This title seemed to be doomed from the beginning: it's made by Ubisoft, it's a pet simulator, and it uses Z's where there should be S's. But you may be surprised to learn that this actually isn't quite a terrible game. Yet it's still shovelware. So how does one achieve this seemingly contradictory state? Last week, we discussed imitation. While Best of Tests DS was clearly trying to bite off some of the Brain Age momentum, its limited content and awful design made it a lackluster game. Thus, it was easily identified as shovelware. But what does one do when a seemingly good game is, at its core, nothing more than a simple clone of an existing title (albeit a well done clone)? Here's my take on things.

As hated as Ubisoft's Petz games are by the "hardcore" blog-reading crowd, kids apparently eat them up (the games, not pets). They're so important that, according to Ubisoft's Benoit Galarneau, the company's Montreal studio (Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Assassin's Creed) is handling development of the latest Wii game in the series, Dogz 2008. "We did this one internally," Galarneau said, "because we feel that as the casual market is growing, we feel that our Petz line will explode, and we need to raise the quality of the game to make sure that no competitor will steal our position as pet people."

This interview is actually the most we've heard Ubisoft open up about this type of game. Galarneau discusses the differences in regional markets, in-game advertising, and failure states in casual games. But the really interesting part comes at the end, when the subject of the Z came up. Ubisoft inherited the "Petz" naming convention from the original PF Magic-developed series, and kept it. Now the company sees it as kind of an identifying trademark. "But one thing we have to make sure of is that people understand that the one with the "z" is the one we're pushing. It's not just "Pets" or "Dogs", as any dog or any pet. It's Petz. My team would say "Dog Z" most of the time."

When told by Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield that "Dog Z" sounds like a specific dog, Galarneau said "There will be Dog Z in the game, in fact."

Poor old Ubisoft. Contrary to popular belief, it turns out that casual games won't pay for your entire HQ to be paved in gold. According to Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc, this is because any savings made on developing such titles goes towards marketing the things, which apparently costs an arm and a leg.

"The margins on these games are good when you look at development, but it takes a lot of marketing dollars," revealed Detoc to Gamasutra, instantly endearing himself to all of us hardcore gamers who can't stand a lot of the casual tat on the Wii. "It's like packaged goods. You have to think about marketing, retail space, branding." My, isn't it nice to see that the creative flame still burns bright in the industry?

Anyway, Ubisoft is especially struggling with its Wii line-up of casual fare, with Detoc admitting that much work is to be done if Ubi's games are to "sell as well as Nintendo's own Wii titles." Needless to say, our hearts bleed.

Wait! Before you roll your eyes and scroll past this post in search of non Petz news, we want to make sure you know that unlike the DS and PC versions, Petz Catz 2 isn't your garden-variety shovelware pet sim.

It's more of a light RPG adventure in which you, a kitten, set out to retrieve a magical top hat from a mean wolf. Of course, along the way, you'll have several different minigames and side quests which you can pounce into, instead. Also, you can put hats on cats.

If that short description -- or the prospect of adorning cats with hats -- interests you at all, Amazon has the game on sale for a super cheap $7.99 until the end of the day. If you're more of a puppy person, you can also pick up the palette-swapped canine complement, Petz Dogz 2, for only $9.99.

[Via CAG]

Read - Petz Catz 2 for $7.99
Read - Petz Dogz 2 for $9.99

Gaming sites are inundated with holiday gift guides at the end of the year, listing the best and most popular games that everyone pretty much already has (or knows about). Well, we're not going in for that this year. Our gift guide will help you find the best gifts in categories the other sites won't cover -- because we just made them up.

Do you just love handing out the most horrific holiday gifts? If you're the kind of person who actually tucks sticks and coal into the stocking of a loved one on Christmas Eve, then this list is for you. It's all about the worst of the worst, the bottom of the barrel -- the games you would shudder to find on your own shelf, or worse, tainting your DS.

Before you ask -- yes, we do love to see you cringe and suffer at the horrors we spring on you. Aren't we sweet?

Sure, it's third-party pet-sim shovelware, but if you're looking for a cheap Christmas gift to throw at the preteen brats in your family, look no further! For today only, Amazon has Petz Catz 2 on sale at a discount price of $9.99. Slap another $15+ item onto your order, like a copy of Final Fantasy 3 for yourself, and you can even take advantage of the online shop's Free Super Save Shipping.

Ubisoft actually put together some adorable commercials for Catz 2 and other games in the Petz series. Nom nom nom past the post break for those short videos.

Remember when we said that everybody wants a piece of the virtual pets pie? We weren't lying and now Ubisoft plans to extend their Petz franchise.

Not only will you have cuddly Catz and Dogz, you will now have Horsez and, get this, Hamsterz Life. I guess Barbie's Horse Adventures isn't enough anymore.

Want more? Released this September is Dogz Fashion for GBA. This, obviously, concentrates the most on prizes. Now you have to give your animals baths and such.

Best thing about this new line of Petz, in our opinion, are the hamsters. They always did smell a little funny and now you don't have to, um, smell them.