Updated on April 11th, 2026
AD – PR Product | Little Friends: Puppy Island was released at the end of June for Steam and the Nintendo Switch. The game was on my Wholesome Direct Wish List as it seemed like the perfect game for my daughter. After we played through the demo, I was given a Switch key for the full game, and I wanted to share our review of the full game of Little Friends: Puppy Island here.
Little Friends: Puppy Island Demo
First off, in the demo, you start out on Puppy Island with your husky puppy, which you then name. You go through a tutorial on the various things you can do in the game, including going for a walk, giving the puppy a bath, dressing them up, feeding them, and playing with your puppy. After completing these tasks, you and your puppy hear barking, and you go on another walk where you find a dirty stray puppy. You bring home the puppy and give it a bath, and the demo ends there. The full game begins exactly the same way as the demo. After you find the puppy and give it a bath, you are ready to explore everything that Little Friends: Puppy Island has to offer.
Home Base
At the home base on the island, there are various tasks you can do with your puppies.
- Bath – the stray puppies you find on a walk will immediately be in the bath when you return home. You give them a bath to clean them and then name them. My daughter also does a guessing game where she tries to guess the color of the puppy’s coat under all the dirt and mud. Also, puppies you take on a walk will get dirty over time, and you can bathe them as well.
- Feed – puppies you take on walks will get hungry, and you can feed your puppies either wet or dry food.
- Dress Up – one of my daughter’s favorite things to do! You can dress up your puppies in a variety of clothing and accessories, including headwear, glasses, collars, tops, bottoms, shoes, and more. You can find clothing by having your puppies dig at certain spots during your walks, by completing jobs, and by buying clothing from the shops. There are over 350 outfits and accessories you can use to dress up the puppies!
- Fetch – you can play fetch with your puppies and tug of war. You can find toys at dig spots and buy new toys from the shops. My daughter loves playing with the puppies and buying new toys for them.
- Pet – you can pet your puppies and have them do various tricks like sit, speak, beg, and lie down. You can also pet the puppies while on a walk.
- Memory Board – the Memory Board keeps track of special tasks you have completed across the island in a photo format.
Walks
Taking your puppies for a walk on the trails is a big part of the game, and there are various activities you can do while on walks.
Tasks and Jobs
Little Friends: Puppy Island follows a storyline, and you and your puppies complete tasks to unlock more of the island. For example, in the first area of Friendly Forest, you and your puppies will build a shop where you can buy clothing and toys, a frisbee park, and a lookout tower. You assign puppies to do the construction jobs, and you gather resources around the area to help your puppies build the new locations. Also, once you have built the lookout tower, you can assign up to 3 puppies to be park rangers, and you will earn bones (the in-game currency) while they work. You can always remove the puppies from these permanent jobs and assign new puppies as well. Other areas of the island have different places to build and different permanent jobs your puppies can do.
Mini Games
As you take your puppies for a walk, you will encounter various obstacles, such as jumping over a fallen tree, hopping on rocks across a river, balancing across a log, and more. Each type of obstacle is a different mini-game, so it does not feel repetitive when you encounter several obstacles in the same area of the island. My daughter loves the mini-games, and if I am currently playing to help her with a certain task, she will always take over to play the mini-game.
Digging
When you are on a walk with a puppy, you will come across various dig spots. There will be a path of orange light that you and your puppy can follow to the dig spot. You can tell your puppy to dig, and they can find bones, toys, or clothing. My daughter loves seeing what the puppies find, and she is especially excited when it is a new toy or accessory!
Puppies
On the walks, you can also come across stray puppies. You have to approach the puppies slowly, or else they will get scared and run away to a different area. If you are successful at approaching the puppy, they will follow you around until you return home to bathe them. There are 9 unique breeds of puppies, including Bulldogs, Chihuahuas, Corgis, Dalmatians, Dachshunds, Huskies, Labradors, Pugs, and Shibas with over 140 variations, so if you have 2 or more of the same breed, the puppies will look different. All the puppies in the game make me want to look into FouFou Puppies as the teacup puppies are so cute.
Getting the puppies is another one of my daughter’s favorite parts of the game. The mini-map will show you the location of a stray puppy, and my daughter always heads toward them to become friends with them and bring them home.
