This is a game that is really meant for children, but I have to say I really actually like it. Having previously owned Catz, 1 2 3 and 4, I thought I'd get Catz 5. You can also buy Dogz 5 and install that and then your Dogz and Catz can play together in the same program. There are quite a few things that are different about this game to the previous version that I didn't like but we'll come to that later.

When you first start the game you are at the adoption centre. There are I think 10 breeds of cat to choose from. You can pick a breed from the drop down list and they will come running out. If you have Dogz installed aswell then there will be also 10 breeds of dog in the drop down list. Your chosen breed will come running out, they will either be a boy or a girl. You can play with them for a bit, to see if you like them, and then you can adopt them. You can adopt two at a time. There are slight variations in marking within the individual breeds. Once you have chosen to adopt your kitties you wil have to name them, then agree to an 'Adoption Pledge', which basically says that you will take care of them and feed them etc. You can adopt as many pets as you like, but be carefull because they will run away if you neglect them! Also, don't go too mad on adopting loads of kittens as they will start breeding when they're adults (more about that later).

Ok, so you've adopted your kittens and now you are at 'your house'. In your house, there are several rooms or playscenes you can go to. The Kitchen, Living Room, Nursery, Back Yard, Beach, Snow Scene, and also there are I think 5 other playscenes in which you play mini games in order to get more items for you cats. Travelling round with you as you go from room to room will be your case, which contains several food items and toys. It also has a cat flap and 2 'Pick a Pet' buttons, which you click on to bring out a different cat. When you click on the buttons, a drop down list of all your adopted pets appears, from which you pick a cat to play with. You have to put one cat away by dropping then on the cat flap before you can bring another one out, and you can have two of your adopted cats out at once.

Now for the bit I don't really like. In previous versions, in addition to the kitchen etc, you had a room called the Toy Closet. In this room would be a set of shelves with hundreds of toys and food bowls and treats etc. Now, you have to go to these strange other play scenes, with names like, The Haunted Mansion and Asian Temple. In these scenes you can play a mini game in order to get new items. Your case comes stocked with simple items, but to get more things you have to play these games. They are only simple games like noughts and crosses or something like that, but you have to keep playing them to get more items which is annoying. I didn't like it compared to older versions because it isn't realistic. Who has a Haunted Mansion room or Asian Temple room in their house?! Before all the rooms were rooms that you'd have in a normal house. To get to different rooms by the way, there is a drop down list on your case which you can use to select a room and go there.

It starts to get exciting when your Catz get to the adult stage (which is in about a week, you can see whether they are adults or not by looking on your Catz' pet profile). All this sounds very silly and childish doesn't it? But it really is quite fun. So anyway, your Catz are adults, so you can breed them! Obviously pick a boy and a girl, bring them out to play together often and they might fall in love! If you see them dancing around the screen looking lovingly at eachother, then they are probably in love! There also things you can do to encourage your cats to fall in love, such as spraying the love potion or perfume, and playing the love songs on the music box. (You can get these items by playing those daft mini games). When your girl cat gets pregnant, the two catsa will come together on the screen a big heart will come up saying that they are expecting kittens. A few days of pregnancy, and your cat will have kittens! You will bring her out to play one day and a message will come up saying that she's had her kittens, and then she will bring them out to show you. They will have up to four kittens, which will stay with their mum until they grow up enough for you to be able to play with them on their own. When you bring out the mum from the drop down list of your adopted pets, her new kittens will come with her. They start off as tiny little things rolling round the screen, and then they start to grow up until you can bring them all out on their own without their mum. You can breed two of your favourite cats to produce some interesting mixed breeds. Try breeding a tabby and a persian to create little cute fluffy stripy kittens! In this version, when you bring out a mother with babies, you can't bring another pet out, which I think is silly because you used to be able to bring the dad out with the kittens aswell. But never mind.

Well that is an overview of Catz 5, it might seem a little confusing, it's quite a difficult thing to explain. If I went over everthing that you can do in this game you'd be reading this all day. It might sound quite a silly thing but it really is quite a bit of fun. Something daft to have on your computer. You can get this game cheap nowadays as it's quite old, a couple of quid on ebay maybe. It's a bit of silly fun. A great thing to buy for your kids as as I say, you can get it cheap nowadays and it'll keep them amused for hours! I have it on my PC and I go on it now and again for a bit of fun, but when I was a kid I used to play previous versions of this game for hours. You can get quite into it! Well anyway there it is. A bit daft and a bit silly but fun at the same time.