PS Vita Pets is the cursed Nintendogs clone we try to forget
The internet has finally remembered PlayStation Vita Pets, the Nintendogs clone we'd hoped you'd all forgotten
03rd May 2023 08:40
Spiral House | XDev
PS Vita Pets is the cursed Nintendogs clone we try to forget
The internet has finally remembered PlayStation Vita Pets, the Nintendogs clone we'd hoped you'd all forgotten
03rd May 2023 08:40
Spiral House | XDev
It's hard to imagine that anyone could stand up to the titan that is Nintendogs, but damn, that didn't stop devs from trying.
The adorable series was host to a wealth of copycats, with Kinectimals and a tonne of third-party rips on the Nintendo DS that always failed to face up to Nintendo's pets.
And though Kinectimals was probably the most popular of the puppy clones, there was another that's back in the headlines. It's one we all thought had been wiped from our memories.
PlayStation Vita Pets was a furry nightmare
Fans are remembering (thanks for the memories, GamesRadar) the horrors that came alongside the launch of PlayStation Vita Pets, a rip-off of Nintendogs that hoped to corner the market for looking after cute lil' guys on PlayStation's doomed handheld.
No matter how great the console itself actually was, its flop was seen from a mile away. The failures of its worst games were only exemplified - PlayStation Vita Pets included. The most horrifying part of the pet sim was that the pets themselves had full voice acting.
It was a bizarre step away from the formula that should've been a success if PS Vita Pets was an adventure game where players were asked to guide their pets to find a lost treasure in a Jungle Run-esque temple. It's a deeply bizarre memory that feels fragmented - and we'd have been happy to have left it that way.
Jim Ryan defends PlayStation Vita Pets
But it turns out that Jim Ryan just had to jog our memories. The game has returned to headlines after PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has come forward to defend the games, claiming that his kids love them.
As pulled up by a Twitter user, it turns out that Jim's family has a soft spot for the games. As an interviewer at Metro asked after the game, he says, "My seven-year-old loves it, please don't be disrespectful about PlayStation Pets." Well, that's us told.
There are whispers about a new PlayStation handheld, which no one is quite sure whether it's a PS Vita sequel or Remote Play controller. Either way, could the ghost of PS Vita Pets rear its head and give Ryan's family a new-gen version to play? Perish the thought.
PlayStation Vita Pets may have been a strange flop, but hey, at least some found enjoyment in it. Jim Ryan's kid, you're tougher than we are.
About The Author
Joseph Kime
Joseph Kime is the Senior Trending News Journalist for GGRecon from Devon, UK. Before graduating from MarJon University with a degree in Journalism, he started writing music reviews for his own website before writing for the likes of FANDOM, Zavvi and The Digital Fix. He is host of the Big Screen Book Club podcast, and author of Building A Universe, a book that chronicles the history of superhero movies. His favourite games include DOOM (2016), Celeste and Pokemon Emerald.
