Pet Pals®: New Leash on Life

Pet Pals®: New Leash on Life
982 MB, Price: $19.99

Help the animal shelter give sick and disadvantaged pets a happier, healthier life. Learn about animals while having fun.

From the PR Firm: Legacy Interactive® announced today that the latest title in their award winning Pet Pals® series, Pet Pals: New Leash on Life, is now available at retail as a hybrid disc for the PC and Mac. The software has been awarded a prestigious Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the highest level of recognition, for spring 2009. The awards have been handed out by the Parents' Choice Foundation since 1978, and are meant to direct parents to the best software, games, DVDs, toys, books, music, magazines and websites.

Previously only available for download on the PC via legacygames.com, Pet Pals: New Leash on Life is now available for the first time to Mac gamers as well. In the simulation-vet game players experience what it is like to play as an actual veterinarian by diagnosing, operating, taking care of, feeding and playing with virtual pets. In the game players will encounter more than 30 different animal cases, derived from practicing veterinarians, and will have access to more than 45 realistic medical tools including a stethoscope, EKG machine, scalpels, and an ophthalmoscope. These tools allow the player to gather samples, palpitate and examine the animals, and even perform surgery.

The cases in Pet Pals: New Leash on Life range from minor; a cat fight that resulted in an infected scratch, to more serious emergencies involving an overweight dog who has torn a ligament in their knee from too much activity. The player must heal and nurture these animals, along with 15 breeds of dogs, cats, rabbits, and a wide variety of other animals. When players are successful at treating and adopting out their rescued animal patients, they get a promotion. With each promotion the player is given more responsibilities and increasingly more difficult cases to handle. Just as in the real world, during game-play, emergencies arise that require immediate attention and players must prioritize their cases to make sure every animal has a successful recovery.

In the enrichment element of the game, players get to interact with their animals as they are recuperating by petting them, playing fetch, teaching new tricks, grooming, and more, in order to get them ready for adoption. Players have the opportunity to follow up with their animal patients to see how they succeeded with their treatments and will receive messages from the adoptive family updating them on the progress of the animals. The game also includes a variety of engaging mini-games with tons of animal trivia and information on careers in the animal world.

Consistent with Legacy’s frequent efforts to work with nonprofits, a portion of the sales from Pet Pals: New Leash on Life has been donated to provide financial support for The Humane Society of the United States.

Rated E for Everyone, Pet Pals: New Leash on Life is a hybrid disc for the PC and Mac. The game has an MSRP of $19.95 and is available at retailers nationwide. Additional information can be found at www.legacygames.com. To read the full Parents' Choice Award review of Pet Pals: New Leash on Life, go to www.parentschoice.org.

Description: As a new vet at the Pet Pals Animal Shelter, it’s your job to make sure that the animals are not only healthy, but also happy. In this sequel to the award-winning Pet Pals: Animal Doctor game, you can treat and diagnose 35 new cases that were written by real vets! Take care of over 15 different types of animals, including cats, dogs, parrots, chinchillas and iguanas, using more than 40 different medical tools. Take part in each animal’s story by playing, caring, and preparing them for adoption into their new homes. Grateful families thank you for the healthy, well-trained animals they adopt.

Features:

· Robust reward system including trophies, answering machine messages and staff encouragement.

· 2-3 animal care actions that include grooming, caretaking and feeding.

· Fellow rescue workers give the player further information on the animals and adoptive owners call to give feedback on their new pets.

· 30+ animal cases created by practicing veterinarians from around the world.

· 15+ different breeds of dogs, cats, rabbits and birds, as well as exotic animals like iguanas and chinchillas.

· Emergency situations with visual feedback.

My take: When I first received this game from Legacy Interactive's PR firm, I had a lot of trouble loading it. That's because the game says it can be loaded on Windows 2000, XP or Vista. Um, no. My daughter's computer is Windows 2000 and the game refused to load without a certain version of Quicktime (a free download from Apple) - a version that happens to not be available unless you have XP or Vista (urgh!). Next step, loading it on my husband's workstation (which has Vista) - again, no go - the sound would not work. I have no idea why this time (I am not computer hardware/software literate as you can see). Finally though, I installed it on my laptop (Vista) and success, it worked perfectly.

At that point, I called in my 4 year old (who is animal crazy!) and we sat down to play. Visually, this is a great game - very realistic. My daughter loved taking care of all the pets but Sunshine the cat was her favorite (figures since I am not a fan of cats)! There is no way she could play this game on her own though - look at the picture above - you have to read the screens (with advanced vocabulary!) to move along in the game. An annoying piece of the game too is how long it takes to switch from "scene" to "scene" as you progress. Minor annoyance though as my daughter loved the game so much - and I enjoyed having some quality time with just her and me, learning about something new together (you really do learn a lot about the different animals you are examining). If you have a child who loves animals (or you do!), be sure to check out Pet Pals®: New Leash on Life.

About Parents' Choice Foundation - Established in 1978, Parents' Choice is the nation's oldest nonprofit guide to quality children's media and toys. The Foundation's mission is to provide parents with information to participate wisely in their children's learning outside the classroom. Parents' Choice Foundation's panels of educators, scientists, performing artists, librarians, parents and, yes, kids themselves, identify the very best products for children of different ages and backgrounds, and of varied skill and interest levels.

About The Humane Society of the United States - The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 11 million Americans, or one of every 28. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.

About Legacy Interactive - Legacy Interactive (www.legacyinteractive.com) is a leading developer and publisher of casual games. Entertaining customers since 1998, the company has built a reputation for creating intelligent, realistic and engaging games for a broad audience. Located in Los Angeles, Legacy is known for its TV-based games, such as Law & Order and The Apprentice, as well as for its realistic simulation games Emergency Room®, Pet Pals™, and Zoo Vet. Through Legacy's popular game network at www.legacygames.com, customers can play more than 500 games plus read and write reviews, share play lists, and create their own gaming profiles. Legacy games are also available at retailers nationwide on a variety of platforms including PC, Mac, Mobile, handheld, and console. The company’s games are distributed worldwide, in more than 12 languages, through its partners Ubisoft, Mindscape, 505 Games, and JoWood.

This review was sponsored by: