This particular toy is a tie-in to the anime Dr. Slump Arale-chan which ran from 1981-1986. The primary goal is to increase your “love level” meter with the pet until it is maxed out. It has a daily fortune teller function and a compatibility function that is meant to be used with friends, but this is not done via IR connectivity. Rather, when the pet is started for the first time, the player will answer a number of questions about their astrological data, and then this is compared to the friend’s data. There is also a gatcha machine that grants you items that can do different things. Throughout the day, events can happen that will make your pet unhappy if you don’t react correctly to them in time. You can play games, respond to events, and give the pet items to make them happy.
This is a fortune-teller pet that comes with a little angel character in it. You’ll get several kinds of different daily fortunes to check, and you must answer the angel’s calls when it beeps at you, otherwise it will get sick. Tamasquare has translated instructions for this one here: https://web.archive.org/web/20100107023606/http://www.peppersoup.net/tamasquare/angelscope.php
These are fighting/collecting toys that still have a small but dedicated fanbase online in the Western world. There is a spinning rod on the side of this device that you use to “reel in” monsters when you happen to find them. These seem to be programmed to show up at different times during the day, so you will need to check the screen periodically to see if there are any around. They can also be connected to fight and trade with friends.
The Gigapets Pixie is a digital pet that lets you raise a delightful little faerie, and is much more fleshed-out than other Gigapets, featuring multiple stages of growth. Best of all, there are several branching growth paths you can take, so there is replayability when it comes to getting the different characters. However, since you need to use the potions game in order to level up, and you must feed the Pixie a certain amount to progress, a lot of people found the pet needy and difficult to play from day to day. I’d definitely say it needs more attention than the usual, more basic pets, but it’s not the hardest pet I’ve ever played by any means. The animations are adorable and extensive, and each of the games on it, impressively, have intro animations! They will also change in difficulty as you level the Pixie up, so you’ll be playing different “levels” in them during each stage of growth.
The little baby pixie in the middle of the screen
You’ll start out with a little baby pixie, which you can feed, wash, play with, and put to bed. There are no tricks on this pet, nor is there a discipline meter. Instead, you will collect items when playing the games, which can be combined to make potions that you can feed to the pixie. According to the instructions, you must feed the pixie at least one potion per day, which may sound a bit stressful, but in practice it’s as simple as playing a few minigames, and then fiddling with the potion making option. You can control which pixie your pet will grow up to be by making certain potions, which I love! With the Tamas, I have to admit I find it difficult to get the ones that I want, because I always manage to miss a few care options throughout the day. This way gives me more direct control and I can make sure I always get the one I want.
This is a shot of the doctor, who isn’t needed all that often
There is an additional type of game on this pet that doesn’t affect its happy meter, but it will give you potion ingredients: the wand icon on the bottom row leads to a book where you can chose between three different icons. These lead to a slots-type game in which you must match the type of icon you chose on each side of the screen. Get it correct, and you’ve earned the item and it will go into your inventory. Keep in mind that you can only keep three of each item in your inventory, so you won’t be able to farm large amounts of potions at once.
Bath time–the faerie will fly through a waterfall
If you go to the second screen on the wand icon, you are taken to a cauldron in which you can mix items. For this, I highly recommend checking out the link below since it has recipes for everything you can make in the game: https://geekyjen.com/gigapets-pixie-guide/
Luck potions are the easiest to make, because you will earn the clovers to make them by playing games with your pixie. Feeding these will lead to the middle branch fairy as shown above. If you want to reach the top branch, feed your pixie Happiness potions. I believe the other two will lead to the bottom branch (the mushroom guy), which may have been what I got last time. Health potions can also be used to up your luck if you’ve run out for the day. When you’ve reached the middle branch of the growth chart, you will need to start feeding your pet second tier potions, or potions made from other potions. These will either be Sun or Moon potions, and only one type will work for the specific pixie you have. You’ll know which ones have an effect by watching to see if the growth chart icon blinks after feeding the pixie.
This is the pixie’s food, a strawberry. The snack (not pictured) is honey
There are four games on this pet, which unlike other Gigapets do not change. Instead, as your fairy ages, they will become more complex. They’ll be longer to play, and may also include some additional gameplay features. One thing to note is that losing a game on this pet will cause its happiness meter to decrease a little, so be careful when you’re playing with it. If you’re in a rush, feeding the pixie honey will make it a little bit happier, and there doesn’t seem to be a downside other than that it makes the pet dirtier.
