Pups & Purrs Pet Shop Review

Game: Pups & Purrs Pet Shop
Genre: Simulation
System: Nintendo Switch
Developers | Publishers: Nippon Columbia | Aksys Games, Numskull Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $39.99 | UK £24.99| EU € 29,99
Release Date: August 10th, 2023

Review code used, with many thanks to MMPR.

In the past, Paula reviewed Pups & Purrs Animal Hospital. Now, Pups & Purrs brings us a sequel that is all about working in a pet shop. Your job is to care for and play with adorable puppies and kittens. Plus, you also have some tasks within the pet shop to ensure customers want to check out your store. Let’s see if the job is as amazing as it sounds.

A little girl surrounded by kittens and a puppy — Let’s get started!

First Day On The Job

When starting Pups & Purrs Pet Shop, you can customise your character to your desires. You can select your face design, eye colour, hairstyle and hair colour. After this, we are off to our first workday! You and Shun (the other new employee) are welcomed by the owner and the manager, after which you will be put in charge of taking care of the puppies and kittens immediately. They, of course, want to size you up, so to speak, to make sure you can handle the job.

the customisation for the character, changing face, eye colour, hairstyle and hair colour — Choose the look you want for your character

Pet Tasks

Your first tasks are feeding, shampooing and brushing the pets. Later, once you level up by collecting stamps daily, more tasks will unlock. These tasks include crate training, teaching tricks and brushing their teeth. The more you play, the more levels and tasks will be unlocked.

The anticipation of seeing which tasks I would get next was fun; having a lot of variety in the tasks made the game less repetitive for me.

A kitten is being washed with grey sudds for the dirt and white for where it is cleaner — Washing the little kittens and puppies

Shop Tasks

The tasks of taking care of the pets are done through different mini-games. These games also include shop-related tasks like vacuuming the store, putting discount stickers on items and handling the cash register. One other “Store Task” is the decorating of the pets’ playroom. If you feel a little tired of the puppies and kittens (which I could never imagine, but what if…), then these tasks are a nice change.

The items for us and sale in the shop which you can sort in categories like toys, care and food — Putting all the shop items in the right category

The Goal

The main goal of working in the store is getting the puppies and kittens adopted by customers. You care for the pets’ needs and ensure they get a new loving home. One of the ways to make a pet more cute and more eligible for adoption (though I wonder if it actually has an effect on being chosen faster) is by dressing the pets in accessories.

Your progress in the game is measured by the stamps you collect. In each mini-game, you collect points that will be transferred to a maximum of three stamps. These stamps will be added to the level-up card at the end of the day and serve to unlock more tasks. You will also get paid based on the amount of stamps. This payment is in Pups Purrs Points, which you can use to adopt new pets or to update your look.

Completed the task feed a pet, you earned three stamps by taking care of the pup in the image — Improve your high score in the mini-games

A nice feature of Pups & Purrs Pet Shop is that your fellow coworkers will come to you asking for advice. This could be about approaching the customer or about how to take care of the pets. You can really show off your skills!

In the evenings, after your work is done, you have free time to go to the boutique to try and buy some new clothes or go to the hair salon to change your look.

Nostalgia Taking Over

Even though the game is about working in a pet shop, you could spend a lot of time just taking care of all the pets. This part really reminded me of Nintendogs. When I was younger, this was one of the first games that I played, and Pups & Purrs Pet Shop brought back some nostalgic feelings. I enjoyed taking care of the pets the most, being able to clean them but also teaching them tricks and other essential skills.

An American shorthair kitten, super cute with a tie. Dressed up for a photoshoot — Dressing up your pets and doing photoshoots

Even though the game is meant for kids, I still enjoyed playing it. Some evenings I want to play games on my Switch and watch a show on television in the meantime, and this was a good game to do so. So even if you are an adult, that doesn’t mean you can’t play and enjoy Pups & Purrs Pet Shop.

Visuals and Controls

Since the game is tailored to kids, the visuals are super colourful and have a soft feel at the same time. Something that will also catch the eye is the sparkly elements whenever you have achieved something like getting stamps, a new level or when a new pet has come to the shop. The developers really made an effort to present the game in an exciting light.

As mentioned above, this game is rated E, which is 3+ in Europe, so this is more of a kid’s game. The mini-games are easy to do. The penalties for making mistakes are not severe, and there’s a good tutorial. I do think the age of 3 is a little too young; the controls might still be too difficult at that age. But from the age of 5, it should be fine.

The pay check at the end of the day, with the rank reached and points earned — The point system at the end of the day

Conclusion

If you have a young gamer who loves puppies and kittens, or if you are a pet lover yourself, Pups & Purrs Pet Shop would be a good game for you. What is not to like about running an imaginary store and caring for adorable puppies and kittens? This sort of game is something I loved when I was younger. And it was also one of the games that got me into gaming. So I would definitely recommend Pups & Purrs Pet Shop to younger gamers, but also to gamers that love this type of simulation.

Final verdict: I like it a lot