Oatchi – Pikmin 4
When it comes to game-changing mechanics, Oatchi is right up there for us. Introduced in Pikmin 4 (you’ll have met him in the demo), this faithful pup will assist with sniffing out treasure, taking on foes and even carrying Pikmin. How could we have another game in the series without this certified good boy?
Picking between the Wii Sports games is always a challenge, but we’d say that the OG takes the biscuit.
You know what the original doesn’t have though? An adorable pup to accompany you on your sporting activities. We’ve picked out Wii Sports Resort’s playful pup solely for his frisbee abilities here (and why wouldn’t we?), but you might also remember him from the running/cycling sequences in Wii Fit — what an energetic fella!
For all of its problems, you have to give it to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for its cute dogs. By Gen IX, there is a whole kennel-full that we can choose from (honourable mentions to Lillipup, Poochyena and Furfrou), but ScaVi’s Fidough immediately springs to mind as the sweetest of them all. Come on, look at that little round guy…
Not many of the dogs on this list can boast a Smash Bros. appearance, but Mother 3’s Boney can — albeit not as a playable fighter. Lucas’s pet dog, this little guy can do it all from sniffing out an enemy’s weaknesses to wearing adorable headwear.
It might take a while to get him up to attacking in battle (chapter eight, to be precise), but a boy this good is worth the wait.
The Legend of Zelda series is hardly filled with dogs (does BowWow count?), though there is one polite little man with whom we recently fell in love all over again.
Growler is the stubborn dog from The Minish Cap found at the bottom of the steps on the west side of Hyrule Town. When Link is normal size, Growler will bark at him and not let him pass, but when shrunk down to Picori size, Link can talk to this polite pup, who apologises for his earlier actions and says that he was only after some attention — aww.
We love dogs. We love Luigi’s Mansion’s spooky vibes. Of course a spooky dog ticks all of our boxes.
Look, we’d rather not think too much about how Polterpup came to be, and to be honest, this little guy is a real pain in Dark Moon, but all of that can be put aside when we see what a happy fella he is in the third entry. Come on now, how many other dogs do you know that can literally raise someone from the dead?
We know that we said “no wolves”, but, in our defence, Resident Evil 4’s Leon does describe this notably wolf-looking boy as “that dog”, so it was enough to squeeze him in here.
The nameless dog is initially found suffering in a bear trap (either on the way into the village or outside of the village chief’s manor – depending on whether you’re playing the 2005 or 2023 version) but later comes back to help you out in the El Gigante boss battle. Wolf or not, he gets the ‘good boy’ seal of approval on our end for that alone.
King (or whichever name you chose for him) might not be the bravest dog out there, but we love him all the same. Every time that we return to EarthBound we always hope that this scaredy pup will come back and join the team after fleeing from us at the beginning. We are always disappointed…
Many dog owners out there will be used to a wake-up call from their loveable companion, but how many of them begin with a round-up of the day ahead and a message on what to expect from the weather?
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is full of good boys like K.K. Slider or hippy photographer Harvey, but nothing welcomes us back to our towns quite like the cheesy smile and wagging tail of good girl Isabelle.
Still haven’t seen the goodest boy yet? Our rundown of prized pups continues on page two…
Oatchi – Pikmin 4
When it comes to game-changing mechanics, Oatchi is right up there for us. Introduced in Pikmin 4 (you’ll have met him in the demo), this faithful pup will assist with sniffing out treasure, taking on foes and even carrying Pikmin. How could we have another game in the series without this certified good boy?
Picking between the Wii Sports games is always a challenge, but we’d say that the OG takes the biscuit.
You know what the original doesn’t have though? An adorable pup to accompany you on your sporting activities. We’ve picked out Wii Sports Resort’s playful pup solely for his frisbee abilities here (and why wouldn’t we?), but you might also remember him from the running/cycling sequences in Wii Fit — what an energetic fella!
For all of its problems, you have to give it to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for its cute dogs. By Gen IX, there is a whole kennel-full that we can choose from (honourable mentions to Lillipup, Poochyena and Furfrou), but ScaVi’s Fidough immediately springs to mind as the sweetest of them all. Come on, look at that little round guy…
Not many of the dogs on this list can boast a Smash Bros. appearance, but Mother 3’s Boney can — albeit not as a playable fighter. Lucas’s pet dog, this little guy can do it all from sniffing out an enemy’s weaknesses to wearing adorable headwear.
It might take a while to get him up to attacking in battle (chapter eight, to be precise), but a boy this good is worth the wait.
The Legend of Zelda series is hardly filled with dogs (does BowWow count?), though there is one polite little man with whom we recently fell in love all over again.
Growler is the stubborn dog from The Minish Cap found at the bottom of the steps on the west side of Hyrule Town. When Link is normal size, Growler will bark at him and not let him pass, but when shrunk down to Picori size, Link can talk to this polite pup, who apologises for his earlier actions and says that he was only after some attention — aww.
We love dogs. We love Luigi’s Mansion’s spooky vibes. Of course a spooky dog ticks all of our boxes.
Look, we’d rather not think too much about how Polterpup came to be, and to be honest, this little guy is a real pain in Dark Moon, but all of that can be put aside when we see what a happy fella he is in the third entry. Come on now, how many other dogs do you know that can literally raise someone from the dead?
We know that we said “no wolves”, but, in our defence, Resident Evil 4’s Leon does describe this notably wolf-looking boy as “that dog”, so it was enough to squeeze him in here.
The nameless dog is initially found suffering in a bear trap (either on the way into the village or outside of the village chief’s manor – depending on whether you’re playing the 2005 or 2023 version) but later comes back to help you out in the El Gigante boss battle. Wolf or not, he gets the ‘good boy’ seal of approval on our end for that alone.
King (or whichever name you chose for him) might not be the bravest dog out there, but we love him all the same. Every time that we return to EarthBound we always hope that this scaredy pup will come back and join the team after fleeing from us at the beginning. We are always disappointed…
Many dog owners out there will be used to a wake-up call from their loveable companion, but how many of them begin with a round-up of the day ahead and a message on what to expect from the weather?
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is full of good boys like K.K. Slider or hippy photographer Harvey, but nothing welcomes us back to our towns quite like the cheesy smile and wagging tail of good girl Isabelle.
Still haven’t seen the goodest boy yet? Our rundown of prized pups continues on page two…
