Petz 5

Petz 5 is the fifth and final installment of the Petz franchise, released in 2002. It was the first game released after Ubisoft purchased The Learning Company (and by extension PF Magic) in 2001. It was developed by Studio Mythos and both published and distributed by Ubisoft.

New Features

 * Litters of one to four Puppyz/Kittenz when breeding.
 * New Catz breeds:
 * Desert Lynx
 * Egyptian Mau
 * Honey Bear
 * Japanese Bobtail
 * Scottish Fold
 * New Dogz breeds:
 * German Shepherd
 * Golden Retriever
 * Jack Russell
 * Papillon
 * Pug
 * A day and night cycle
 * Weather effects such as snow or rain
 * The Supply Case now carries all Toyz at once and can be completely minimized to hide the pet door and customized with skins
 * New Playscenes
 * New minigames where the player can win Toyz
 * Runaway Petz may appear on the bulletin board in the Adoption Center, giving the player a second chance

Changes from Previous Games

 * Features previously in the Pet menu at the top of the screen (such as Return Petz, Spay/Neuter, Profile, etc.) are now accessed by clicking the pink or blue Cat/Dog icon next to an active Petz's name in the Supply Case.
 * Spaying/Neutering and Renaming can be done while a Pet is active.
 * Returning a Pet cannot be done while the Pet is active.
 * Petz's profiles now track their scores from Playscene minigames.
 * Petz with attached newborn and infant Puppyz/Kittenz no longer show "and child" in their Pick A Pet selection.
 * Bunnyz and Pigz are no longer available in the Adoption Center, but they may appear as a Host Character in the Back Yard.

System Requirements

 * Windows 98/2000/ME/XP, Pentium® II 400 MHz, or higher
 * Memory: 128 MB RAM (256 MB for Win XP)
 * Available Hard Drive Space: 600 MB or more
 * Video Card: 4 MB Direct X 8.1 compatible card that can display 256 Color and Monitor that can display 1024 x 768 resolution
 * Sound Card: Direct X 8.1 compatible CD-Rom Drive

New Playscenes

 * Asian Temple
 * Fantasy Castle
 * Haunted Mansion
 * Nursery
 * Salon

Returning Playscenes
Returning Playscenes have been given graphical overhauls.

Petz 5 is the only game with no Playpen; this is likely an oversight as the game still contains a  folder.
 * Adoption Center
 * Back Yard
 * Beach
 * Family Room
 * Kitchen
 * Arabia
 * Circus
 * Snow Scene
 * South Seas
 * Wild West

Reception
The games have been met with a mixed reception in the Petz Community for their radical changes to core gameplay, lack of backwards compatibility, and substandard new breeds.

Compatibility
All Petz that originate in Petz 5 cannot be ported to 3 or 4 naturally. This used to be done via copying and pasting the desired Pet's LNZ into a  from the original game, which was an obviously insufficient workaround. It wasn't until 2019 with the release of PetFlux that players were able to transfer their Petz with personalities, training, etc. intact — nearly 20 years after Petz 5's release!