If you've never heard of catz or dogz (or any of the series), then you must know now! These games are about taking care of cats or dogs, raising them, feeding them, training them, and breeding them--basically it's like taking care of an animal around the house (except you don't have to scoop any litter or take any walks). =P It's the perfect gift for girls aged 8-13, or people who are cat/dog fanatics.

The scenes (places for catz to play in) in this game are pretty much similar to the ones in Catz 4, except now they have a Salon (umm...I think it wasn't in Catz 4 but I haven't played on Catz 4 for years), fantasy castle, AsianTemple, and a Haunted mansion. Yes, you can still design your own scenes for your catz to play in, and you now get to design your carrying case (w/ a paint program) for your catz! The scenes in this game are:
The Adoption Center
Backyard
Beach
Family Room
Fantasy Castle (new)
Haunted Mansion (new)
Kitchen
Salon (new)
--
Arabia
AsianTemple (new)
Circus
Snow Scene
South Seas
Wild West

To get items in this game for your Catz to play with, you must defeat little miniature games that are in scenes, such as tic-tac-toe (as silver-girl said, it takes about 3-10 times to mark an X in your area), rock paper scissors, Simon says, obstacle coarse, and scarab crunch. Almost all the items in this game are old ones from Catz 4. Thank goodness in this game you can hold unlimited items in your carrying case, unlike in older versions of games where you have to hold a maximum of 9. That's one of the reasons we're all glad for this game.

A female cat in this game can have a litter of 1-4 kittenz. They are almost always mixed breeds, really if you have to different types of catz. There are 15 different breedz of catz in this game -- Alley Cat, B+W Shorthair, Calico, Chinchilla Persian, Desert Lynx, Egyptian Mau, Honey Bear, Japanese Bobtail, Maine Coon, Orange Shorthair, Persian, Russian Blue, Scottish Fold, Siamese, and Tabby. You can't cheat anymore with your computer calendar to speed up the birth of your cats' kittens. Usually it takes babies to be infants 2-3 days, and kittens in 7 days. Then it takes 3-4 days to become adults. They grow up so fast...*sniff*

You still have the screensaver, in this game also. But what I HATE is that you need the CD in order to launch it (like the review that person wrote who only bought this for the screensaver). Don't bother buying this for the screensaver either; it's nothing really. It's just your catz playing with random items.

Please do not buy this if you already have Catz 4 and you expect a lot out of this game. If you want the extra stuff, I say go for it. It's not much different than Catz 4--just more breedz, 4 more scenes, and mini-games which you play to earn new items.

Well, that's my review.

61 of 66 found the following review helpful:

WARNING to all CDRW drive owners  Mar 12, 2004
By W. C. Bryant
Just a friendly warning to all CDR/CDRW/DVDR/DVDRW drive owners. UBI Soft as a "feature" on their PC software that prevents installation from any drive with write capacity. Why they feel that's a valid anti-piracy measure, and why they don't mind blowing off an entire segment of the market, is entirely beyond me, but that's not the point here. Call UBI Soft tech support BEFORE buying this or any other PC game from them, and check to make sure whether or not you will be able to install. Software (such as Chessmaster 9000) doesn't come with a warning on the box (in "some" cases, they claim -- I haven't found a single box that does), nor is there a warning on the Amazon product pages (short of reviews like this). One could speculate that they're perfectly happy to let people buy their software knowing some won't be able to install it, but I'll leave their motivation to give no warning to consumers to your imagination.

UBI Soft's tech support has said that this "feature" extends to *all* of their PC titles. So fair warning, particularly to folks with laptops where DVD/CDRW drives came standard, ask before you buy. Perhaps if enough people have a problem with this flawed policy, UBI will smarten up. "Flawed" because limiting installs to drives without write capacity isn't going to slow a determined game cracker/pirate down, it's only going to prevent normal consumers from being able to install the game. Worse, they don't find out until they've opened the package and tried to install, which in some cases is enough to prevent a return and refund from the seller.

I'm certain this game deserves more than 1 star, and suspect it will see some good reviews from people who are able to install, but I can't give it more than a single. That's a commentary on UBI Soft and their "feature", not about the game itself.

