PlayStation's cursed Nintendogs rival should have stayed dead and buried, but here we are again

gamesradar.com:

In 2014 PlayStation released a Nintendogs-like for PS Vita and, thanks to one Twitter user, it's doing the rounds online again - reminding everyone just how cursed it is. 

If you weren't playing pet simulation games in the mid-2010s, you may have missed PlayStation Vita Pets. The sim had all the adorable aspects of Nintendogs and saw players adopt a puppy, dress it up, and care for it, whilst also taking it on an adventure to Castlewood Island (which has the same vibe as fellow Sony IP Uncharted) for some 3D platforming and puzzle solving fun.

One of the key differences between Nintendogs and PS Vita Pets though is that the dogs had full voice acting, which you can see in all its disturbing glory in the tweet below. The game's trailer (opens in new tab) from 2014 also gives a good idea of the kind of things your puppy will say to you throughout the game, with one self-conscious Dalmatian puppy asking the player: "Does my butt look big in this?"

In the PS Vita Nintendogs ripoff all the dogs have voice acting and it's the worst fucking thing on the planet pic.twitter.com/XPbP7DHPMcApril 28, 2023

The creepiness doesn't quite stop there though, as the trailer shows, PS Vita Pets made full use of the PS Vita's features and would allow the virtual dogs to recognize their owner's face using the handheld's front-facing camera. I think I'll stick to shouting my puppy's name over and over again into the microphone in Nintendogs, thanks. 

There is one person that's a fan of PS Vita Pets though, and it's none other than PlayStation president Jim Ryan. As another Twitter user (opens in new tab) highlights, Ryan did an interview with Metro (opens in new tab) around the time of the game's release where he defended it by saying: "My