To the Rescue is a cute dog rescue simulator that owns an adoption center. Before you can help her find the perfect home, you’ll need to feed her, bathe her, give her an injection if she’s sick, and play with her. You can also build a kennel or a playground. The game is highly interactive and the idea of making cute dogs feel happy and safe is what makes it so much fun.
The game starts with choosing a character. He has four things to choose from, and the only thing he really chooses is how he wants to look. You can choose a name for yourself and even choose a dog to keep as a companion. You can also choose a name and appearance.
Once this is done, start the game at home to get a little backstory. When I unpacked my package, I noticed a lost dog outside.
You decide to take it to an animal shelter, where you are told there is no more space. Instead, keep it inside the house overnight. The owner is found the next day and you are offered to work at an animal shelter. After that, you’ll be presented with a brief tutorial on how to manage your shelter before the actual gameplay begins.
As I said before, To the Rescue is highly interactive, and keeping dogs happy is key to a thriving shelter. If your shelter has a reputation and it’s positive, you can prevent it from closing and attract more dogs to sell. Giving people a good dog gives them a good reputation, and taking care of them gives them a good dog.
The game has a water bucket, 4 types of food, a poop scoop, a bath, medicine and a first aid kit. Give any of them depending on what your dog needs. As you have more dogs to rescue, it becomes harder to manage everything yourself, so you can hire workers to do these jobs for you.
Dogs are regularly dropped off at shelters. Give them space by having an open kennel. A kennel can accommodate up to 4 dogs, but only certain dogs are compatible with each other. Some people have traits that require them to be alone. Once you have a dog, give it food that it likes, water it, bathe it, and clean it. To adopt, the customer walks into the store and describes the type of dog they want. Each person who wants to adopt has a resistance that needs to be overridden with a love of dogs. For that, you need to find a suitable dog that meets the person’s requirements.
“To the Rescue” also allows you to upgrade your characters and employees to improve their skills and shelter. These skills can be upgraded with points earned at the end of each working day. Depending on your performance, you can earn up to 5 stars per day. These points are calculated by the number of dogs earned and the number of dogs sold. Upgradable skills include persuasion and social skills that allow you to sell your dog more easily, and skills that allow you to bathe your dog faster and carry more water. It’s also important to save money and stay out of debt so you can keep upgrading your shelter with new rooms and kennels you unlock.
The controls for this game are very simple and a tutorial is shown at the start of the game to help you know how to use the controls. Animations were also smooth, and for the most part I had no issues with the interface. There was one time when one of my employees girlfriend got stuck and wouldn’t move or start working until I restarted the game. I also got into a state where the game kept crashing whenever I tried to build something in the shelter.
Those issues aside, To the Rescue is a really fun and cute game with a little bit of everything. Taking care of your dog and decorating your shelter while doing the business side of things at the same time gives you the best of both worlds. “To the Rescue” is also challenging. This makes working even more fun, but you also have the option to slow it down if it becomes excessive. There is also the option to “send” the dog out rather than euthanize it, which I think is a nice addition for those who get a little too attached to rescued animals.
Post Review: To the Rescue! (Nintendo Switch) debuts on Pure Nintendo.
