New genre alert! We've all played games where you've taken on the role of an animal of some sort - Crash Bandicoot, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sly Raccoon to name but three - but they've always been cartoony, had human characteristics and been bipedal. It's tantamount to dressing a grown man up in a bear suit - he may look like an animal, but he certainly doesn't act like one. Which is exactly why the upcoming Dog's Life has sent our highly sensitive new genre alarm into full alert mode; here we have a game where you actually become Man's Best Friend and get to do everything - and we mean everything - that a real life canine is capable of.
Of course there's still a point to the whole thing; you wouldn't want to spend your time just waiting for dinner and walks in the park, after all. You play as Jake, an energetic, tongue-wagging type with a penchant for bones, whose quiet life in the rural American village of Clarksville is thrown into disarray when his pal Daisy is mysteriously dognapped. Beginning in Clarksville, Jake's adventure will soon take him on a whistle-stop tour of the US, from ski resorts to bustling cities, as he searches far and wide for his buddy and (we're guessing from the name) love interest. Gameplay varies between third and first-person free-roaming exploration, with the latter perspective being reserved for the innovative 'Smellovision' viewpoint. Available any time at the press of the button, this dog's-eye view fades the vibrant colours of the environment into sepia tones - representing a real canine's vision - and reveals a host of colour-coded scents that you must 'collect' for various purposes.
For example, the yellow 'smells' are territorial, er, trails left by other mutts; follow them to the owner, and they may very well challenge you to beat them in a contest of some sort. The first dog we came across was a charming little Chihuahua who wanted to see who could dominate in a territorial marking competition. Once the challenge had been accepted, Jake had to mark out squares - a simple button press lets loose the yellow juice - before his little rival. Once completed, you can take control of the Chihuahua who, as luck would have it, can squeeze through a catflap in a nearby house and grab a bone (which represents a completed objective or mission) for Jake. The final game is reported to have over 20 other breeds of playable dog, each with a special ability that will enable them to get to areas and perform tasks that our hero otherwise couldn't.
As you can imagine, Dog's Life is aimed at a slightly younger audience than usual, but for once this hasn't resulted in a drastically dumbed-down title. In fact, it's a startlingly original concept that echoes the GTA games in that it features a main story thread with plenty of non-linear aspects, but with none of the amorality and a significantly higher canine quota. You can still get up to lots of mischievous behaviour (farting next to unsuspecting humans, terrorising cats, defecating in the street), but the focus here is on teaching kids about the responsibility that comes with keeping a pet. If you don't feed Jake regularly, he'll grow weak; if you don't feed him properly, he'll suffer a bout of uncontrollable flatulence; if you don't keep him well groomed, people will find him repellent and refuse to go near him. The message is simple: look after your dog, and it'll look after you.
Any 'hardcore' gamers reading this may be turning their snouts up at this attempt to pander to a new breed of mainstream gamer, but they (which may include you) might be interested to learn that Dog's Life is being developed by David Braben's Frontier Developments. That's David 'I made Elite, me' Braben's Frontier Developments, and anyone who knows what an impact that particular space trading game had on video gaming would do well to pay attention to this genre-creator in the making. Sniff out the trio of screens below and keep your noses alert for plenty more rose-coloured morsels of info.
