Petz: Catz Playground
Score: 82% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: Simulation
Graphics & Sound: Years ago when my sister was a kid, I used to have to install the Petz games on the PC just for her to play. She's 25 now and the Petz games still keep her occupied. This should tell you how much fun they can be. Petz: Catz Playground is a bit different from those early games, but still just as cute and just as much fun. The graphics have come a long way from the early PC games. Now everything is very fluid and smooth. The details are so well done that you can now specify a cat breed and even the little pictures for selecting the breeds are quite distinguishable. I particularly like the little things that they pegged just right on cats. When you throw the mouse for the cat to catch, after it catches it, it paws at it playing with it, just like my cat does. Someone put some time into watching cats and mimicking their movements very well! Leaving the volume up will give you some really cute sound effects. The cats meow when they want attention, which is helpful to know. My favorite has to be the purring. When you scratch them enough, they'll start purring. Keep going and they'll even start dancing while you rub their bellies, purring even more. But if you need to keep your game quiet (like when you're playing at work), you don't have to have the sounds on to still play, which is nice.
Gameplay: Petz: Catz Playground doesn't really have a set goal for you to accomplish, which is nice and relaxing. The whole purpose of the game is simply to raise your kittens and play with them. You start the game in the pet shop where you choose your kitten. You slide the bar with the pictures on it to choose which one you want. You have your option of Persian, Maine Coon, and Siamese with the choice of male or female. You can tell the difference because the females have bows on their heads. After you buy it, you name it and take it home. The minute you get home, your kitten is going to start needing to be played with and fed. Trust me, real cats are quite demanding as well! Before long, your kitten will grow up into a full grown cat. This, of course, doesn't mean they're going to be any less demanding. But if you want to still have a kitten around, you can just go buy a new one. After you've played enough, you'll start to unlock more breeds, so if your favorite isn't there at the beginning, just keep on playing. To play with your cat, you'll have four different mini-games to navigate. Each cat will have a talent for some games more than others. But you can increase their abilities with the food that you feed them. You can tell what trait the food will help make your cat better at by the cat icon below the food. Of course, you can't just feed your cat. Cats are very picky about what they eat. You'll have to mix up the food by stirring it until they're happy. Just keep playing with your cats and feeding them and you'll have a happy game!
Difficulty: Petz: Catz Playground is a very simple game to play. Everything is picture-driven. There are very few words at all. I guess this is good for younger players who can't read, but it's a bit annoying to guess what they want you to do by the pictures. I prefer words myself. Still though, it means that you can give the game to a child of any age and they'll be able to figure out what to do pretty quickly. Even if you fail on anything, you still get points for it, so really there's no way to lose the game. But that's the whole point of games that are never-ending. They're simply to pick up and play when you want without worry of remembering what you were supposed to be doing or where you last left off. The one thing that I did find difficult was stirring the cat's food. Silly, I know, but if you want to continuously stir, you need to make sure to keep it in a perfect circle. I had to pick the spoon back up again several times. Of course, just when I'd have the rhythm down, then I would have to switch direction. Granted it didn't matter because you're given plenty of time to finish the food and even if you don't finish it perfectly, the cat will still eat it. Like I said, you really can't lose!
Game Mechanics: As I said before, everything in Petz: Catz Playground is picture-driven. This makes the mechanics very easy to figure out. When your cat wants something, an icon will pop up above its head. If it's a hand, just take the stylus and pet the cat. If it's a food bowl, simply tap on the arrow at the top and choose to feed the cat. If it is a star, this means that your cat wants to play. Click on the arrow at the top and choose the games. The one that your cat wants to play will be sparkly, so you can make them the happiest. Petz: Catz Playground saves automatically after just about everything that you do, so no worries about losing your data. There is only one game save available. You can also take photos of your cat pretty much anytime. This can be quite fun to capture some of their cutest moments! Petz: Catz Playground isn't the world's most addictive game, but it's a cute game that you can pick up and play for a bit and put it down anytime. It's a good game to carry around with you for simple entertainment, plus it is simple enough for children of any ages, but entertaining enough for adults alike.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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