Dog's Life Preview

Dog’s Life the game has been around for a while but unfortunately has never been released in America.  The game was released in Europe last year and soon American gamers will have the opportunity to play this strange and unique game.  You really are in control of a dog and the adventures that a dog has to go through in a day.  From the basic parts of life to the disgusting parts of life, almost everything is presented in Dog’s Life.

The developers were showing off one of the early stages in the game at E3.  The stage isn’t really a stage but a location that you have to explore, since you are a dog.  You can run around in different areas in the location and interact with different characters in several different ways.  You can pick up chickens in your mouth and then shake the feathers off of the chicken.  You can also pick up other items as well such as a basketball.  Once the dog had the basketball he was able to practice his skills by trying to sink shots in a goal. 

Another feature the developers showed off was a feature called smell-o-vision.  This is essentially a first person perspective in the game that allows you to view smells in the game.  Each of the smells are presented by different colors.  Different items located across the stages can have their own unique smell.  As you run through the colors you earn points based on the color of the smell.  A yellow colored smell might be worth 5 points while a blue colored smell might be worth 15 points. 

One very humorous part of the game was the bowel movements of the dog.  There was a mini game included that has you having to pee over the scent of another dog.  But as you try to “mark your territory” the other dog is running around peeing over all of your areas.  So you have to figure out a strategy to “out pee” the other dog in this mini game.  Another segment involved a directional pad combination the developers used to have the dog take a pooh.  Just like a real dog the dog in the game squatted and created a “stinking load.”  The developer even picked up the pooh in the dog’s mouth and threw it around.  He mentioned that the kids in Europe loved this feature and thought it was very entertaining.

Dog’s Life isn’t one of those games that you’ll read about everywhere or see a million commercials on TV.  But it does offer players something new and different that hasn’t been done before on PS2.  Since games are all about fun, then why can’t we have fun with a dog game?  In fact, what’s funnier than a dog picking up its own feces and throwing it around?  Actually don’t answer that question; I don’t think I want to know.

For All E3 2004 Previews