The first is a running game, in which you must escape from rushing water that erupts from a dam. On the first level, you will need to move up and down to avoid vines (on top) and dirt mounds (on bottom). The second level adds a tree obstacle, which you will need to magic away with your wand by pressing the middle button. The third level doesn’t add any additional features, but it will be longer than the first.
The second game is a fish catching game. Your pixie will cast its hook, and you can move it from side to side in order to catch the large fish that swims by. You’ll do this several times, feeding it to your gnome doctor friend each time, and each of the next levels makes the game longer, and the fish a little bit faster.
The third game is a skydiving game in which you must steer your pixie left and right to fly through the rings. There will be more of them each time your pixie levels up, but otherwise it’s pretty simple and easy. This one is probably my favorite of the games.
Lastly, the fourth game is a maze game. You’ll get the same maze each time, but with each pixie level the maze changes and gets larger. You will have a certain number of seconds to get through each one, but once you’ve figured it out, you can usually memorize the route and get it perfectly after that.
It’s THORN!!!
One big feature of this pet is the Thorn character–when your pet’s needs fall below 50%, your pixie will transform into Thorn, a naughty little pixie with a mean face and crooked smile. In my playthroughs, I usually wake up to this little guy, since the pet’s needs have fallen throughout the night and are low in the morning. But don’t worry, once you tend to the pixie’s needs again, it’ll transform back to whatever evolution you were at before, and you won’t have to work your way through the tree again. Several people have found Thorn more than a little off-putting, so just keep in mind he’s not permanent–and he can’t hurt you!
Official artwork showing the Pixie family evolutions
Because of the evolution tree, you won’t be able to see every incarnation of this pet in one go, which gives it some replay value, unlike many of the other Gigapets. This makes it a bit harder to run than the others, so maybe not best for you if you’ve never played through a Gigapet before, but for those who have, I think this is an excellent pet to have. I’ve run it more than once in order to get all the details down for this review, and I enjoyed both times very much! I still have probably one more pixie in the second evolution that I haven’t gotten yet, so I’ll probably play through it again in the future to see if I can unlock it. This is definitely one of my favorites!
Note this gallery contains spoilers for the final evolutions, so I’m putting it behind a cut.Another shot of the bath waterfallA heart. This is one of the final pixie’s animationsShot of one of the final faeriesIt’s THORN!!!Pixie is visiting the doctor againA closeup of another final pixie.Another final pixieThis is one of the middle tier pixiesThis is one of the middle tier pixiesAnother final pixie
This is the latest pet from TopSecret Toys, which lets you raise 3 bunnies simultaneously! If you’ve played the Cryptid pet, this works pretty similarly–you’ll start off with one bunny, and slowly unlock the others as you play along, though you will have to wait longer for the second and third on this one, and won’t have all of them until over a week has passed. This is great if you prefer to play these for longer instead of just a few days. One of the things I particularly like about the three different pets is that they do all have different lifespans, meaning if you lose one, you don’t loose all of them. I went through a period with this toy where I wasn’t able to take care of all of the bunnies at once, and I lost the second and third one. I was able to restart them without any issues, but my main bunny continued on without resetting! I love this, since if raising three pets is too much for you, you can always just ignore the others and focus on the one you like (go ahead, I won’t judge you).
This is my bunny’s little happy dance
Each of the three bunnies as has two growth stages: child and adult, and they have slightly different personalities, which means they have different animations for the various interactions. They’ll get two games as a child, and two different games as an adult, except for the third rabbit which just has one. That’s a total of nine games! And these aren’t clones of previous devices, either–I’m always impressed with how many different types of games they can come up with that utilize the small two-color screen, and four buttons (one of them is a snake clone!). When you switch between your game choices, you’ll be choosing between lovely icons that illustrate which game you’re going to play, and several of them have short intro animations as well.
When you bathe the bunnies, they get dunked in water, and then their fur goes POOF!
