A charming experience for any gamer that appreciates that which is unique and quaint.
This is all so you can find and get back your girlfriend Daisy.
Got it? Collect smells, challenge dogs, help humans, get Daisy.
You don't have to complete all the tasks in each town to move on, but the more tasks you complete, the more bones you get, which means the faster and stronger you are, so the easier it is to do other tasks later in the game. As you gain access to new areas, you can go back to the old areas to complete tasks you may have left unfinished. You will however have to get at least 90 of the 125 bones available to find, if you want to win the game.
WHAT'S GOOD?
The concept. It's like a sand-box game for kids... so the term sand-box may be most appropriate for this game. You don't find E-Rated open world games like this very often (at least I don't). This originality is where it scores some bonus points for me. It's great to see developers trying something new.
The game-play. It takes some effort, not everything is handed to you, but it's very loose and low stress. At the same time it's unlike anything you'll find in any other game.
The environments. They look good, they each have small-town-pleasantness to them, and many of the areas have quite a bit of land to explore.
The sound. The music is very rural but quite fitting at that. It has a very casual "let's go fishin' at the lake and drink some lemonade" feel to it, but not overpowering. The voice of the dog is well done. The voice of the characters are bad, but it's a fitting bad. They sound like cheesy Saturday morning cartoon voices, but it also sounds like it was suppose to be that way to fit in with the whole theme of the game.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER?
Repetitiveness. After about 2/3rd of the way through the game, you realize your not really doing anything different. Now, this is not a trait unique to this game, however since the game-play is so laid back, it doesn't offer the excitement to keep you from getting a little bored with it.
Controls. They're really not bad, but they are a little unresponsive. The camera also gets in the way from time to time.
Loading. It's a sandbox style game, but there's loading in between all areas and between each subdivision of the areas. It's too bad it didn't have a more fluid feel when going from place to place.
Travel. Yes, you can go back to previous locations to complete missions, but if you're in Town D and you want to go back to Town A you have to backtrack through towns C and B first. An option to jump to previously visited locations would have been nice.
The end. Okay this really isn't a bad thing but it should be mentioned that the ending is a little dark in comparison to the rest of the game.
FINAL WORD:
It's good clean fun for the kids; adults that can tap into their sense of innocence should have some good times with it too. Definitely unique in it's own right, and does offer some new experiences.