Originally created in 2005, Webkinz is a line of stuffed toys that includes a Secret Code that allows players to adopt a virtual counterpart of their pet in the online "Webkinz World". Players can then interact with their virtual pet by building and decorating their house, dressing them up with clothes from a variety of virtual stores, playing games to earn KinzCash, and by helping them with grooming, exercising, and schooling. Taking care of pets by giving them food, making sure they sleep, and playing with them keeps the pets happy and boosts the pet's Pet Care Heart. Pets will also occasionally speak to the Player, asking for specific items or to play certain games, which will provide additional points that boost the player's overall Family Score.
In October 2020, the Webkinz team released Webkinz Next. While Next still has most of the classic gameplay and features that Classic does, it instead centers a 3d rendered art style and more of a classic mmorpg style navigation. Players can log into Next using their Classic account, but the pets and houses do not transfer over between sites -- pets you have in the Classic app do not appear in Next and vice versa (although the sites do allow players to trade items between their Next and Classic inventories). The Next update also came with a new line of plush pets, featuring a smaller, more rigid body build and shinier bug-like eyes.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Webkinz Next -- I just don't really like the new art style or the new plushie designs, unfortunately. Thankfully, the Webkinz team made the decision to keep the Classic site alive and well, and still maintain it and push new Events on a regular basis. My computer is so broken that I don't get to play the full desktop version of Webkinz very much, but there is a mobile app that features a very pared down version of the overall site that I play pretty often!
The Games
Given that this is a game made for children, it's kind of funny how terrible I am at most of these games, but we have fun with them anyway! Some of our favorite games include: Tile Towers, Get Eleven Solitaire, Pizza Palace, Triple Strike Solitaire, and Cash Cow 2.
Tile Towers is played like a matching game, where the only "open" tiles are ones that have a clear opening on its left or right side. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure this out, I don't think I ever played this game as a child because we could never figure out the mechanics of the 'open' tiles. I'm still not very good at it; it's pretty rare when I can get past the first level without hitting a "No More Moves" screen, although I have gotten to levels 3 or 4 once or twice. Despite my general incompetence with the game, I still enjoy it a lot! It's cute to see the little pet faces on the tiles and also I really like the sound effect that plays whenever you click on one of them :3
Get Eleven Solitaire is played by removing groups of open cards (ones not covered by another card) that add up to eleven. I am actually pretty good at this game, but I don't get to play it often because I don't pay for a Deluxe Membership anymore lol. That said, every once in a while when it's the Game of the Day, I am able to play it when I can log onto Desktop! It's a fun little game, I enjoy the varities on Solitaire that the Webkinz team made and I think the math-based matching aspect can be an interesting challenge.
Pizza Palace is timed strategy game where the goal is to respond with Customers' requests for pizza in an accurate and timely manner. Each level of the game represents a "Day" of the pizza place being in operation, during which a variety of customers will come up to the counter, order a pizza, and wait for their pizza to be delivered to them. The player has to take customer's orders, make the correct amount of dough for the pizza size (quarter, half, or whole pizzas), put the correct toppings on the pizza (any combination of three toppings, or plain cheese), and then cook the pizza without burning it! As you progress and earn money by delivering accurate pizzas quickly, you can upgrade your kitchen appliances to make the pizzas quicker or upgrade your player character to have her walk around her kitchen a little faster! I think this game is very cute, I love the music, but I'm also pretty bad at it, so I don't play it all that often lmao. As much as I do love playing it, the further you get into the game the quicker things start to move, which for someone with not so great coordination (us!), it can get a little bit stressful. That said, it's almost kind of a boon that we're bad enough at the game to never make it especially far into it lol, it means I get to play the slower levels more often!
Triple Strike Solitaire is another solitaire variant where you choose open cards (ones not covered by a differnet card in the stack) to add them to your pile. Cards are stacked according to their suite -- ie; if the top card on your pile is a 2, the only open cards you can choose are the Ace or a 3. If you run out of good open cards, you can click to add a different one to the top of your pile. Adding multiple cards into your pile without having to click to get a new card leads to Streaks that net you additional points. This game is another big win for fans of sound effects, I love the little card-flick noise that plays whenever you click a card and also think it's really funny the way an open card on screen will vibrate admonishingly at you if you click for a new card when you could have played one on the board. This game is available to play on the Next mobile app but not on the Classic mobile app, and so this game is the only real reason I keep Next installed lol.
Cash Cow 2 is a variant of the Cash Cow game where, instead of a constant stream of new bottle lids like in the original game, you start out with a finite number of lids. The more lids you're able to get in a grouping, the more points you get for clearing them. In later levels, some of the lids will be 'cracked', giving you a finite number of moves to get them off the board before the bottle will 'break' and the piece will become impossible to clear. Other caps have symbols on them that can do things like clear every cap of a specific color or add an extra row of lids to the top/bottom of the grid. I'm actually a lot better at the original Cash Cow game than I am at this sequel, but despite it all I still like Cash Cow 2 a little bit more. Admittedly, this is because I find it extremely frustrating that the Cash Cow levels will halt you unexpectedly in the middle of a really good streak once you hit the points cap that ends the level. Cash Cow 2 is more difficult for me, but it's a lot easier to tell when the level is coming to a close and so there's nothing unexpected stopping us in our tracks to build frustration. Instead, the frustration comes from being bad at the game lmao, but that's an easier kind of frustration to handle.
My Webkinz
My IRL collection of Webkinz! A few are ones I've had since childhood, and others are ones I've acquired in the years since. You can mouseover to see their names!
Pet Wishlist
An online collection of Webkinz plushies that I do not have, but hope to own one day! You can mouseover to see their names.
