Game Pass First Impressions: Pupperazzi

By Heidi Nicholas,

Do you like dogs? Do you like taking photos of dogs? Then boy, does Xbox Game Pass have a game for you. Pupperazzi's brightly colourful world revolves around doing just that — cataloguing and photographing its many dogs, and playing around with the filters and the fashions to get the best photo you can. I’m a little torn about it, to tell the truth; I enjoyed my time with the game, but on the other hand it’s easy to feel quite quickly that you’ve experienced almost everything Pupperazzi has to offer. You’ll still unlock things as you progress through the game, like new filters, or the ability to dress dogs up for their photos — this did add some variety, but it didn’t always equate to me wanting to carry on with the game. Pupperazzi delivers just what it promises: a stress-free photography game about dogs. So, if what you’re after is an upbeat game where you dress up dogs and take the best pictures of them that you possibly can, then Pupperazzi certainly delivers.

Pupperazzi offers a vibrant world filled with a variety of dog breeds, all of which you can interact with — playing fetch, petting them, scaring them with a vacuum cleaner (I know, I felt awful doing it) or changing up their outfits. They’ll be going about their own daily business while you snap away, and you soon get used to seeing dogs cycling by or zooming overhead as they try out the skate park. The world is filled with dogs and their slightly scary Humanorphs — the robotic beings that do all the boring bits of everyday life. I did experience a slight moment of existential terror when I spotted my own shadow and realised that my character was neither a dog nor a Humanorph, but an anthropomorphic camera with long legs — where does this terrifying creature fit in? Are there more of them? Are they out there somewhere, watching and waiting? — but once that passes, Pupperazzi is filled with cheer. As it turns out, it’s very relaxing to sit back and photograph dogs.

You’re pretty much set loose to photograph dogs to your heart’s content, but if you prefer a little more structure, there are also goals to work towards. You have the option to upload your pics to the game’s social media site, DogNet, where it will be judged by the denizens of the canine world, and some goals might ask you to reach a certain number of followers. Some dogs on DogNet might prefer more “traditional” black and white photography, for instance, while others prefer the subject to be dressed in a suitably fashionable outfit. On top of this, you’ll also receive requests from the inhabitants of Pupperazzi — such as the adorable sea-faring pooch who wants you to take pictures of the lighthouse, or the slightly more demanding cat which will attempt to hail your photography services with a “greetings, peasant.” Completing these missions gains you followers and also rewards you with dog treats, which you can spend in the shop to buy new features for your camera, like new filters or a different lens. I enjoyed having these goals to work towards, which gave a little more purpose to my haphazard exploration of the world, and which prompted me to make use of the different features of the camera.

The controls feel more than a little clunky at first — this perhaps makes more sense when you remember that you are a camera, not a human — and interacting with things feels a little tricky to begin with. You have one arm, which seems to be of Slenderman proportions, and can interact with the world around you, but it takes a bit of getting used to: petting the dogs is easy, but figuring out how to pick up a stick or frisbee held by a dog is not so speedy. It does feel realistic to be stuck in a game of “no take, only throw,” but I was starting to feel the pressure when surrounded by a crowd of dogs, all yearning for a stick to be thrown, with me unable to interact with it.

Summary

You unlock new areas as you play, or the option to return to a location at a different time of day, and if you’re looking to complete Pupperazzi, you’ll need to do just that. The other achievements seem mostly tied to playing around with the camera; taking pictures of dogs wagging their tails or blinking, or else trying out different kinds of photos. You’ll need to make sure to photograph as many dogs as possible to complete the Puppypedia for the Dogolist achievement, and to earn enough to buy every camera part for Fully Upgraded, but the rest seem as laid-back as the game itself. Pupperazzi reminds me a little of Townscaper, which describes itself as “more of a toy than a game” — you could perhaps say the same of Pupperazzi, although Pupperazzi does complement its core gameplay with some adorable dialogue. It depends on how you look at it, I guess; if you go in expecting a varied gameplay experience, then you might be disappointed. But on the other hand, Pupperazzi doesn’t pretend to be more than it is, so if you start it up expecting that it has nothing more than photos and dogs and lots of both, then it’d be right up your street. Overall, since Pupperazzi already looks to be one of the brighter experiences of 2022, we’re going to give it a Free Pass.

Heidi spent two to three hours taking pictures of the dogs of Pupperazzi, earning 11 achievements as she went.

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Xbox Game Pass First Impressions

Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.