping either.

    Peej

  • Jonsend #20 9 years ago

    The cameras in MGS/2 and Ico were very good, but that was because the camera had a situation-dependant set of actions, each camera was designed for the level in question. This however would not be ideal for larger games where an 'intelligent' camera is needed.

  • Thamuhacha #21 9 years ago

    "This however would not be ideal for larger games where an 'intelligent' camera is needed. "

    You are probably right. But I think that these bad cameras we keep having foisted upon us are more the result of people not designing the camera/level interaction properly than they are the result of some programming "impossibility".

  • beep #22 9 years ago

    Dogs > cats.

  • Thamuhacha #23 9 years ago

    "Racing games have had selectable cameras since,"

    Hmmm. Only a racing game takes place outdoors you see. And you just select the location of the camera (above car, near car, on bonnet, up in sky... etc). It doesn't have to do any clever stuff in the corner of a dungeon or nimbly shift around a raising platform.

  • UncleLou #24 9 years ago

    Dogs > cats.

    Just in physical size, mate, just in physical size. Unless you count tigers and lions. Cats are just superior to dogs on every level. Miau. :-)

  • Lutz #25 9 years ago

    Name one dog that could take out a Siberian Tiger...
    Cats rule all, end of. :)

  • sam_spade #26 9 years ago

    Cerberus?

  • Lutz #27 9 years ago

    Meh, he's a wimp.
    And he can't leave the gates of hell.

    Tiger stands 10 metres away, winds up Cerby puppie, heads get mad with frustration and before you know they're severing each other's jugulars.

  • Takashi #28 9 years ago

    > Hopefully, they'll be ironed out before the next game to use the technology: Elite IV.

    So, the game will feature poorly animated ragdoll ships? After the previous installments, the evolution is feasable.

  • Dirtbox #29 9 years ago

    Now that Braben's got this load of shit out the way maybe he can find the time to finish Elite 4.

    Although thinking about it, thats likely to be a load or crud too...

  • Kenneth Anger #30 8 years ago

    it's a Sony first party release - apparently it's coming out on the same day as Halo 2 for PS2
    Edited by Kenneth Anger at 04/07/04 @ 12:17

  • DLMun5en #31 8 years ago

    At last a game that on first inspection appears *dare I say it?* original!
    Nice one!!!

  • Ruhen #32 7 years ago

    unusual very unusual!!!