KMGR of "Paws and Claws: Pet Vet"

Paws and Claws is a series of games that focuses on reflex and simple controls, and has to do with pets. Pet Vet lets you be a vet and treat various pet problems. No experience is needed, however. Controls are single-button-press timing affairs. The result is a charming is a bit too timing-dependent game that lets you learn about pet problems.

The control scheme is really very simple... There's an instrument you need to move... It can be a needle, a syringe, a bandage, a tweezer, an ointment tube... Doesn't matter. A cursor "circles" the item. Press OK and the item moves... Let go and the item stops, and the circle reverses direction (counter-clockwise to clockwise, and vice versa).

You can play a full 'career', which is 20 days, up to 5 patients a day, a single day 'quick game', or just "pick flowers", which lets you practice the control scheme.

As you go, if you can diagnose the problem with the first diagnosis method you pick, you get a bonus "heart". At the end, you are measured by the # of hearts you earned. Basically, the faster you diagnose the problem, the happier the owner is, while the faster you perform the "fix" on the patient, the happier the patient is. Both together determines how many hearts you get.

With a bit of experience, you'd know which complaints should be used with which diagnosis tool first. Foot ache is either a wound (magnifier) or a broken bone (X-ray). General fatigue / sad face is internal sickness (stethoscope).

At higher levels (later days of career) owners start talking nonsense or give wrong complaints, which makes your diagnosis more difficult.

The graphics are cartoony, a bit like Mii avatars. You can customize your vet with different cloths, hair, gender, eyes, and so on. And you'll be visited by a variety of pets... Dogs, cats, parrots, and rabbits, and lots of different problems.

You can pick fresh flowers daily, which seems to make the others happier. You also get improvements for your office, which makes the patients more relaxed, in career mode.

All in all, Paws and Claws: Pet Vet is an amusing little game that makes you learn about being a vet and a bit of pet illnesses, and is recommended for young kids, though it maybe a bit too simple for adults.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: simple control scheme, learning experience about pets
Cons: only 4 type of pets? easy to do okay, VERY difficult to do VERY WELL