And lo, after Nintendogs, a spate of virtual pet clones pop in to say hello, with Ubisoft's Dogz for Game Boy Advance the first to be reviewed by GameSpy. Reviewer Patrick Klepek comments that, "in the absence of an option for picking up Nintendo's effort, Dogz is a less compelling but worthwhile riff on the same idea ideal for younger gamers", but probably the most interesting part of the game is its use of the Dogz 'franchise' name, which you may remember was part of a larger mid-'90s Petz series for PC that even included Babyz, and way predates Nintendogs.

In fact, this new GBA Dogz was developed by unrelated Japanese firm MTO, and was called Kawaii Koinu Wonderful when released in Japan in 2004. However, the Dogz 'virtual pet' series itself was started in 1995 on PC by San Francisco firm PF Magic and Facade co-creator Andrew Stern. Andrew comments handily on the fate of the original creators: "The Petz team in San Francisco disbanded in 1998, when PF.Magic got folded into The Learning Company (TLC)... the Petz license ended up at Ubisoft."

[Bonus note: you might know MTO from its GT Advance series for GBA, but it has published other racing games in Japan, including Kuju's Lotus Challenge and Team 17's Stunt GP.]