Wappy Dog

The clean white plastic of Wappy Dog, a product developed in collaboration with SEGA Toys, houses touch sensors, speakers, various LEDs and a microphone - everything you need to play with your new electronic pal. Wappy can be petted on his head and back and he will react accordingly, yapping playfully at each touch. Pull his tail and he will let out a less than appreciative groan. Leave him to his own devices and he will stretch out his legs and swivel his head to look around.

Take things to Nintendo DS and you can care for Wappy, bathing and feeding him, your actions transmitted wirelessly to the toy so that it can act appropriately. Tricks can be taught, though you’re not going to catch the physical product doing backflips we’re afraid - just his on-screen representation.

 

Wappy’s data can also be transferred over to the cartridge for travel mode, allowing players to continue teaching and looking after the hyper hound on the move without the need to carry the toy with them.

Poking a synthetic dog is not the only thing you can do with Wappy Dog, thankfully. You can spend all your time repeatedly offering it cake if you like, but you’d probably get more out of it by playing the mini-games included. You can co-operate with Wappy, racing him or finding the requested food item out of a pile of delicious treats, or you can pit your wits against the pup in games such as Rock, Paper, Scissors and Whack-A-Mole. He’ll react depending on the outcome - expect mournful, vocal exhalations when your scissors slice his paper in two.