As any responsible pet owner will already know, looking after pets can be hard work. This is probably why there’s been this odd fascination in recent years for looking after virtual pets.

The craze took off good and proper in the late nineties with the arrival of the Tamogochi. For those unfamiliar with the name, it was a small plastic egg with an LCD screen that saw a creature born from an egg on screen. It was then your responsibility to care for your new ‘pet’, by making sure it was regular fed, watered and entertained. If not, you would soon see that it had made its way to virtual heaven.

Despite not being a proper gaming experience per se, it was huge.

Not one to miss a trick, Nintendo released Nintendogs for the DS in 2005. It was effectively Tamogochi +, allowing you to choose a breed of dog, then train it, take it out for walks, play with it etc.

This latest iteration is now beautifully presented in 3D. Other than the extra dimension, your tasks are pretty much the same. You have to keep your puppy fit; there are various ways of doings this, but letting it take part in competitions can at least win you money. The competitions are the disc throwing, where you throw a Frisbee and hope your pooch will catch it; lure coursing, where you reel in a toy on a line and have your puppy chase it with the intention of being first across the finishing line; and an obedience trial, where your dog has to perform tricks within a set time limit. Depending where you place – first, second, or third – depends on the amount of money you take home.

With your winnings you can buy not only essentials such as food and water, but more frivolous items like hats and glasses. No really. You can pimp up your puppy in the safety of your simulated world. You can also buy furniture to make your pad more homely for your pets.

Please get me out of here. I didn't spend four years at RADA to perform alongside a cat in bow tie.

As well as competitions, you can take your dog for a walk; either about town, on the beach or in the woods. While you’re out, you can also on occasion come across gifts that are just literally left in the road, as if Santa had a hole in his sack. Not that plastic bottles or leather key fobs are that exciting.

If you feel like your puppy isn’t entertaining enough, you can go back to the kennels and buy another one, funds pending, or buy a kitten instead. Cats are less demanding, as they don’t participate in outdoor adventures, but still need to be fed and watered regularly at home.

If you’re new to this franchise, it cannot be stated enough that this is not a game. It is a glorified Tamogochi; a very pretty one, but a virtual pet sim all the less. After a while it does feel repetitive, as you won’t be rewarded with anything really new for persevering with rearing your pet. You feed it, water it, exercise it, and play with it. And that’s about it. If it was a realistic sim you would at least have visits to the vets to consider expensive treatments/operations, amongst other things.

As it stands, Nintendogs will satisfy the needs of a younger demographic, who may not be responsible enough to look after a real pet. On one hand it can be seen as a fairly good training aid for when they’re ready for the real thing; but on the other hand, with its all too open-ended mechanic, you can expect virtual heaven to get that little bit more crowded. Still, virtual dog poo will always be more pleasant to handle than the real thing...