Giga Pets Trolls

The Giga Pets Troll is the second new toy to come from Top Secret Toys. There’s not a lack of content here per se, but it feels needlessly complicated in some areas.

The first important point to bring up about this pet is one of the selling points on the box- it can’t die. Even if you’re busy and can’t always take care of it or if it’s small child playing with it, it’ll just keep sticking around. There’s no kind of growth here, but there is an in-game hair-length-counter that will get longer the longer you take care of it.

Giga Pets AR

Giga Pets AR! Similar to the Tamagotchi P1/P2 rerelease from a few years back, this is a rerelease of the Giga Pet with some newly added features.

The Giga Pet AR comes in three flavors- a standard puppy, a T-Rex, and a unicorn (my personal favorite is the T-Rex). They all function basically the same way. Each starts out as a baby that grows to its full size after a few days. Their lifespans are around two weeks, though they can stick around longer with good care. There’s no kind of branching evolution here; what you see is what you get. The upside to this is that the pets are really well-animated. They’re always doing cute little animations- running around, coming up to the screen… They’re really fun to watch. In addition to the attention light, they also play different animations depending on what they need at the time. If you don’t interact with your pet for a while, they’ll go to sleep to act as a battery saver.

Giga Pets Pixie

I was really excited to get to play with this one, and it didn’t disappoint! The Giga Pet Pixie fixed my main "issue" with the Giga Pets AR and added a whole bunch of new features to make it really stand out as a unique virtual pet! The instruction manual can currently be found online here. 

I’m really happy with this one aesthetically, though I could see how it could be a bit much for some people. I was a little worried that the wings would make it uncomfortable to hold, but they’re actually really soft and flexible. Like the Giga Pets Troll, the ‘body’ differences are purely aesthetic, so you’re free to choose whichever color you like.

Your new pixie briefly starts out as a baby before growing into a slightly more grown-up form. In terms of basic care, it’s similar to the previously released Giga Pets. You’ve got food and snack options, games to play, and can give your pet baths or send it to a doctor.

Demon Slayer Tamagotchi

A Tamagotchi based on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise!

The first thing you might notice about this release is that it retains the original Japanese packaging and programming. This is the first for a release that’s been brought over to the USA. English instructions can be found over on Bandai’s website.

When you start up the toy, you’ll see a little scene play out and you’ll be presented with a generic, low-ranking character that will grow into a character from the franchise depending on how it’s cared for.

Hello Kitty Tamagotchi

The Hello Kitty Tamagotchi! The theme of this Tamagotchi is probably clear based on name alone. It's adorable, packed with charm, and is nicely animated considering the size. It's a more Vanilla experience compared with some of the other crossover Tamagotchi Nanos that have recently come out, but I think the sheer cuteness helps make up for it.

It's a normal, simplified Nano experience this time around. Feeding your Tamagotchi will show Kitty delivering your chosen food or snack. You'll be feeding your Tamagotchi some of Kitty's favorite foods- apple pie and milk!

There are two games to play here. The first is a game of timing where you press the button that corresponds to falling musical notes. The other involves helping Kitty use balloons to fly to the end of a course while collecting other balloons and avoiding crows that fly in your path. Neither are particularly difficult, but they're both pretty fun.

Jordy Tamagotchi

Based on the NINIZ mascot of the same name, the Jordy Tamagotchi is the first Korean-exclusive device!

When you first turn it on and set the time, you’ll get to see Jordy defrosting from a glacier. After this, the upkeep itself is standard as far as Tamagotchi Nanos go. Feeding, playing with, and cleaning up after Jordy is all done through simple menus accessed with the A button The biggest difference here is the lifecycle.

Evatchi (Evangelion Tamagotchi)

The Evatchi, also known as the MULTIPURPOSE EGG SHAPED DECISIVE WEAPON EVATCHI! As you can probably already tell, this is a Tamagotchi featuring characters from the Evangelion franchise. Even if you don't know anything about the Evangelion franchise, I think the character design and gameplay are enough to support this as a standalone toy.

When you start it up you'll get to see a quick scene featuring the Second Impact, and your Angel Fetus arrives! The characters here aren't really cute in a traditional sense, but they are really cool and weird. They're pretty decently animated  considering the size, and there are a lot of characters to raise and unlock. In a change from traditional Nanos, some characters are available right away while others can only be unlocked by raising other sets of characters first.

Tamagotchi P1 & P2 Re-Release

I finally got the chance to try out the new Tamagotchi P1 & P2. I couldn't find them in any nearby stores and nobody knew when they'd be in, so I ended up ordering them off of Amazon instead. The good part about that, though, was that I was able to get the exact colors I wanted!

Starting off, I love the box art! It really brings back the feel of the 90s release. I've always loved the look of the vintage designs. If you'd like to get a closer look, you can see some high-quality box scans here!