23 of 23 found the following review helpful:

Synopsis of Catz 5  Aug 10, 2005

In this game you can adopt your own Catz at the adoption center. Once you do that, you start taking care of them! Remember to feed them, play with them, and wash them every day! Be cautious, don't mistreat them, or they may run away! You will know they have ran away if you come to select them and there' s a big, red RUNAWAY across his/her picture. When you click on them, something will say, "Your pet has run away! Wait and they may come back!" However, one of my pets ran away and they never came back.

Your petz will remain kittenz for 3-4 days, and then the day will come when they grow up! They can then have kittenz! To have kittenz, you need a male and a female pet that LIKE each other. If they don't like each other, you will have to take sprays at them with the love spray or play some love songs so they will fall in love. You will know when they have fallen in love when they jump to the middle of the screen and a big red heart comes up saying they are expecting kittenz. What you have to do then is (if you haven't already) take care of your petz, come back the next day, and the next day, make sure to play with your petz! They should then have kittenz the next day.

When your petz have kittenz, you need to take the female out at the right time, then the playscene will turn into the nursery playscene, and a certificate will come up showing your new kittenz. Name them, click OK, and you'll be in the nursery where you can visit your Kittenz whenever you want by taking out the mother Cat, and you'll automatically go to the nursery. You cannot take out or put back Petz in the nursery; not even the father. I think that's kind of weird. To exit the nursery, just go to a seperate Playscene. They will come out of the nursery in about 7 days.

In Petz 5, the different places you can go with your Petz are called Playscenes. Here are all of them...

Back Yard

Beach

Family Room

Fantasy Castle

Haunted Mansion

Kitchen

Salon

---------------

Arabia

Asian Temple

Circus

Snow Scene

South Seas

Wild West

---------------

Editor

Custom Scenes

---------------

Desktop

Be careful not to adopt too many Petz, even though it says you can have as many as you want, if you adopt too many, one of your existing pets will be deleted. Also, if it says the sound won't work when you start it up, then go to...

(:C)

Program Files

Ubi Soft

Studio Mythos

Petz 5

Then delete the file setupapi.dll

I hope this review helped!

-Somebody

25 of 26 found the following review helpful:

Catz 5  Aug 05, 2003

Although I have never played any of the Catz games I decided to get Catz 5 and it is brilliant! Heres why: (1) Litterz. You can breed your catz and dogz to get litterz of 1-4. You can make all sorts of different colour combinations and they can look really cool. (2) Playscenes. There are lots of Playscnes to look round and you can find secret items in them and play games. You can also find host character there which your petz will interact with. (3) Breedz. There are plenty of breedz to choose from each with their own distinct look and personality. Some of the breeds are fussy, some are smart some are bullies - it's cool to see how they interact with each other. I think the bad things about catz 5 are that you have to play games to get toyz and they repeat themselves so you keep getting the same ones :( The other thing is the weather. I saw it snowing out the kitchen window and went out into the garden - and it was sunny. =( Overall though this is a really fun game with plenty to do - if you like virtual pets you'll loooove Catz 5 :]

9 of 9 found the following review helpful:

Well done!  Jan 16, 2003
By Brittany Cable "Breeze"
Catz 5 is a brilliant game! There are five new breedz, and they are quite cute! Well, most of them. Also, there are weather changes, along with day and night! You can also visit new areas, and there are mini games! You win toys from these mini games. Your catz can also have litterz! Unfortunately, there are some flukes. When my catz have litterz, all of the kittens but one don't make noise when they leave their mother! I find this weird, but I don't yet know if it happens all the time. Another fluke is when you try to feed your catz, the food dish bounces and falls. Your catz never get to eat! This can be solved, however, by bringing your catz to the Desktop. The food doesn't bounce around there. Also, you can pick toyz up right from the playscenes in the beginning, such as food and water in the Kitchen. If you don't pick them up, though, the next time you load the game, they are gone. So far, it doesn't look like you can win them back either! Another problem that I have is that when you win a toy and put it in your supplies case, yet don't take it out and into a playscene before you quit, it doesn't register you won the toy and you have to win it again; quite annoying. However, despite these errors, I still feel this is an excellent game that is worth buying.

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