Is Nintendogs the most 'important' DS game?

[Shrygue]

via Nintendo DS Fanboy


The folks at GamePro have put together a pretty interesting feature listing their picks for the top 52 most important games ever. These aren't necessarily the best games, or the best-selling games, but their choices for those titles that have been the most influential on gaming as a whole. And while we're sure many of their picks will be questioned and debated to the point of exhaustion, we're really only interested in one small part of the list -- that is, the only DS title to make the cut. Nintendogs weighs in at #44. Does this mean it's the most influential of all DS games? Since it's the only one on the list, it would seem so, and while we agree that Nintendogs certainly advanced gaming, we might argue that since the franchise draws heavily on both Animal Crossing and the digital pet phenomenon, it's hard to see Nintendogs as a "focusing lens" that forever changed gaming. Does that mean Nintendogs did nothing new? Of course it did. But the idea of a needy digipet existed long before Nintendo popularized the portable pooches with their array of titles. GamePro says "first" doesn't matter -- it's being the folks that do it right that matters -- Nintendogs certainly did a lot of things right, but is it the most important game on the DS? It's an interesting question.

And we have a question of our own -- where's Brain Age? The game that started the training phenomenon is easily equally influential, or perhaps even more so. But we won't argue; rather, we admire the effort that goes into such a list, and after skimming the comments on the article, we don't envy the flood of angry e-mails that are surely flowing into the mailboxes of the writers.

[Buddy4point0]

nintendogs is the "gayest" game of ds in my opinion.
whats the target age? 3-5? lol

[SSaxdude]

I'd have to say New Super Mario Bros. is the most important DS game. It's the best 2D Mario since Super Mario World.

nintendogs is the "gayest" game of ds in my opinion.
whats the target age? 3-5? lol

More proof of the intelligence (or lack of) in DS haters.

[emuking]

ds haters are pretty retarded

[assclown1]

I think it was an important game now that I think about it. It's true that there were other pet simulators out there for a while but nintendo did it right and on a bigger scale. Remember when Nintendogs first came out the there was a bunch of stories of how people were addicted to the game and it got other family members into it too, which probably led people who probably not have bought a ds to go buy one. It may not have been huge numbers in sales but it did what Nintendo said it would do. It opened the gaming market to a wider audience. Plus if I remember correctly it took full use of the DS capabilities. You could connect and play with other DS users, it used the mic, and it used the touch screen extensively. I don't know what other game does that. Well that's my 2 cents.

[souLLy]

If we're talking purely on importance to the DS's success, I'd say Brain Training has been more important.

[Adrenalin]

Actually i don't like nintendogs, and i'm a ds lover! so i agree with Buddy4point0.

And are you sure he's a DS hater? he could be like me...

[Man]

I have always wanted a Ds, but i have never had the motive, means or funds. I may get one this summer, i love my psp to bits, but i love mario as well.

[JKKDARK]

not for me, but it's a successful ds title