Just as with the others, you can feed, clean, discipline, train, play games with them, and put them to bed. There’s a medicine function as well, and it always has really cute animations, but my bunnies never get sick for some reason. I suspect it’s because I’m prodigious about cleaning up poop, which would probably make them sick if it stayed on screen. This pet does use require discipline as a meter, which means you will sometimes have to discipline your pets for no reason other than to raise that number. I’ve talked before about how this isn’t really my favorite mechanic, but I suppose it’s a trade-off for not having to miss care events like you would with a Tamagotchi. In the Tamagotchi pets, if your pet misbehaves and you don’t notice in time to discipline the pet, it counts as a “care mistake,” and you’re then penalized (usually by affecting the outcome of your pet’s growth chart). These pets don’t really penalize you for missing things, but that also makes them much easier to care for over time, so I guess it’s a wash.
This is the animation that the bunny does when disciplining
These bunnies are pretty hard to kill, and thus fairly easy to care for. I did manage to lose two of mine with some extensive neglect, as noted above, but you can just press a button to restart them, so it’s not a huge deal. I have to say that although I loved the Cryptid model they released around Halloween of last year, I’m glad they didn’t repeat the requirement of having to play a game in order to win them back, because I was really bad at those and they often took me several tries. Also, the games will give you happiness points even if you don’t win them, which is a great touch.
This is a sledding game where you have to dodge obstacles and steer the bunny back and forth.
To be honest I don’t really have anything bad to say about this pet. It’s a nice culmination of all the features that have been used in previous pets, and it’s cute and fun to play with. I like the way it features previous pets as little Easter eggs in some of the animations, and how each of the bunnies has a different personality. The black and white screen is clear and beautiful as always, and I’m always impressed by how many sounds they manage to squeeze out of the cheap little speakers on the back. If you like bunnies, this is an excellent pet to pick up!
“You press left+right together at a certain point during the regular animations and it sends them to a new area that they’ll stay in until you have them leave. As long as they’re in that area the minigames will be replaced with the secret one. For the Mama Bunny, you press left+right when she’s going into the hole, then you’ll get to watch her underground. To get her back out you do the same when she’s at the exit of the hole. For the second bunny, you press left+right while he’s by that fence and that’ll send him to the farm. Do the same to get him back out.”
The second secret is a new character that you can get by losing the bunny race five times. Doing so unlocks the turtle, who has new animations and a new game, plus one trick, but you are free to switch back to your bunny at any time by losing the race again. After that, you can repeat the process if you’d like to play the turtle again. User LegendaryTingle on the Gigapets subreddit has done an excellent job of documenting this one, so check out the post to see pictures and a full description.
One of the stat windowsStrawberries are the snack for the first two bunniesAnother stats page, showing age and weightThis is the second bunny’s games, which involves sledding down a hillWhen your bunny performs a trick properly, you will be able to give it a rewardThis is a “carrot juggling” trickIt’s Snake! On a Gigapet!The third bunny eats grass, in contrast to the other two, who eat carrotsThis is the main meail for the first two bunniesThe third bunny also gets watermelon as a snack instead of strawberriesDeath screenOne of the bunnies dances during one of its idle animationThe intro animation to the first bunny’s gameCatching eggsIdle animationAnother idle animationThis is an idle animation from the first bunnyAnother idle animation
The Giga Pets Pixel Puppy is a reboot of the original Digital Doggy released by Tiger Electronics in 1997. More of an homage rather than a strict copy, though, this one has unique graphics and games that differ from the original. Looking through the instruction manuals, however, will show that the basic programming is pretty similar. The animations this pet has are adorable; the doggie spends a lot of time running around, but I’ve also seen him sniffing on the ground (so cute), running into the screen, and even chasing its tail. In addition to cleaning up its poop, you’ll also need to give it baths when it gets fleas, which you can tell by how it scratches itself. When you’re not caring for it, after a while it’ll go to sleep, probably to save on battery time, but you can wake it up at any point by pressing the buttons. I’ve heard that the original Giga Pets were really difficult to care for, and if that’s so, then it seems they’ve changed the programming to be more forgiving, since I haven’t really had much trouble with it at all. Also, the sounds it makes are quite varied and cute! It barks, scratches, makes chomping noises when it eats, and splashes in the tub.
One thing I don’t like is that you have to discipline it in order to keep its discipline meter up, rather than when it misbehaves like other pets. I don’t really like disciplining it for no reason, so I usually chose to teach it tricks instead, since this also affects the meter, although in smaller increments. This is of course a staple of the Giga pets programming, but it’s one that I’m just not a fan of in general. I prefer it when discipline in pets is either left out entirely, or is triggered by specific behaviors, rather than having to make my pets upset for seemingly no reason.
