Each evolves into a separate, more standard breed in Petz II and beyond: Great Dane, Chihuahua, Scottie, Bulldog, and Mutt, respectively. The player starts at the Adoption Center, where they may choose a Dogz or Catz to adopt of a Breedz and gender of their choice. Once the player has found a Petz, they can adopt and name their new Puppyz or Kittenz. After around three days (real time) the Petz become adults. Adult Petz can then breed and have Kittenz or Puppyz of their own in Petz 3, Petz 4, and Petz 5. Cross-breeding can create different types of petz, called 'Mixed Breeds'. You can collect breeds and items but that’s it. The kitten is aggressive too, even more than the puppy.

But I liked how there were different actions, even if they meant nothing in the end. You could take a walk with your dog in the streets, I thought that was detailed enough, not all virtual pet games let you do that.Dogz along with Catz, is the first installment of the Petz series in the DS. The player starts off by choosing a dog from a large selection of 18 different breeds that come in many colors. The dog can be taken out for walks, entered in competitions, and can even be thrown parties with all the other dogs in the neighborhood that you meet on your daily stroll. Taking good care of the dog does come with its rewards. The player will receive gifts and presents to decorate his or her room, as well as toys and things to buy at the pet store for the new puppy. Sometimes before you take a walk, your mom asks you to do an errand, which involves going to the right place and talking. You don’t really get to know what you’re getting and your mom dodges the question, but it’s not build up to anything, the writers probably just didn’t care. There is a dog park to visit on walks as well, which is essentially just like home but you can do even less with your dog so it has little purpose. There was also a rip-off series called “Luv”. (Puppy Luv, Kitty Luv, Pony Luv, etc). I never played it but I know it exists. Your daily schedule in Dogz comes into play fairly early, only a few days after our pet has entered the home. This schedule is what kills any potential enjoyment of Dogz, dictates your entire life in it, and ultimately leads to the unusual ending that arbitrarily occurs three weeks into ownership. In some ways, Dogz ends its masquerade as a pet simulator and appears to be a life simulator, but even in games like The Sims or even your most basic member of the genre, you have some control over the course of your character’s life and the events they participate in. Here, every action you must take is forced on you daily, almost all of it presented as a cutscene with no interactivity beyond pressing A to see the next text box.

After breakfast, you are given a brief window with which you’re meant to feed your dog, and then the game does one of its biggest missteps. In this game world of escapism, your child will be unable to escape the interruptions of daily life, as if it’s a week day, they must head off to school. School is not part of the game really though. You arrive, say hi to people, the screen shows the transition of time, you say bye, and you go home, most of the day gone due to this diversion. Segmenting the game into days is not a bad idea even though the puppy doesn’t really grow up at all, but for some reason most of your time in this game is spent seeing pointless cutscenes of your child’s daily life. You eat breakfast, you go to school, once you get home, you’re gonna be abruptly forced into dinner after a brief period of free time as well. During dinner, your dad will come home from work, ringing the doorbell as if he was a stranger before coming in. Your only interaction with any of these scenes is hammering the A button to get through them and they have barely any variation. Sometimes, your child may speak up during dinner, excited to tell your dad what you did today… only for the screen to go white and flashing forward to the end of dinner so that the game doesn’t have to include more content. After dinner is likely your biggest window for play time, but soon your mother swings in around 9 pm and admonishes you for being up past your bed time, your character forced to sleep and begin the cycle all over again the next day. Users learned how to reverse-engineer the system, and began producing additional Breedz, Toyz, playscenes, clothes, and developer tools for the games, as permitted by PF.Magic, Mindscape, and Ubisoft. [10] Development [ edit ] Released half a year after Dogz… Dogz itself having weird suggestions of felines like the litterbox and Mitch the cat dropping by… Random events certainly won’t happen here as they are exempt from time and reality, but during the main game sometimes you found yourself with more interruptions, like phone calls, doorbells, and weird statements from your mother about gifts from your aunt or products bought online that I couldn’t for the life of me find. I never found the phone to answer it either, nor was I there for any doorbell that wasn’t my father. In a way, it captures the child-like confusion of being in a world that you think is centered around you but actually has more moving pieces and unknowable events than your tiny mind can grasp, but at the same time… why would a kid want to play a game that reminds them of the worst parts of being a kid? Why would an adult want to give a game to a kid that will only make them resent their daily chores, the confusion of youth, and interruptions even more? Dogz and Catz Dash Past 1.5 Million Mark; PF.Magic's Virtual Petz Brand Established as Leader in Category". The Free Library. 1998-02-19 . Retrieved 2015-11-09.Nintendogs has 3d Graphics, making it seem realistic, but although dogz doesn't have the same graphics, you can do real life things. Catz II: Your Virtual Petz Release Information for PC - GameFAQs". www.gamefaqs.com . Retrieved 2015-11-09. About Petz". Petz.com. PF.Magic. Archived from the original on 21 June 2000 . Retrieved 9 November 2015.

