You never know if hype will help or hurt a game. If you overdo it, you’ll be in trouble with the fans if you don’t deliver. If you don’t do enough, you risk being missed. Nintendogs has walked a fine line between the two. You’ve probably heard about it, you may even be intrigued by it, but you’re waiting to hear if the delivery is worth 40 bucks.
The buzz is good.
PlanetGameCube is reporting that Japan can’t get enough of Nintendogs. Reviews are glowing. Sales of the game have pushed DS sales up five fold, according to some reports. If true, that’s pretty impressive.
All in all, it looks like the rest of the world will have to look on in envy, or import the thing. This is getting to be a really bad pattern.