The Tamagotchis themselves are nice-looking for the most part. I didn't have any problems, but some people have said they've had issues with the quality of some of the painted-on shell designs. Try and get a closer look at them before buying, if you can.

Tamagotchi Mobile Games

Since the P1/P2 Tamagotchi seem to be set to release at the end of September, and a new color Tamagotchi is set to release in Japan, I thought this would be a good time to talk about some Tamagotchi mobile apps! Yay!

The first I wanted to look at was from the Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. product line that Bandai was promoting a little while back. It was essentially a clone of the P1 and P2 Tamagotchis, though it did feature the ability to zoom in on the Tamagotchi you were raising so you could see them bigger and in color. This would also change the game you would play, though it just meant it taking longer for the same reward.
The more Tamagotchi you raised, the more background and shell types you would unlock, which was a pretty nice feature.
This was later taken down and replaced with the Tamagotchi Classic app. The release of this one was a bit odd. Two versions of this exist, one that features P1 characters and one that features P2 characters. The P2 version for the most part only seems to have been released in regions that did not previously receive the original L.i.f.e. app.

UraTama

The Ura Jinsei Enjoi Tamagotchi Plus, or the UraTama as it is more commonly known, was released in Japan in 2006 and could be seen as a sequel to the previously released EnTama. The UraTama is comparable to the English Tamagotchi Connection V4.5.

One of the first things you probably notice upon turning it on is that the pixels are a nice, light blue color. Very relaxing, although a bit harder to see than the regular black ones. Not so much that it makes a huge difference, though.

Added to the status screen is a menu for your Tamagotchi's GUTS Points, which affect which character it will grow into. These points can be earned in a variety of ways.

The first way to earn GUTS Points is by playing one of the three games with it, the first game raising the first type of point and so on.

Tamagotchi Connection V4

The Tamagotchi Connection V4 was released in 2007. It was based on the Japanese EnTama, but had some unique features of its own.

The status screen now has an area for displaying the skill points your pet has earned. These affect what character your Tamagotchi will grow into.

You can receive mail, which replaced the light icon. There are three types of mail you can get.

You can get fortunes, which give you one to three stars in three different areas: Gotchi Points, Love, and Skills. Three stars is a good fortune, and will give positive results in that category. Your Tamagotchi can earn more Gotchi Points or skill points after games, or become friendly with the Tamagotchis it connects with more quickly.

The next type of mail you can receive are letters. It shows a little animation based on what you got in the letter, if you got presents or points from the king, got a random gift, or were visited by a thief who steals your points.

Tamagotchi V4.5

The Tamagotchi Connection V4.5 was released after the V4 as an updated form of that version. It was based on the V4 as well as the Japanese UraTama.

The status screen has an area for displaying how many skill points your character has gotten.

You can receive mail, which replaced the light icon. There are three types of mail you can get.

You can get fortunes, which give you one to three stars in three different areas: Gotchi Points, Love, and Skills. Three stars is a good fortune, and will give positive results in that category. Your Tamagotchi can earn more Gotchi Points or skill points after games, or become friendly with the Tamagotchis it connects with more quickly.

The next type of mail you can receive are letters. It shows a little animation based on what you got in the letter, if you got presents or points from the king, got a random gift, or were visited by a thief who steals your points.

The last kind of mail you can get is probably the most important. This last category is for when your Tamagotchi reaches important milestones, which allow it to go to preschool, school, and finally to work. It will get this mail when it reaches certain ages.

There are five different non-work mini-games you can play.

Gudetama Tamagotchi

I've finally gotten to play with my Gudetama Tamagotchi, and I can say I'm having a lot of fun! I really like seeing Bandai doing these Sanrio collaborations.
 

 First off, it's super-cute. It's smaller than I thought it would be, about as tall and wide as a Mini, but the back side is fuller and rounder.

It seems to be based off of the Tamagotchi Nano, so the Gudetama Tamagotchi has a few more features than a Mini.

Gudetama Tamagotchi - December 27, 2017

The Gudetama Tamagotchi is set to come out in about a month, on December 27th. I've had mine preordered for a while now, and I'm really excited. It looks like it's styled after the Nano Tamagotchi, which is pretty cool, since I've never had a Nano before. Sanrio-Tamagotchi crossovers have already been done in the past with the Sanrio Pierce for the P's and the two Sanrio-themed M!xes, but this is the first fully Gudetama-themed one, as far as I know. This version just makes a lot of sense to me, seeing as how he's already a cute little egg. I can't wait to get to play with this one, and see all the cute different egg-styled transformations he'll get.

To get a closer look a this cool Tamagotchi now, check out this link!

Tamagotchi Mini - Tamagotchi Chibi 2017

This is a re-release of the original Tamagotchi Mini and Tamagotchi Chibi that first came out in 2005. This version was released to celebrate Tamagotchi's 20th Anniversary.