The real Dogz/Catz was developed by PF Magic for computers. It was based on their experiment “Oddballz”. There is also a spin-off called Babyz. The Petz series is beloved to this day. I personally find the games boring but for a child they can be entertaining. Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine You can't play a character in Nintendogs, but if you want to have an actual real dog, My best suggestion is 100% Nintendogs, but Dogz is a very fun play-it-for-hours kinda game. You’ll notice your day doesn’t involve the dog much, and it certainly feels that way. Your care for your puppy must be squeezed in through a bevy of annoying interruptions and menial tasks, and on some days, the game won’t even give you that. One day, my child returned home from school only to see the neighbor’s cat Mitch on the sofa, and the whole day was taken from me under the pretense that we spent all day playing with that cat. Dogz does not value the player’s time, and for some reason attempts to capture the most mundane features of dog ownership, those being all the things you need to do during regular life besides interact with your animal.Like later iterations of the Supply Case, the camera button on the Toyz window allows you to take a .bmp picture of your Dog. The button on the top allows you to put your Dog on the desktop. Your Dad reminds you to feed your puppy. Your Mom lets you know how to brush its coat. An "Internet-connected" computer in your house's den accesses tips and tutorials for training your terrier, separated into every imaginable topic. It's not long that you're playing Dogz before you realize the true nature of the game. It's a training program for potential puppy owners. And falls into the most boring, stagnant, hardly interactive loop you could make out of dog ownership. But the worst fear Dogz inspires in me is that when I look over at my shelf, I see Catz sitting right next to it.

The thing is, Ubisoft bought the trademark in 2005, and with this, they started developing or licensing games and slapping a Petz label on them. I dislike the newer Petz because there is nothing to do. I was content, though. Catz is actually even more limited than Dogz. You can’t leave your house or anything, there is nothing to do. You can play with your kitten but you can’t control your character directly, you’re just a cursor. Trading of Petz and Toyz can be accomplished with the Game Boy Color's infrared communication feature. [4] Reception [ ] The action takes place on the touch screen, where you'll find clean and joyful environments presented in an isometric perspective, similar to the Mega Man Battle Network games. It's a visual style that's upbeat and uncomplicated, but uninspiring. Certainly far removed from the fresh first-person 3D perspective of Nintendogs, a difference that effectively changes the entire feel of this experience. On the quiz, I chose a relaxed, small, female dog, hoping for something manageable but loving. I walked out of the pet shop with an energetic male dalmatian.

I had a great experience with the game, but on with the battle between Dogz and Nintendogs. Both great games, but here are the facts in my opinion: The player starts off at the Adoption Play Area. The Adoption Play Area consists of 5 doghouses, each containing a dog. The player is only allowed to have one dog at a time; if they want to adopt another dog, they have to return the dog they already have or buy another copy of the game. No two pets could be taken out at the same time until Petz II.