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Keeps the "Pet Sitter" on their toes!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 34 / 34
Date: February 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my 9 year old daughter who loves animals. The instructions to getting the game started are quite vague and she got very discouraged. The "code" descriptions in the instructions are good, however.

I finally stepped in to help her start the game. To start, you need to set up the "pet resort" business by creating pens for the various animals, buying food, etc., which are done through the "resort owner's" computer screen located in her office. What the directions are vague to tell is that one business day at the pet resort on the DS is equal to 20 minutes (real-time) and changes made (i.e. pen expansions) don't appear until the next "business day". Pet food is stored on a shelf unit that periodically needs to be "dragged" into a food sack.

My daughter waited 4 pet resort days (80 minutes) for the first guest (a rabbit) to show up. Once the first rabbit showed up, and she performed the required animal care, feeding and such in the rabbit pen (using the "A" button), she had rabbits checking in and checking out constantly every couple of minutes and that's when she began to have great fun with the menagerie of animals that came. She (and I) now have a hard time putting it down.

So...a bit confusing getting started, but entertaining and great fun once we figured it out.

Poor Instructions - but fun once you figure it out

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: July 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Like many others, my daughter (and I) was more than a little frustrated that we couldn't figure out how to do anything. I e-mailed the developer and had the following reply in less than 24 hours. WOnder why no-one else thought to do that? Anyway, this really helped!

To start "Pet Resort", select a New Game, enter a name, and continue to the house. Enter the office, approach the computer and click on the icon of a girl's head at the bottom of the screen. This will open a Management menu on the right side of the screen. Choose "Expansion", and then locate the "Already Built" column. These are your pens. Click on the word "no" to change it to "yes" for Level 1. Continue doing this for every animal, located on the top of the screen. Once all animals have had Level 1 changed to "yes", click the "buy" icon at the bottom right. You have now built pens for the animals. Now you can select "Online Shop" to begin buying food and other items for first animal you will take care of, which is the rabbit. Once purchased, exit the Management menu and walk to the far left of the house, near the bookcase. This is the food storage area. Click the girl's head icon to access the "Foodbag". Place the purchased food in the available slots. Exit and wait for the clock to show 11:00. After 11, walk to the base of the stairs and click on the girl's head icon. A small menu should appear on the right. Click on "Finish the day" and continue through. A customer will then appear at some point with her pet rabbit. This is your first pet to take care of. You will need to feed, groom, and more, depending on what is required. Look at the top of the screen to see the animal's statistics. One business day at the pet resort on the DS is equal to 20 minutes in real time, and changes made (example: pen expansions) do not appear until the next "business day".

I told them the waiting time should have been outlined someplace.

NEEDS an instruction manual

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I am amazed this game was released with SO LITTLE information. My six year old daughter picked this out at the store before I had a chance to do any online research on it. She can usually hit or miss her way through some of the easier Nintendo games, loves Nintendogs, and I thought this looks basic enough. However, there is ABSOLUTELY no help from the game on how to get started. There is NO instruction manual. There is no online manual that I could find. The ONLY information I found was from a previous amazon reviewer, Giardino. If it wasn't for Giardino's helpful review, I probably would have boxed it up and taken it back to the store.
There is plenty of information we're still discovering, like HOW to put food into the bag - go into the house and click the person icon and the food storage comes up and you drag it to the food bag. I must have bought 10 food units and run around looking for it for a whole day before we figured that out.
Also - initially building the pens is really confusing. The only option is to indicate that the free first pen has or hasn't been built. I am not sure if indicating it has is how you build it or not, we haven't gotten there yet.

It doesn't tell you but it's looking like until you've first gone through the required series of rabbits, then birds, then whatever comes next, you can't get multiple kinds of animals. We made it through rabbits, and suddenly the rabbits are gone and we have budgies. I suppose fish are next.
I saw one review that indicates this game is completely boring - well, my daughter is six and enjoys mastering a game, and doesn't mind repetitive tasks of taking care of these electronic animals. She can happily spend time taking care of imaginary or stuffed animals.

But Giardino's review, and the answer to a related wikipedia question I found on the internet, that I can't find again - is all the help I could find on how to play this game.

I would give this game one star except my daughter seems to find it intersting and occupying, once people have started bringing rabbits for her to tend. But that's after suffering through a baffling five or ten minutes of running around, nearly half an hour of her angrily saying she shouldn't have picked this game while I was frantically searching the internet for whatever help I could find for her. Interesting that the most helpful source was not from googling a related "hints," "cheats," or "helps," page, but from an amazon review.

great game for animal lovers

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My daughter purchased this game with her birthday money. The directions are terrible but once you have done your waiting and receive your first customer it has been a lot of fun!! My daughter says that you also have to buy a pen before receiving any pets.

Very Disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I will first say I agree with the other reviewers the instructions are very vague. The graphics are very poor. Same music plays over and over again. From the cover the graphics look great so I thought it might be some what like nintendogs. So overall I would rate this game 1 1/2 stars. I paid to much for something that was such poor quality. Save your money and get nintendogs.

Total Frustration!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My daughter pick out this game and we can not figure out how to play. The only thing she has figured out is how to ride. She still does not have any animals. I would not buy this game again. I think she will end up giving up on it and not playing it, it was 20 dollars wasted. If it was possible I would not even give it one star.

Waste of Money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Purchased this game for my daughters birthday and am very sorry. The instructions for getting the game started are terrible and so far have been unable to find any help. We cannot figure out how to begin the game and start getting clients. You are supposed to "buy" animal pens, but this is where we are stuck. Based upon this game will not be purchasing anymore Paws & Claws games.

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