NEW YORK - For years, Shigeru Miyamoto says, the women in his Tokyo neighborhood didn't like him. He's a charming guy, sure, but he's also the chief video game designer for Nintendo. That makes him Public Enemy No. 1 for those who think video games are too violent and pornographic.
The new video game, which Miyamoto designed for the handheld Nintendo DS, allows players to choose a pup at a kennel and raise the dog as if it were their own. This virtual dog must be fed, watered, loved and taken for walks. Don't bathe him and he gets fleas. Don't feed him and he runs away. Don't play with him and he sulks in a corner.
The game ($30 retail) has sold almost 500,000 copies in North America since going on sale in late August, one of the fastest launches of a handheld video game. An additional 1 million copies have been sold in Japan, where Miyamoto's female neighbors are warming up to him.
"For a long time (they) thought I was doing something that really wasn't good for kids," he said in a recent interview, speaking through a translator. "When I make a game like ‘Nintendogs,' then all of a sudden they get very interested and they start to kind of open up."
The game is opening new markets for Nintendo, particularly among young women who had been turned off by the violent nature of most video games. And for those intimidated by the dizzying array of buttons on game controllers, "Nintendogs" offers this attraction: Only a stylus is needed to play the game - and a soft spot for adorable puppies.
The Nintendo DS touch-screen allows players to pet their dogs using a stylus or their fingers. The system's microphone allows players to name their dogs and teach them tricks and voice commands. Players must clean up after their dog on walks or risk being castigated by neighbors.
"It's like a real dog except you don't have to pick up its poop," said Lilia Jimenez, a 9-year-old from Brooklyn who was at the Nintendo World store in New York recently to meet Miyamoto.
Mary McDonough, 29, an administrator at the Johns Hopkins University, often plays her "Nintendogs" on the bus and at lunch. She has two virtual dogs - a Labrador retriever, Twinkie, and a beagle, Dru. She says she'd rather play with them than watch television.
"It's not as though the game sucks you in and you can't look away for a second or you'll be killed or something," she said. "You can do other things and still be a person."
Children have embraced the game, particularly those whose parents won't let them play violent games or own real dogs. At a "Nintendogs" fashion show in New York's Riverside Park last month, dozens of kids showed off their "Nintendogs."
The game has a wireless function that enables it to identify other "Nintendog" owners nearby. When that happens, the games "bark" and then exchange information; that lets players meet each other and play with each other's dogs. When the dogs get along, they lie on the ground and lick each other. When they don't, snarling fights ensue.
Miyamoto, who created "Super Mario Brothers" and "Donkey Kong" for Nintendo, was in New York last month for the doggy fashion show and an autograph-signing event that drew more than 700 people, of widely varying ages and races, to Rockefeller Center.
The majority of them were peering intently into silver or electric blue Nintendo DS handhelds that emitted periodic "arfs" and "woofs." In an orderly procession that ringed three-quarters of a city block, the Nintendog owners waited patiently for the opportunity to meet their pets' maker.
Miyamoto said the idea for the game came to him four years ago, when his family got a tri-colored Shetland sheepdog. He noticed that when he walked the dog, people who had never spoken with him before suddenly became his friends.
He said he wanted to incorporate that experience into the game, which is why the game rewards players who spend time with other "Nintendog" owners.
He also wanted to create a simple game that would be easy to learn and would break away from the prevailing trend toward violence, soft-core pornography and endless sports titles.
Miyamoto's own "Nintendog," which he showed off in New York, is a Jack Russell terrier named Jack. He has taught his dog a number of tricks, including back flips, handstands and break dancing.
As a game, "Nintendogs" never ends. The puppies will always be puppies - always adorable and excitable and desperate for love. In that way, the game is less a game than a companion.
Indeed, the cover of the October issue of New Puppy, the Nintendogs magazine (yes, there is one), features this headline: "Don't You Want Somebody to Love?"
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