Overall, this is a fun, easy pet to run, and an excellent introduction for the new reboot line. It’s of course not nearly as complex as the other pets that came after it, but the animations and sounds are so adorable that this is easily forgivable. I still like to run through mine from time to time despite the lack of progression, and if you’re looking to get into vpets for the first time, this one would be an excellent choice!
This is one of the newer, revamped Gigapets that was released by Top Secret Toys in 2020, and from what I understand it was voted on by fans when they announced they were going to make a brand new pet.
Functions
This pet has all of the normal functions that you’ll find on other Gigapets, but they’ve been customized to match the unicorn itself. Here’s a rundown of your menu options:
Feeding: Normal food is a slice of cake, while your snacks are shakes
Lights: Lights can be turned on and off to put the pet to sleep. The screen for this is pretty cute; your unicorn will lay down underneath a huge rainbow.
Games:
* Catch the coin: Coins will fall from the sky one at a time, and you must press (and HOLD, don’t TAP!) left or right to catch them. It’ll start with 10 at first, and if you’re successful and win, the next time you play you get an additional coin added up to a max of 20. When you lose, the count resets. * Hurdle jumping: Your unicorn will run to the left or right, and you must press the corresponding direction button to jump over them when they appear. At first you will need to clear 10 of them, and if you win, the next time you play you’ll have an additional hurdle added, up to a max of 20. When you lose, the count resets. Additionally, when you jump in the hurdle game, you can see little rainbow lines coming out the back of the horse 🙂 It’s not in color, but I appreciate how they captured the essence of the art and it’s completely clear what’s going on. * Sky island hopping: This one will be locked to you until you max out your unicorn’s stats, at which point it’ll turn into an alicorn. Once it has wings, you can play this game, in which you hop across islands in the sky. This game is much harder, and you don’t get anything additional for winning, but it is fun.
Medicine: Calls the ambulance when the pet is sick. I have to admit I didn’t use this option much, because the pet is pretty easy to take care of
Clean: Cleans up the unicorn’s poop, which is shaped like cupcakes, or lets you brush its mane and tail.
Stats: Shows your overall score (an aggregate of all the pet’s stats), Health, Happiness, Discipline, and Age/weight. These are all calculated on a scale from 0-100, but the activities are pretty liberal with their point allocations, so don’t worry, it’s not that much of a grind.
Tricks: These are the tricks you can teach your pet. The first option is “Rewards,” and you can press the right button to go to “Tricks.” There are three tricks: Back Legs (rear up on hind legs), Horn (Shoot stars from its horn), and The Dab (IT DOES A DAB), which is my favorite. At first, the pet won’t perform the right one, but with repeated positive reinforcement, you can train them to do the correct one.
Discipline: This is the discipline function. It functions like the other stats on a meter, and needs to be done unprompted to keep it filled. It’s probably one of my least favorite things about these pets.
Alerts: Unselectable, this is your indicator that your pet needs something.
Graphics
One of the things I’ve mentioned I love about these pets is that the screens are incredibly clear and easy to see, something that the Tamagotchis still struggle with. This one is just as pretty to look at as the rest of the Giga Pets line, and the animations on it are clear and easy to read. The unicorn is very active during the day, and will not only walk back and forth, but will also look back at you and gesture, and sometimes even performs some of the tricks you can teach it! If you leave the pet for a while, it will show the pet’s sleeping screen to save on battery, but you can wake it back up by pressing any of the buttons.
Sounds
The sounds on these things are really impressive for the size and simplicity of them. There are separate noises for running, neighing, brushing, eating, and successfully completing an objective in the games. They’re all clear and easily distinguished, and they sound great. I really wish there were more pets that had clear sounds like these–the beeps from classic P1 Tamas and others are cute, but get boring quickly. It would be nice if they could incorporate some of the more sophisticated ones.
Gameplay
If you like other GigaPets, especially the newer ones, you’ll like this one as well. There are no stages, which is normal for these, but I enjoy them nonetheless and I feel like everything else about them is very well done. The fun in them is keeping their scores up everyday and watching the nice animations on them, and just letting them keep you company. For those of you who like seeing your pets grow, though, this one will probably not be your favorite. To be honest, aside from one particular feature, the pet will play the same from day to day, whether that’s on day one or day 30. Just about the only change you’ll see is that when the pet’s score goes above 90, it will turn into an Alicorn and allow you to play the third hidden game. This doesn’t stay indefinitely–once the score dips back down it will downgrade, but you can always make it change again by upping its scores with the usual care options.
