They are back! You don’t need a time machine to enjoy them again… Tamagotchi Review

Tamagotchi – Might be a very familiar name for you and you would still remember how they look! The tiny little digital friend who would give you company for hours and hours is now back incorporating new technology. Yes, Now you can bump with your friends and text them as well. This brand new Tamagotchi is named as “Tamagotchi Friends”

Given the statistics that it can be used from age 6+, I really wanted to try it out whether it would be a good one for little Miss S. And we received a Blue Gem from Bandai Toys for a two weeks trail. Well, A new toy, a little child, busy mum, Birthday parties for both kids lining up just in time of the trial and adding to it there is another little monster at its terrible 2, Considering all these two week trail made me think whether we would have enough time to explore the new toy, but I really wanted to give it a try if it could be a better birthday present for her if she (Well, of course I) likes it.

The Tamagotchi Digital Friend includes:

Hatch and raise your Tamagotchi Friend
Send text messages
Exchange gifts
Visit other Tamagotchi Friends for playdates
New characters
5 games

The box contains one piece of Tamagotchi, Instruction Manual and few cards (They just give you an idea of what you can do with your Tamagotchi. So how do you play with your little Tamagotchi Friend!?

All you have to do at your best is to look after your Tamagotchi friend really well. This cute little friend will grow and develop differently based on the factor of how well she/he was looked after.

So you start by setting up the Tamagotchi friend. Insert the batteries (Well, yes, It needs 2 AAA batteries that are not included in the Pack, so you would have to be having them ready before starting up), press the little reset button at the back.

Once the Tamagotchi is turned on for the first time, You will be asked to enter today’s date and your username. After this, You have different eggs to choose from, there is a heart shaped one for the girl, line one for boys and a normal egg for either a boy or girl surprise. Once you choose your egg and it is hatched your Tamagotchi friend is born and they are super cute looking :). Little Miss S managed to get a girl Tamagotchi. 🙂 Once the egg is hatched and your little friend has revealed to you, you can view her/his data, How hungry and happy she/he is and the BFF point (I think, this can be used only when you have your friend Tamagotchi as well, as we didn’t see any progress)

There are a few icons on the top and Bottom of the Tamagotchi. The first one is to know about your Tamagotchi. The next one is for food (we found out that the Bread and Milk are never emptied, so it is better to feed your Tamagotchi with Bread as much as possible, you have a meal or a snack choice. You can also buy food from the shop.). Then comes the toilet 🙂 (obviously). You have a big job of clearing up her waste if she is not potty trained 🙂

Then comes the fun part of the Games – There are 3 games that are readily available and the other 2 games are locked when you reach a certain BFF point. So the 3 games that are readily available are “Drop and catch”, “Select and Get” and Mimic. The other two games that can be unlocked are “Flower count” and “Cake Catch”. If I reveal how you play the games there won’t be any fun, so let me keep it a secret.

You can shop for meals and jewellery. There are loads to choose from and might keep you busy. There is a lot more at his point for the Mum to watch ! 🙂 The most fun part is you can get your Tamagotchi married, but there are few restrictions for this to be done and it expects your Tamagotchi to be a little older. Ours was just born so we couldn’t do much about her.

Then comes the connection where you can connect with your friends. The other Icons are Text, treasure chest collection, Memory Album (this shows your friends whom you are connected with), There is another memory Icon to see your previous generations and then the last icon – Medicine (this is useful when your Tamagotchi is sick),

Miss S did have a great fun with her Tamagotchi. She enjoyed playing the “Select and Get”, liked “Mimic” a little and kind of uncomfortable while playing “Drop and Catch”. You will know why when you play with your Tamagotchi, but it is fun 🙂

You have 6 different skins to choose from to select your Tamagotchi.

So, What we liked about Tamagotchi:

Nice little toy for the little hands to have hours and hours of fun.
The games are really easy to play and anyone can quickly catch it.
There are lots of activities in this tiny little toy to explore. It helps to increase the concentration (But beware, it might get you addicted)
The games are suitable for both boys and girls and also Tamagotchi is avaialble is different colours and designs to choose from

What could have been improved:

The display is still in Black and White. When it is aimed at little children, it is better if it is colourful
There is no ON/OFF button. All you have to do to power off your Tamagotchi (immediately) is pressing the reset button (with some tiny pins maybe). This is the feature I honestly didn’t like. Little Miss S, sometimes leaves the Tamagotchi near my head while I am asleep and there was always something beeping unless I press the reset button. (May be we need to explore more to find other options)
Tiny Display – obviously there is no much space in that little egg. I was quite concerned if it would affect her eye sight if she plays more with it in less lighting.
There could be a backlit feature to enable playing at night times,. We found it really hard to use it without lights. – May be a good thing for mum as I didn’t anyway wanted Little Miss S to play with her Tamagotchi at bedtime.

So, Did we buy it as a gift for her birthday!?

Hmm., honestly, I have to give it a little more time. She did like it a lot and so do I. But I could probably wait a few more months before making a decision as there seems to be a lot of features that can be used when you know someone owning Tamagotchi friends so you could play with them. Right now, I have convinced her saying, she is little too young to get her Tamagotchi married :), so mummy has to help and mummy needs some time to get to know about her Tamagotchi.

I would recommend for kids who are in secondary school which I feel is a very ideal age or maybe when they are in year 5 or 6! Tamagotchi is priced at around £25 on an average.