Tamagotchi Akai

The Keitai Kaitsuu Tamagotchi Plus Akai, often shortened to just Akai, was released on July 2005. It was the second version of the Keitai Kaitsuu Tamagotchi Plus released, featuring new characters and games.

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The big thing you probably notice about this one is the red pixels. They're pretty, but a little hard to see in a way that's a little hard to describe.

The characters found in this version are themed around the color red to match the red pixels, like the UraTama had blue-themed characters to match its blue pixels.

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It starts out, as usual, with you setting the time and waiting for your egg to hatch. It then lets you name your new baby Tamagotchi.

The Status screen is pretty standard, though it's also used to show how many points you've earned playing the game, and how many generations your pets have lived for.

The food is pretty nice, there are four different choice for food and four for snacks at the start. 

One snack is a glass of wine. It won't take the wine until it's at least at the teen stage. When it drinks it as a teen it throws up, but it doesn't change its happiness or hunger levels. It makes the adults dizzy. It's a cute touch to see the little animations that go along with this.

The shopkeeper will visit your Tamagotchi at certain times of the day. You can choose to buy the item he is selling if you have enough points, but you can also refuse if you'd prefer to save.

You gain an unlimited amount of any food items you buy. The shopkeeper also sells items your Tamagotchi can play with, such as balls or balloons.

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The Akai has three games, a catching game, a heading game, and a race.

In the catching game, you work to catch the poop that is falling from the top screen into one of three trashcans. You change which can is open with the left and middle buttons. Don't catch any of the falling moneybags, or the game will end.

In the heading game, press the left or middle button to hit falling letters into a mailbox. I've found it works best to wait until just after the letter has fully come on-screen to hit it, that seems to give the best rate of knocking it into the mailbox for me.

The last game is a race. It shows you the three competitors, starting with your Tamagotchi, and then lets you choose which Tamagotchi you think will win. You only win points if the
Tamagotchi you chose comes in first, but your Tamagotchi will lose weight in this game regardless of what place it comes in or if you guessed correctly.

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When you press the right button when nothing is selected on the screen, it'll play a little animation. Some Tamagotchis have more than others. Most adults have three, for example.

The Akai can connect with the UraTama or EnTama, the Keitai, other Akais, the Plus, the Hanerutchi 1, or older models of Japanese phones.

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I enjoyed this one. Not too hard, not too many characters, it made me think of a mix between
the Connection V1 and V3.

The hunger and happiness drain isn't too bad on this one, but it gets sick easily if you leave the screen dirty for too long. Make sure to clean it regularly!

I like that the food and snack items you buy are unlocked permanently.

The games can be a little hard to completely finish, but they're fun to play, and the race is good for lowering weight if you don't have time to really play the games.

All in all, it's a pretty fun version, one I like going back to every once in a while when I'm looking for a version that's fun without being too complex.