It seems that the domesticated animals of the world have it pretty good. A dog's best life is the couch and the chew toy, and everyone wants to be the cat that does nothing more than follow the patch of sunlight through the living room all day.
10 Best Pet Simulators, Ranked
These are some of the best pet simulator games for fans of the genre.
It might not seem like the kind of thing to make a video game about, but developers, writers, and producers have made some entertaining and beautiful games about the mundane lives of pets. Cats and dogs are often the main characters of these kinds of games, but fish, gerbils, and even lizards, and insects also make the occasional appearance.
7 Dog's Life (2003)
- Developer: Frontier Developments
- Platforms: PlayStation 2
A dog knows how an ordinary day can go sideways in the strangest way, which is the premise of Dog's Life. The protagonist is a dog named Jake who sees the dog-catcher taking away his girlfriend Daisy and has to navigate his way through the world of humans in order to free her.
Throughout the game, Jake stays a dog who does dog things, like finding and communicating with other dogs through abilities like Smellovision. He travels through several cities and towns before he reunites with Daisy, and as he does so, he discovers an elaborate plot to turn all of the dogs into cat food, hatched by an evil feline, of course.
6 Stray (2022)
The life of a stray cat, or a lost one, isn't something that most people think of as an adventure, but the creators of Stray made it into a whole other world. The setting was inspired by the real-life location of Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, which the developers at BlueTwelve Studio thought would be a fascinating place to explore for a cat.
Stray: 10 Things That Will Hit Home For Cat Owners
Stray is truly the perfect game for cat owners, thanks to the multitude of details that will resonate with cat owners.
Just trying to get home sounds mundane to a person traveling a few blocks, but for a cat, this could be a long and life-threatening journey. The stray cat that the player controls as they progress through the game and can do all the most important cat things, like nuzzling, clawing, and knocking things over.
5 Montaro (2016)
- Developer: JCKSLAP
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows
For those who are into the Doge and its adorably fuzzy memes and other cultural milestones, Montaro is even better than a funny game about a Shiba Inu loose in the city. Despite the dangers, players can protect their canine friend by stealing the pantsu of passing girls as he passes through the randomly generated levels of urban life.
This is a silly game that's all about the cuteness of the Doge, but anyone who likes dogs, especially the perpetually fat and happy Shiba Inu, can appreciate Montaro. It's intended as a relaxing game and the artwork is simple but enjoyable.
4 Seaman (1999)
- Developer: Vivarium, Jellyvision
- Platforms: Dreamcast, PlayStation 2
This is a simulator, essentially, but it's not the conventional pet-raising game. Narrated by Leonard Nimoy and featuring a strange half-human half-fish creature that also intended to teach the player something about the evolutionary process, Seaman is a unique game, to put it mildly.
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The player has to do all of the mundane things that would be expected with an aquarium simulator, including proper lighting, pH balance, and temperature. The Seamen hatch from eggs and the player has to raise them, but the catch is that these creatures will speak to the player through a mic on the controller and start to mimic or repeat their own language and mannerisms.
3 Tokyo Jungle (2012)
Something like Stray but this time it's an adorable dog that's looking for a way home, and the setting is a futuristic version of Tokyo as opposed to a fictional urban underworld. The city in Tokyo Jungle has been ravaged by some kind of disaster that's resulted in local zoo animals and household pets fighting for their lives in the streets.
The game has both a story and survival mode, and in story mode, the feisty Pomeranian runs out of dog food but then takes to the streets when it dawns on him that none of the humans are coming back. Survival mode is a co-op play in which the player and their friends can form packs of animals to roam the deserted streets.
2 Catlateral Damage (2014)
- Developer: Manekoware, Fire Hose Games
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Ouya, Razer Forge TV, PlayStation 4, HTC Vive
This is the best thing about being a cat, so how was there not a game about it until now? The cartoony animation, along with the cat's point-of-view as part of the gameplay, makes this concept even more enjoyable.
The goal of this game is simple; knock as many things off the counter, the shelves, the coffee table, and any other flat surface. For those who want more of a challenge, there are different game modes that assign time limits and points.
1 Nintendogs + Cats (2011)
- Developer: Nintendo EAD
- Platforms: Nintendo 3DS
It's a pet simulator at its core, but the popularity of this game reflects how the developers made it something that resonated more deeply with gamers and fans. Nintendogs + Cats is the sequel to Nintendogs, which was equally well-received, and this version brings in everyone's second favorite domestic animal.
What makes these games more than just the mundane feeding and grooming, but also includes creative games and competitions. There's also the face recognition feature that allows the virtual critters to react and respond to players they know.