These feature the shells from the original 1996 release of the Tamagotchi, coming in blue-with-yellow/red-with blue clock-face designs, plain white, orange with a Tamagotchi label, blue with pink numbers, and a clear blue.

It's a lot like the original release of the Mini and Chibi. It's been really simplified from other versions. It's good for playing with if you don't have a lot of time for looking after it.

Wildgotchi - iOS and Android

Another virtual pet app.

It's serviceable enough... It's nothing stunning, but it works well enough.

You can feed it different foods, play games with it, clean it up, turn out its lights for it to sleep, give it medicine if it gets sick; the standard stuff. It can also grow depending on how well you take care of it.

There's just something that feels missing from it. It seems to be trying to copy the style of the original Tamagotchi, but has the same sort of problem that the Tamagotchi Game Boy version had. The charm of that kind of came from the fact that it was always on and always with you. It didn't have amazing animation or a ton of features, but it didn't have to.

This, on the other hand... I dunno. It feels like it's setting the bar a lot lower than it could actually be at. There are ways to get back to that nostalgic feeling without stripping away everything else in the process. I feel like games like Pakka Pets Village were able to combine nostalgic design and fun features a lot better. And there's also the official Tamagotchi app if you want to get back to the basics, which also managed to be cuter and more colorful than this managed to be.

Egg Baby - iOS and Android

Definitely one of my more favorite virtual pet apps.

Normally in these, you're taking care of a pet that hatches from an egg... But in this game, you're taking care of the egg itself!

There is a wide variety of eggs to choose from, and each one can grow up into one of several creatures. Once your egg has grown up and hatched, you no longer take care of it. It will go to live in your house's backyard where it will give you items or coins every couple of hours.

The eggs are really cute, and it's fun to take care of them and see what they hatch into.

Some eggs are hardier than others, but they healthier the type of egg they are, the longer they usually take to hatch.

You can feed your eggs, clean them when they get dirty, dress them up in different outfits, and even play some mini-games with them.

It's one of my more favorite virtual pet themed apps, and I really enjoy playing with it. I haven't gotten the chance to try out its sequel Egg! The Game yet, but I'm really looking forward to playing that one, too.

Pakka Pets Village - iOS and Android

I'd heard some good things about Pakka Pets Village, and I wasn't disappointed. This is one of the better virtual pet apps I've tried out.

You start out with a single kind of egg that can grow into a few different kinds of pets. You can unlock different kinds of eggs later, though. There are a good number of pets you can collect and raise. They're very cute, though some of them look a little... familiar.

The graphics are nice, with smooth backgrounds and pixelated characters. They move around quite smoothly, too, and it's pleasant to watch.

You can decorate your pet's room, which is a nice touch.

There's an alchemy system where you can combine food or other items to get higher-ranked foods and items.

You've got a village outside your pet's house that you can help rebuild. There are several things you can do here. You can expand it, send one of each type of pet out to it, plant trees, flowers, or crops, or place new building. You unlock new things to do here as you upgrade your village. It's got a very 2D Animal Crossing vibe.

There's also a city you can access from your village. Here, your pets can complete quests for other characters you find around the city. It's fun seeing just how many you can finish and how much of the city you can unlock.

All-in-all, Pakka Pets Village a pretty fun game. I've played virtual pet apps before that weren't well-designed, but this wasn't one of them. It's fun to see what new pets can be unlocked and how big you can make your village. It's a lot of fun, and I'd really suggest checking it out if you have the time or desire for a good mobile-based virtual pet.

Digimon V-Pet 20th Anniversary Version

This Digimon V-Pet just came out in 2017 to celebrate Digimon's 20th Anniversary. It's based on the original version of the V-Pet, with some updated features.

The most obvious update is that you can now raise two Digimon at once. When you first start it up, you're given an Agumon DigiEgg. Once it grows to the Rookie stage, you can choose a second DigiEgg. DigiEggs from the first five waves of V-Pets are available from the start, but you can unlock several more DigiEggs later.

Cool Dino Virtual Pet

This is another odd pet I was pleasantly surprised by- it turned out to be an MGA Dino clone!

It's pretty much a standard virtual pet with the usual features, though it does have a few different food options.

The dinosaur itself is nicely animated, and has a couple different screens it can walk around, with things like trees and mountains it can walk in front of. It's cute and chubby, and wiggles around in an adorable way.

It's not super-hard to take care of as long as you just remember to check on it every once in a while.

The game is the standard left-right guessing game.

The only problem I had with this one was that the pixels were really faint and kind of hard to see, which seems to be a problem with the majority of knock-off/clone pets I've tried out.

If you're able to find an actual MGA Dino, I'd say go with that over this one, though. It wasn't bad, but the pixel faintness makes it kind of hard to play. Ultimately, there are better dinosaur-themed options out there.