Relaxing with National Geographic Panda

By Jenni . November 23, 2008 . 2:33pm

National Geographic Panda is an interesting endeavor – it balances a pet simulation which also tries to teach players about pandas. And, luckily, it manages to have educational elements without being too overbearing. So, its more like playing with cute baby pandas while every day learning interesting new panda facts.

It is also a game that requires patience. You are given an allowance each day to take care of your one to four pandas, and don’t have any means to earn extra money throughout the day. Instead, the goal is to enjoy watching, playing with, taking care of and teaching the pandas, occasionally saving up to purchase more food, toys and environment extras.

The game begins with a very rigid, but short, tutorial introducing you to basic panda care and controls. You meet your first panda in the panda house (mine was a little baby girl I named Popo), where you wake and name it. After that, feed the baby its first meal of bamboo and it eats it in an adorable manner. You then get to go outside and play with the panda, and you help it learn its very first trick (a somersault). At this point, the game lets go of your hand and lets you play with the panda however you want.

I’d go so far as to say that National Geographic Panda is a more quality pet simulation title – more on par with Nintendogs or Yume Neko DS rather than one of the many Petz or off brand pet simulations. The graphics are detailed, the environments are realistic and the pandas have very realistic animations and personalities. Like Nintendogs, it is a pet sim where you could just leave it running, watching the adorable antics of the virtual creatures.

I found myself oohing and aahing over the adorable pandas in the game. They’ll yawn adorably, frolick together, fall on their backs in ecstasy if you pet them and just be incredibly cute. Its very endearing and even relaxing to interact with these virtual pets.

It does require quite a bit of patience. I’d guess it would take at least a month to really purchase and gain access to extra pandas, items, skills and environments. Only one National Geographic article unlocks each day, with 24 total, you have to make a commitment and stop by to unlock the articles.

On top of all that, there are special points that can be earned when you buy things in the shops, and these collected points can be used to buy extra special items for your pandas to play with or wear.

Plus, you only get a certain amount of money each day, and much of that can go toward purchasing food for your pandas. Your allowance does increase as you spend more time with the animals and continue playing, but the game can get a bit slow without a means to interact with and earn money with the pandas throughout the day.

So National Geographic Panda is very well executed and incredibly cute, but also somewhat slow. You have to be willing to really invest time in this DS title, stopping by every day for a few minutes, and take care of your virtual pandas if you want to reap the most rewards and learn as much as you can from the game.

Images courtesy of Namco Bandai Games.

TAGS: Namco Bandai, National Geographic Panda, Nintendo DS, Playtests

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Aoshi00

Lol, I just re-watched Kung Fu Panda on Blu-ray today..

Nice to hear it's a quality title on par w/ Nintendogs. I'm still debating to get this or not, I doubt I would turn on the DS everyday for this.. It should be more fun to play w/ panda daily instead of doing Brain Age arithmetics :) Did you get the DVD w/ your game?

Jenni

Its the sort of game where you pretty much have to visit every day for at least the first 24 days to get the full benefit of it.

I did have the DVD as well, but I'm so busy with my day job and such that I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and watch it. The packaging makes it sound like it has more educational panda information and video of cute pandas frolicking.

Aoshi00

Thanks Jenni. I promised my gf a copy today, I'll probably steal the DVD :) I'm going to name the panda after her, lol.. and will swap this cartridge w/ Castlevania Order of Ecclesia everyday, funny combination.

Jenni

Its really just a fun way to spend about 15 or 30 minutes a day, taking care of and playing with the panda. Its really soothing, and I've found its kind of a nice stress reliever on days when I have to take the L or bus home from work.

That is an interesting combo - vampire/monster slaying and panda raising. XD

Jon

These things will only gain longevity when upkeep means something. One shouldn't be able to leave it for 6 months and only have to deal with fleas and a case of the grumps (aka Nintendogs).

Jenni

While that would be interesting Jon (and I'd probably want to watch as someone opened up a file after not playing for say, a year), I don't know if I'd personally actually want to buy a pet sim where, after a long period of not playing, animals would run away, turn feral or, dare I say it, die.