P.A.W.S. - Personal Automated Wagging System
Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Digital Garden/Virgin Interactive

Age Group: Age 4 to 8 Type: More Fun Price: 34.95

Description:

P.A.W.S. is a light-hearted, whimsical spoof of happy dogdom, developed by three guys who call themselves Domestic Funk Productions. The program is FUN. And if you (adults) are in a bad mood when starting this program, you'll either get into the swing of things and enjoy, or you'll be horribly annoyed by how obnoxious dogs and three guys at DFP can be!

There are three sections of P.A.W.S.: the Canine Simulator, Anatomy of a Dog and AeroDog Game. Each section is very different, visually as well as in actions. You'll see many animated sequences in this game, too!

The Canine Simulator is lots of fun. You have a dog's eye view as you roam the back yard digging up bones, getting in the pool and chasing cats! It's a LOT of fun to catch a cat by the tail, but you must be quick! When you get tired, "thunk" down you fall and go to sleep. Dogs have interesting dreams, I'll leave the animation sequences to your imagination!

Anatomy of a Dog is a "tongue in cheek" spoof of the mechanics involved in movement. Click around to see what you can find! You'll get an inside look to help figure things out.

The AeroDog Game is a bone delivery service - well, it IS, but it's also a cleverly described matching game. Some dogs give you bones, other dogs accept your deliveries of bones. This is the only part of the program that could be remotely called edutainment, but then, edutainment isn't everything!

Howl, Bark, Whimper

There are lots of fun sound effects around! Try everything. Bark at the back door to see what happens. Whine because you're dog-bored, whatever!

This program has its limitations:

1. You can't dig just anywhere. Try telling that to MY dog - Molly the Patio Dog!
2. No patio furniture was available for chewing up. Maybe in P.A.W.S. II??
3. No dog pals were available to howl around with.
4. I wanted to chase that cat up a tree.

Maybe, come to think of it, I'd like this to be a bit more like the cartoons shown on "The Simpsons" - "Itchy and Scratchy."

Seriously, P.A.W.S. is an innovative, fun, quirky title your kids shouldn't miss. It's rated for children 5 and up.

Installation Notes

The P.A.W.S. installation went smoothly, initially. However, after running the program, a "Script error: Handler not defined" message appeared that required uninstalling and then reinstalling - every time we wanted to play. Annoying.

It is NOT recommended that you attempt to run this program on less than the stated system requirements. It was very s..l...o...www at times here.

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