Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Derby Dogs is a downloadable WiiWare title for the Nintendo Wii. It is a game that involves the breeding, training, and racing of dogs. Oddly, this was developed by Aksys games: the same company that brought us the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue franchises. Derby Dogs is available to purchase for 500 Nintendo points ($5.00). The introductory text which opens the game is a great portent of things to come. It warns users that the game is merely a work of fiction and that you should never attempt to train dogs in the way featured in the game. This message most likely exists due to the various foods you can feed your dogs after training sessions and races.

You see, the game begins with you adopting a dog and raising it until its wins more and more races and obtains new ranks. Each training session however, is completely non-interactive. Just choose a training exercise that you want to use to boost a dog’s stats and the dog will do everything himself. And once he’s done why not feed your dog a nice energy drink! Or Waffles! Yes, you can feed your pets a huge variety of not-for-dog foods that might potentially hurt real life animals.

The meat and potatoes of this game are the breeding and racing sections. Breeding is like a cut-down version of Monster Rancher. You mix two selected dogs, and they form a new offspring. Once a dog has raced enough and obtained enough stats, he or she can be retired and put out to breed. If you don't have two dogs, you can rent another dog for a price to do the deed. But you only have limited room in your doghouse. (You can get better doghouses via DLC for around 100 Wii points).

Finally, racing is where you would expect the game to finally shine; but sadly the experience is ultimately disappointing. Each league has several different maps with varying terrain and obstacles that range from curves in the road to large triangular ramps. The dog steers himself based on stats and you are left with three major controls. These are 'run' to make you go faster, 'slow down' to make you go slower, and 'jump' to avoid or jump off some obstacles to get ahead. This simplification makes racing an ultimately unfulfilling experience where you just yell at your dog to "go" repeatedly.

Besides the practice and racing, there is almost no other interaction with your dog. There is an option to pet your dog but he/she only comes closer and hardly reacts to this tender moment. The graphics and animations of this game are sometimes laughable. Pressing the jump button repeatedly over some obstacles will give you the illusion of your dog flying over the obstacles and never touching the ground. Also the victory-dances your dogs can perform often render them looking like awkward sock-puppets.

Although this game may be an interesting diversion for either small children or the child at heart, generally speaking there is not enough of a game here to really warrant a purchase. Most of the game is automated and gamers expecting complex interactions with their canines or exciting racing controls will be immensely disappointed. All I had to do was manage my dog’s spirit and energy properly. Then, once the dog was trained to it's maximum condition, there was nothing that stopped me from winning races.