Full FeedHands on with the Wendy’s Kids’ Meal Petz Dogz game
If you’ve stopped by your local Wendy’s, you may have noticed a familiar logo there. Not the friendly Wendy’s logo, with the red-haired mascot, but the Ubisoft Petz one. For a limited time, various Petz related products are included with a Kid’s Meal. There are five different items - a Crazy 8z card game with animal pictures, a Catz Balancer, a stuffed dog, a Petz Catz PC game and a Petz Dogz PC game. (Note: Both the PC games are rated “Everyone.”)
The toys normally come with a Kid’s Meal, which costs between $2.50 and $3.50. Some stores will sell the toy separately, if you ask nicely. Curious about the quality of Ubisoft’s PC offerings for the promotion, I splurged and paid $1 for a copy of Petz Dogz when picking up some nuggets and a Frosty.
The installation of Petz Dogz is more a matter of the letting the setup program copy 273mb worth of files from the CD to a new Dogz folder. This part can take around 10 minutes, so if a younger child received and is giong to play the game, it may be best if a parents handles this part. A desktop icon is automatically created, as are two previews for Catz and Horsez. Despite all the copying and pasting, the CD is still required to play, which is a tad disappointing since it can be easy to misplace or break CDs.
After installing, I noticed an interesting note at the bottom of the title screen: “Dogz v1.00 build 127 (Oct 25 2006 18:45:29).” This prompted me to search online to check out Ubisoft’s various Dogz PC games. Immediately, the November 16, 2006 release Dogz popped. A quick side-by-side comparison of screenshots and information confirmed it - the Wendy’s Kids’ Meal Petz Dogz CD was essentially a tweaked, stripped down version of the 2006 PC game Dogz. It looks and plays a bit smoother, but doesn’t offer as many breeds as the original game. Considering the full Dogz game costs $9.99 at Amazon, the Petz Dogz game prize is a great deal.
Petz Dogz is surprisingly deep for a Kid’s Meal toy. There are five breeds of dogs to choose from - beagle, border collie, German Shepard, Labrador retriever and pug. Once you pick your dog, you choose whether it is a boy or girl, decide on one of three fur colors/patterns, pick out one of three collars and name him or her. The pet is then plopped into his or her new home.
There are four areas to explore, though each is pretty much designated for a specific purpose. The pet sleeps and can play in the living room, it eats in the kitchen, it plays in the backyard and cleaning takes place in the bathroom. These rooms can also be decorated with items purchased from the store.
You can also interact with the pet to a surprising extent. Of course there are the typical actions - petting, playing, feeding, cleaning and accessorizing. It goes even further than that. Players can mold the puppy’s behavior by positive (treats) or negative (squirt bottle) reinforcement. You can use this to train the puppy, teaching it tricks and proper behavior, which will then make it more intelligent and obedient, and also raise its stamina and increase its agility. If you do well, the pet can be entered in a talent show or be taught the Trick of the Day to earn money.
The game is very child friendly. Controls are all handled with the mouse, and are fairly intuitive, involving clicking items or the character.There are icons all around the screen offering actions and interactions you can perform, and each has an easily recognizable image on it.
There were two features that surprised me. First, there’s a scrapbook which allows you to take pictures of your pet. In fact, the game may even encourage you to do so in order to fulfill a Trick of the Day request. Second, you can listen to your own music in the game. The kitchen area has a radio, and if you put your mp3s into the Petz Dogz Music folder, you can hear the music in the game.
Petz Dogz isn’t exactly thrilling. Its incredibly easy to play and mold a puppy into the perfect dog. Still, for a Kids’ Meal toy it’s a great deal. I wish they had prizes like this back when I was a kid!
Read [What They Play] Also Read [Kotaku] Site [Petz l Wendy’s]
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How do you get your dog to WALK AROUND?
on April 19, 2009 at 12:54 PM - LINKhow do you get the dog into the bath tub?
on May 14, 2009 at 06:24 PM - LINK@ Janie: Walk around is something he may just do on his own, after learning sit, when you’re in the backyard with him. Just keep an eye on him when you’re zoomed in on him, and be ready to click once you see Walk Around and the trick icon appear.
@Zack: Take the dog to the bathroom, and then click on the tub. Then you should start washing him.
on May 14, 2009 at 06:30 PM - LINKI clicked on the shampoo bottle and clicked on the bathtub. The dog is in the bathtub. But how do you clean it when it is in there? I tried clicking and dragging everything when I was in there and it stays dirty no matter what I do.
on July 29, 2009 at 07:29 PM - LINKThanks,
Mike
I got the dog in the bathtub by clicking on the shampoo bottle and then clicking on the bathtub. How do I bathe the dog? I tried clicking and dragging on everything but nothing works, the dog is still dirty and black dots are flaking off of it.
on July 29, 2009 at 07:36 PM - LINKThanks,
Mike