Puppy Skills
Every puppy has 5 skills, and their skills will need to be at a specific level to complete the construction jobs, be assigned to a permanent job, or clear an obstacle. These are the 5 skills and how to level them up:
- Agility – you can level up the agility skill by clearing an obstacle, playing frisbee and fetch, and running or walking on the trails
- Endurance – endurance is leveled up through any form of exercise
- Friendliness – there are many ways to level up your puppy’s friendliness, including making new friends with a stray puppy on the trails, praising them for good behavior, petting them, showing affection, and letting them socialize with other puppies at home
- Obedience – you can level up your puppy’s obedience by having them not bark at critters on trails, giving them praise for good behavior, and playing fetch
- Speed – the last skill is speed, and speed can be leveled up by running on the trails and playing frisbee or fetch
Overall Review of Little Friends: Puppy Island
My daughter loves everything about Little Friends: Puppy Island, from bathing and dressing up the puppies, taking them for walks, and playing with them, to the mini-games and finding new puppies on the trails. Also, it is a fun game to play as an adult, and I enjoy helping my daughter find the last resource needed for the construction job or helping her level up the puppy’s skills! If you love puppies and want to play a game with a storyline where you can take care of and play with puppies while exploring an island together, I definitely recommend Little Friends: Puppy Island!
Is the game over after you get all the places on the island? I got the forest, garden, beach, river and mountains. I did all the available goals.. I received the random gift. It’s been a couple days and no new goals have arrived. Will there be more soon? I enjoyed the game so much because of the goals…
The storyline is over, but you can still find more puppies, buy the pet wear and toys, play with the puppies, etc. I’m not sure if they have any plans for updates
Where is the waterfall in the forest? I have a quest that I need to take a picture of the waterfall In the forest but I can’t find it. I have no other quest to do at this time so continuing the game is kind of boring until I find the waterfall or get another quest. Does anyone know where it is? It says it’s in the forest. Maybe there’s another way to do it? I notice there is no water since the map is blue for water in other areas like the river on the island. But the forest is all green.
The waterfall is tricky to find because it is in this side area that’s hard to see from the trail. To get the waterfall, as soon as you enter the forest, stick to the left trail. You will have to do 2 mini games where your puppy will have to jump over a log then go under the rocks. Then the waterfall is right after the rocks. Here is a screenshot of the location of the waterfall on the in-game map
https://imgur.com/a/Qk387RG
Thank you so very much. My daughter would like me to tell you that “You’re the greatest person ever!” as she was beginning to get upset with not being able to locate the waterfall as quickly as she’d like. I thank you as well! Cheers!!
Aww you’re welcome! I’m glad to hear this was helpful and your daughter could find the waterfall!
I love this game. However the only thing I can’t figure out is how to see a bigger version of the map. How do I do this? There’s no option on my phone and every button I press doesn’t pull it up. Can someone please help me?
I love this game too! I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble with the map. I’m unsure if you’re playing on Steam or the Switch, but on the Switch. you have to press the – button that is on the top left side.
Omg, how CUTE! This reminds me of Nintendogs and how obsessed I was as a child/teenager. So fun!
Love,
Krissi of the marquise diamond
This game is cute and it is similar to Nintendogs, but there is a lot more you can do in this game!
Oh what a cute and fun game! Thanks for sharing all about it!
You’re welcome! It is a fantastic game!
Seems like a neat game for kids and adults. I sometimes love playing games like this when I need something relaxing to do and provide a little entertainment without too heavy of a commitment.
It is a fantastic game for kids and adults! It is also a cozy game and you can pick it up whenever you want to relax. Also, the game does not run on real time so there is no problem if you don’t pick it up every day.
This seem cool and first time to know about it. It has fun things to do as well.
It is a fun game and there are a lot of things to do in the game!
This game looks so sweet! I miss playing on my Nintendo for the cute games like this!
Corinne x
https://skinnedcartree.com
It is a sweet game!
I have a Nintendo DS Lite (2006 but bought a few years later). The game sounds good. Do you know if there’s a version of the game for the console I have? Your game reviews inspire me to consider reviewing some of my games.
This game is not on the DS, but if you are wanting a dog-related game, I would recommend Nintendogs. It is made by Nintendo, and it is for the DS.
Oh my goodness, how cute! This brought back a lot of memories of weird little games from some corner of my childhood, games I didn’t even remember. Thanks for sharing! I might need to check this one out, for a quasi-nostalgia factor if nothing else.
You’re welcome! This game is so cute, and it is a lot of fun too!
This sounds like such a fun game. I love the animal aspect, it would be something I would give a go. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Lauren – bournemouthgirl
It is a fun game, and I definitely recommend it!
This game is super cute! Definitely reminds me of Nintendogs but with extended gameplay
Yes! A lot of people have compared it to Nintendogs, but this game does have more you can do with the puppies!
I have not yet played this game before. But it sounds like a fun one. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome! It is such a fun game!
This game looks super cute! I’ve never heard of it before but now I want to play it! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
It is super cute, and it is a fun game to play!