While Nintendo fans would like nothing more than to see EarthBound/Mother creator Shigesato Itoi create a new game in the series which made him so famous, the Japanese veteran has instead moved onto other ventures, including smartphone apps.
Back in 2011 he published an app which was intended to help people give up smoking, and now he's back with another offering: a photo-sharing tool which has been dubbed "Instagram for Pets".
Just like Instagram, Dokonoko encourages users to share photos of their animals, but it has other functions, such as sharing geo data on missing pets or strays. Should your beloved animal become lost, you can use the app to highlight local landmarks (limited to Japan at the moment) where it might be, and other users can assist in tracking it down.
It's available on iOS now, with an Android version to follow next month. There's an English language option, should you wish to try it out now.
[source mcvuk.com, via polygon.com]
Comments 29
this...
is...
strange!?
aww it's not made by Nintendo
oh well.
still an strange app.
To be fair, most photos I take (that aren't related to archaeology) are of my cat. He's old and ill now so I'm grabbing as many as I can. Not a totally bad idea for an app.
Can I use it to take pictures of Mr. Saturn?
@Sakura A person who likes both archaeology and Nintendo! : O Thought that was just me.
Also while this may be disappointing to fans, it's not like there isn't a market for this.
...What? What the heck? What the heck is this?
..............................
What. The. Heck?!
@Sakura Maybe your cat is old and ill because you left him in the washing machine (? your profile photo)?
@NintendoFan64 LMAO. best comment i've read today
Everyone say Fuzzy Pickles.
'Instagram for Pets,' or as we usually call it, Instagram
@Retruate I promise I didn't put him on a spin cycle! That's actually the tumble dryer and he snuck in after I'd hastily grabbed an item I needed earlier and left the door open. Found him when I got back, curled up and having no awareness of how ridiculous he looked. He's getting on for 20 now and has bad kidneys and possibly some bowel cancer. He's not viable for any treatment other than palliative care, but as long as he's happy in himself with a good quality of life, I'll keep paying the vet for injections etc. I will lose him one day and having had him my entire adult life, that's going to be painful. He's been my constant companion throughout everything. Still makes a wonderful subject for a photo.
@Siskan I love archaeology! True that gaming and archaeology are slightly odd bed-fellows. Most of the Society is composed of retired people. Average age is 70, I think. It's really hard to get younger members. I don't think the current membership would understand the draw of Nintendo. We've trouble enough getting them to accept email/online as a viable way of providing notices.
@Sakura LOL! I wonder if he got it because it's warm. Occasionally our cat will do silly stuff like opening cabinets (at his height). Our cat is old, but not that old! Would the treatment be too dangerous or too expensive?
@NintendoFan64 Okay, I have to know... Where did your profile picture come from?!?!
@mystman12 I'll never tell...hehe...HAHA!
@Retruate I'm sure the residual warmth was the draw. He likes clean washing anyway (much to my chagrin), so he probably thought he'd hit the jackpot. As for the treatment, his kidneys aren't strong enough to withstand even anti-inflammatories so any drug therapy for a possible cancer would hasten total kidney failure. Anesthetic isn't an option for the same reason; he might survive it initially, but the load on his kidneys would hasten failure. A special diet is the best treatment, food with the proteins that his kidneys can't handle extracted. He also has B12 injections. Generally he's very sprightly and you'd not know there was anything wrong. He does crash occassionally, though, and needs fluids. I keep a close eye on him. He doesn't always make it easy. He's known to sneak into other people's houses and steal their cats' food (that he's not supposed to have!). He stole a joint of meat from someone's house one Christmas day too. Definitely tends towards delinquent.
Taking and viewing pictures of cats is basically what the Internet was made for (or at least, what it's devolved into), and it's an even more popular pastime in Japan than most other countries, so I think this app is bang on trend.
Whether people want a dedicated service for it (as opposed to just saturating existing social networks with cat pictures) remains to be seen, but I wouldn't be surprised in this gains some traction - in its home country at least.
But seriously, this is 'Cat Pics: The App'. There seems to be an app for just about everything else, so how has it taken the world so long to get around to appifying one of the biggest, cutest crazes the ever grasp the Internet in its paws?
@Sakura Okay! Oh, alright. He sounds somewhat naughty! He's an animal, so I guess he can't help himself LOL. Would you make an account for your cat on the above app?
@Sakura Hah, I can imagine that it's hard! Are you in some kind of archaeology association or what's this membership about?
Actually I studied archaeology at the university and at least here it's a surprisingly popular education. So I've met plenty of young people with the interest. Few of them are also gamers though. And none to my knowledge would ave any interest in what Nintendo is doing.
I seriously once heard this conversation in between lectures:
"So many poo-poo-wee-wee games. I only play games with blood!"
"Yeah! Agreed! Blood!"
@Siskan No naughty words please.
Itoi is a gift from God, I swear.
This is cool, and as a fan of Itoi, nothing that this man does seems random lol
Zoom! As soon as that is out on Android, I am getting it. I will use that for sure.
WHAT!?!?!? Wait... Earthbound... Actually I'm not too surprised then.
@Sakura aww. hugs
This might be the most bizarre Nintendo Life headline I've seen this year.
Wait, there was that Frozen game becoming a Nintendo Select. What in the...
@Retruate I doubt I'd be creative enough to make use of such an app. I'd definitely check out Maru if he has an account, though.
@Siskan It's a local archaeology society. Recruitment is apparently a problem nationally and it makes no sense since archaeology is popular across all age groups, yet society members are overwhelmingly retired, older people. We do attract younger people during community projects and they are the ones that do the actual excavation and geophys, but retention doesn't happen. It's a mystery on a par with with why the interesting stuff is always under the spoil heap that you have to shift to reach.
@Tempestryke Ah, thanks. He's really doing well, considering.
@Sakura that's good to hear
@Sakura What about all the people who want to see pictures of your cat is a tumble dryer?
@Retruate Maru has everything covered No way could I top his escapades.
@Sakura I just looked up Maru and that's almost the craziest/cutest thing I've ever seen! He needs to be a UPS spokes-cat! Well okay.
@NintendoFan64
yes you can actually
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