Surprisingly, although this pet looks like a knockoff, its programming is actually unique, although not really very in depth overall. I’d say it’s a pretty easy pet to care for, though it can be very loud and has no mute function.
Upon starting up the pet, it will cycle through pictures of all 10 pets it features: cat, dog, crab, goldfish, horse, mouse, dinosaur (which looks like charmander), butterfly, frog, and rabbit. Then you can use the left and right buttons to cycle through and choose which one you want to raise. You’re then able to set the time and name your pet, but I will mention I can’t find a way to access the name at any point after this, so for all I know it gets forgotten immediately. After you’ve set all these things up, you’re ready to play.
There are seven functions that you can access from the default screen either by pressing “enter” or the left/right buttons. The menu structure is as follows:
Index:
Weight, Training (? I do NOT know what this icon is supposed to be), Food, Happiness, Strength, Health, Sleep, Age, Pause
Feed
Train
Play
Education
DR (medicine)
Clean
Light
That’s right, this one has a pause function! And a sleep meter, which is almost as rare as pause functions, especially on pets this age. This means that if you’re not careful, you can really mess up the pet’s sleep schedule, since it will happily fill up the sleep meter during the day if you let it. On the other hand, if you’re willing to clean up poops on a regular basis and make sure it’s naps take place at reasonable hours, this pet won’t ask much else of you and is very easy to take care of. The animations on this one are cute and unique, but they only cycle between a few frames at a time. You won’t be getting tons of idle animations or anything, but what you can see is really clear and the screen is easy to read. They have a “grumpy” animation for when their needs aren’t full met, which I have to admit is pretty cute. It’s mostly just a frowny face that they wear as they bob up and down a bit, but I think it’s funny.
The rest of the functions aren’t super interactive: feeding lets you choose between pizza and milk. Being the health-conscious person I am, I usually choose milk, but I’ve seen nothing in the instructions or on the pet that would indicate that feeding pizza is bad for them. I suspect it’s just there for variety. Training, playing, and education are all animations that play for a bit and then up the corresponding meters. There is no game on this one, which is a slight disappointment. On the other hand, you’re not stuck guessing left or right and failing over and over, so for some that may be a plus. Dr/medicine and cleaning won’t be needed until the pet gets sick, which happens slowly, or poops, which is frequently. Also, if it does poop, you’ll be reminded by three short beeps until you do clean it up, and given that you can’t turn off the sound here, I would recommend the pause function if you’re somewhere where you can’t tend to the pet for a while.
The Light function is obvious, and needs to be toggled when the pet sleeps. You can do this when its sleep meter is low and it complains, or you can do it at night when it’s convenient for you, and this will help reinforce a schedule for it. If you don’t you may end up getting woken up a few times throughout the night!
I took care of this one until it was 12 years old, or twelve days in our time, and there was no change in growth or growing up and going away etc. The care options do not change in between each pet, so the differences are largely graphic. I would say if you don’t mind the noisiness and haven’t raised a pet before, this might be a good choice, but on the other hand it’s so very simple and unchanging that I feel like only enthusiasts will really enjoy taking care of it. As a collector, this one interested me because of its different care functions and meters, and I do love a good, clear screen with nice drawings. But otherwise this one doesn’t stand out a whole lot from the crowd, and definitely hasn’t done anything better than other multipets I’ve played.
The Nano Double pets let you raise both a dog and cat simultaneously. Although the name of this device would suggest that it was its own line, it seems that the dog and cat version was the only one that was ever made (wouldn’t it have been nice to get a boy/girl baby double, or a hamster/turtle version?).
Games: two of them; the left/right game, and get the ball (tap one direction)
Medicine (nurse icon)
Bath
Stats – uses hearts and includes overall score
Discipline (angry face)
Unselectable alert
The pet will crawl across multiple screens, including one with a fence. You can switch between different pets using the diamond button on the front panel.
Cat functions
Feed (dry food/bottle)
Light
Games: left/right game and catch the mouse (tap one direction)
I have seen this one a grand total of one time on shopping sites, and I would otherwise not ever have believed it existed. So as of now, I don’t have any information about it other than one picture of the case. If I come across more in the future, I will add it here.
