Electronic Arts The Sim 2 Pets v1.0.27 N-GAGE SymbianOS9.1*******-BiNPDA




For those who have been on another planet, the Sims series is essentially a computerised dolls house where you can take care of people and/or animals usually in a normal-looking domestic environment. Sims 2: Pets on N-Gage concentrates on bringing up a puppy in a small bungalow with a back garden and nearby pet supplies shop.

The breeds available are Chihuahua, Labrador, Mutt (aka mongrel or mixed breed), Pug and Whippet. There's also a special robot dog you can unlock if you progress far enough.

The game begins in a very promising fashion with options screens that let you customise the owner and their dog. You don't control the dog directly, but you can call it to you, teach it tricks, play with it and take care of it.

In essence this is a small collection of mini-games:

- Ball & Frisbee Throwing: You throw a ball or frisbee for the dog to catch by clicking at just the right moment on a sliding scale. Click at the wrong moment and the dog doesn't catch anything. Gameplay is identical for throwing balls or frisbees.

- Teaching Tricks: Basically a two or three step dance mat game without any music, use the direction pad to click in the directions shown on screen in order and the dog gets closer to learning a trick such as sitting or rolling, and then praise it afterwards. Do this often enough and the trick is learned, with the dog able to perform it when selected from a menu. There are 10 tricks to teach in all, but the gameplay is virtually identical for all of them.

- Dog Patting: Similar gameplay to teaching tricks, but there's no actual trick at the end of it, just a happier dog.

- Dog Cleaning: Again, similar to teaching tricks but all you get is a cleaner dog.

- Discipline: If your dog does something naughty such as scratching the carpet, a timer appears on the screen and you have to click the direction pad button before it runs out. This makes the owner talk in a stern voice, and eventually the dog learns not to do whatever it did.

- House Training: The same gameplay as discipline, but involving the dog peeing or pooing while indoors. Eventually the dog learns not to do this and is house trained so it only does its business outside. Remember to clean up after the dog by clicking on the pee or poo.


When you combine the duplicates, it means there are actually only three minigames, none of which vary or demand any skill, and they don't get more difficult or interesting over time either.

In theory simulation games like The Sims are meant to sidestep conventional gameplay by offering a customisable world which you can shape to your liking, but Sims 2: Pets for N-Gage doesn't do this. You can't customise the owner or their flat at all, and you can't buy the dog anything except a bed, ball and frisbee (and even those are from a very limited selection).

Another comparison one might make is with Nintendogs, where the sheer joy of seeing the puppies playing together can be enough in itself, but that isn't the case with Sims 2: Pets because there's only one puppy per game. There is no interaction between dogs. Sims 2: Pets also has a far more limited range of locations with just the living room, kitchen and garden.

A third comparison might be with Tamagotchi, where the pleasure comes from simply taking care of a creature and watching it develop, but that doesn't really happen in Sims 2: Pets as the puppy never changes and it doesn't seem to require much taking care of either. This reviewer's puppy ate once a week according to the in-game timescale, and there was never any pressure to balance one need against another.

Sims 2: Pets doesn't have bad gameplay, its problem is that the gameplay is missing. It's not an arcade game, it's not a "sandpit" game, it's not a collect-em-up game, it doesn't pass muster as a puppy simulator, and it's not really a proper virtual pet game either.

There is incidentally also a human career aspect but it's so minor that it's barely worth mentioning. You get a wage every day which you can use to buy toys, food, shampoo or beds for the dog, and if you get promoted the wage goes up. Promotion seems to happen automatically as long as you keep taking care of the dog, and very soon you reach the top of the career tree so money ceases to be a problem.

There's also a list of "goals" which earn you bonus cash, but that too isn't really worth talking about. It's an ever-changing list of four things you would do anyway like patting the dog, throwing it a ball, giving it a bath etc, you don't really need to even look at it to earn these bonuses. Even the bonuses themselves become insignificant once you've been promoted to very high salary levels.

File Size:
3 mb

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