Others say...

"Not as described on the game box or the "
I bought this game for my 5 year old daughter. The back of the box described exactly what she likes to do: "choose a puppy and make him cuter with clothing and accessories"; "create a comfortable pet village and guide your lovable bundle of fur through 60 fun adventures"; and "Compete against your friends in mini-games such as racing." Wow is this description ever wrong! I opened the manual and learned the game was actually about defeating an evil wolf (Ivlet) and his evil minion. Through the course of the game "enemy animals are on the way. Ivlet cast an evil spell on the animals in the fields to make them go wild and they will attack you if you get too close to them." Your puppy can actually DIE in this adventure. There is far too much evil, attacking, illness, etc. to make this game fun for a 5 year old girly girl. You can't even dress up your dog until you play the games and earn money to buy clothes - and the first game is "cops and robbers" - again, not suitable for a 5 year old girl. Re-read the product description and look for the mention of the evil wolf. It's not there yet it's the primary mission of the game! I am going to return this game as it is truly not what's advertised.

"A fun game for kids"
I got this game for Christmas, and I thought that it would be a fun game, and it was. You get to run around the island completing tasks for other dogs. The tasks are fun, except some of them take a while to complete and then they become boring. Moving around is different, because you point and click with the Wii Remote where you want to go instead of using a control stick. This game also does not take very long to complete. I completed it in about 3 days. The ending is disappointing, too, because you cannot save your game after you defeat Ivlet and save Pawville. Instead, after you do that, you go back to the menu screen, and the next time that you play, you are back where you were before you defeated Ivlet.

This game does have variety. There are a ton of different breeds of dogs to choose from when you first start the game. After you choose the dog, you can pick what color you want the dog to be, then its name, and whether you want it to be a boy or a girl.

If you don't want to do the story mode, you can play mini-games instead with another person or by yourself. Story mode, however, is not multi-player.

This is a fun game for anybody who likes dogs, although it does seem like a kids game.

"Fun game, too difficult, must read a lot, and horrible storyline."
Bougth this to play with my 5 year old girl, PROS: She loves dogs, loves to dress them, buy clothes for them, interact with other dogs in the game, and truly looks forward to play a little bit everyday. CONS: Storymode is only one player, the storyline is too Eve and the Forbidden Fruit, in that "you" actually disobay authority to release an evil dog from jail that causes all the havock in the town that you have to fix. There is a lot of detailed reading that you must read at every step to your kid. I wish they would have made it cuter. PS: She had nightmares of the evil dog more than one night, I had to skip these scenes.

"Fun for kids"
My eight-year-old loves this game. She spends hours playing it. She likes creating different dogs and solving the puzzles. As you solve the puzzles, you earn gold points that allow you to buy accessories for your dog characters. She has had some issues saving her characters, and accidentally overwrote an existing one.

It's probably not a great game for adults or older children, but kids ages 6-10 would enjoy it (some reading is required).

"Fun for kids"
I'm the mom of 2 girls, 5 and 9 who got this game for Christmas.

To start with, basic reading skills are required. Important information is highlighted, and its possible to get the gist of what to do from the highlighted text, but having a reader helps a lot. Characters prompt you to go to specific areas to achieve various tasks. The storyline and gameplay are almost exactly the same as Petz Catz 2, so owning both is a bit repetitive unless you need to play as both a cat and a dog.

There are multiple layers of gameplay. You can change your dogz clothes, you can buy wardrobes for the town's inhabitants, you can unlock new patterns and colors by catching insects and digging up vegetables or flowers. There are mini games to unlock (which can then be played 2 player) But, mostly you need to follow the storyline, and work to save the magic hat from Ivlet.

As the previous poster mentioned, the slow dialogues get tiresome and there is no way to skip them. However, not too far into the game a magic creature appears who teaches you "how" to save. There are then save blocks (and later warp blocks) which can be used whenever you wish. They don't move, or disappear, or become unusable.

My girls feel that this game is excellent, great for any kid and expect long term enjoyment. However, as an adult, they have both nearly met the main objective in a little over a week of rainy vacation day playing. It's cute, its worth playing. You don't need both Catz and Dogz, and I wouldn't pay $50 for it. Amazon's price was great.