The Sims 2: Pets for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

If you are a teenager or older, this game won't hold your interest for long. Your sole focus is on curing people's pets to earn a better reputation and to earn more money. However, there are only seven illnesses, so while curing them is neat at first, once you've seen them all, the game becomes very repetitive and boring. Early on, you spend most of your income on pet supplies, but earning more money is very easy. However, you can't buy much with that money: the few new houses aren't that great, and there is a limit on the number of objects your house can hold.

The Sims 2 aspect is very minor, so much so that this doesn't really feel like a Sims 2 game. Each day begins at 7:30am and ends at 5pm- the missing time is unplayable. You have no goals, aspirations, wants, or fears. You don't develop relationships: the only visitors are people dropping off their pets. Most household objects have limited functions. You have needs, but these end up just being annoying. Overall, the Sims 2 aspect feels tacked on.

Although the pets are very cute, you can't really play with them (not even your own pet): you can teach them tricks or you can toss them toys. That's it. (Teaching one pet all the tricks takes only a few minutes.) You can also take them to the park, but they can't do anything new there. You interact with pets most when treating them, but again, this is limited and becomes very repetitive. Otherwise, pets stay inside kennels all day- they can't wander around your house. Pets have needs, but these can mostly be ignored.

The graphics are all right, with the animals being cutest. Sound is decent with cute animal sounds and Simlish; controls are easy; menus are fairly nice; some minor gripes about buying/inventory. There is also a useless cooking minigame.

The game is fine for a few hours, but it has no lasting appeal for older players. Although most Sims games are open-ended, this one really needs a definitive goal. However, the game may appeal to younger players.