10/10
I purchased The Dog Island at a massive clearance sale at Target – never would i have though that a $10 game could be so great. Based on ‘The Dog’ Artist Collection dogs with truly massive heads, that was enough to get me to buy the game in the first place. I mean, who can honestly say that they have never thought about what it would be like to be a dog?

The storyline revolves around you trying to find a cure for your sick brother or sister – Your local doctor has failed, but apparently there is a legendary doctor on The Dog Island. After a few nights the loveable beagle “Doctor Potan” comes home to try and cure him/her. He can’t but he has heard of a legendary flower that can cure anything. So there you have it – you set out on a quest to find this legendary flower. Although, you do have to sniff out this magical flower, which to do so you must be a sniff master, which means you must recognise 100 smells have a magic book and a medal. The game revolves around trying to cure your sibling, but is filled with mostly you doing miniature missions for help-needing (is that even a word) dogs, which as you can see one mission leads to another one – and another one – and another. This game can be repetitive, and majority of the time spent playing will be sniffing for items/fruit/fish/bugs and stuff. There are a few mini games – nothing major.

This game is perfect for a child aged about 6-10 as reading is required, and they must not be scarred for life if their child gets bashed to death by a wild snake or bear – like my kids. But my children loved it (An 8 and a 5 year old) They enjoy watching me play – but both are too scared to play because of the ‘evil gorilla’ in treely woods. Anyway i got addicted and within 4 days i had the game done and dusted.

****SPOILER ALERT****

The game is pretty laid back – do what you like and stuff. You go through three sniffing trainers -Li Tao (or something) Rode and Master Tao. As you progress through the trainers the game gradually gets a tiny bit harder. Once Master Tao sends you to find the Second Book of the Sniff Master in the Rune Village – That is a sign that if you ever wanted to do something else in the game (ie. collect fish, bugs, fruit, flowers) now is your final chance. Because once you have the book and are sent to Kinka Ruins to find a medal – your free time is over. You find the medal and then you go to the Anc World and then are sent to a different part of the Kinka Ruins where you have to kill (or seal) a giant angry Dinosaur Skeleton for a little stone? Once you are done your game is pretty much over. The last save box you will encounter will be before you enter the dinosaur lair, so once you have the game finished – getting back into your save file will result in you having to beat the dinosaur again and getting nowhere (annoying i know)

Anyway, i would rate this game 9/10 – good for kids, but like i said, they gotta be courageous… well at least until the Kinka Ruins…