#GigaPets

[digi-tama-in-your-pocket]

I wonder if the virtual pet fad of the late 90's would have lasted just a little bit longer if Bandai, I dunno... maybe tried a little harder to keep it interesting?

I did some thinking about it and it just feels like Bandai was determined to shoot itself in the foot when it comes to virtual pets ( Something that seems to still be true today )

Despite Tamagotchi gen 1 and 2 being fairly gender neutral, from the Angel onward Tamagotchi's marketing leaned HARD on the notion that it was a "Girls Toy"

Tamagotchi Ocean feels like it was on store shelves for exactly one week and had absolutely zero marketing. You'd be forgiven for thinking you just imagined it.

They completely gave up on Tamagotchi after the Ocean until 2004's Tamagotchi Connection relaunch

They refused to greenlight the Tamagotchi cartoon

Digimon were actually really hard to find on store shelves and even harder to find anything that wasn't a version 1, you'd be forgiven for thinking we never got more than version 1 in the west

Why the fuck was the "Digivice" in the anime not based on the original v-pet?? They wanted it to sell a completely different toy?? Why?? Market what you have already!! Not only that but the anime changed the rules about digimon from how we know them in the virtual pets ( it was a dope anime but this was a double edge sword )

They made Digimon World play like a virtual pet, but couldn't think of a way to integrate actual v-pets into the game like how pokemon stadium did with the N64 transfer pak. Hell even Sonic figured that out with the Chao and the Sega VMU ( too bad the Dreamcast crashed and burned )

Kids moved on from v-pets when the robo dog and furby became the hot new toy, Bandai didn't even try to compete

When all of these factors lead to the decline of virtual pets popularity, bandai just kind of threw up their hands and quit, didn't touch Tamagotchi until Tamagotchi Connection, but continued to market it as a "Girls Toy", maintaining the stigma ( don't shoot the messanger btw, I hated the stigma but I also had a dad who "threatened" to get me girls toys for christmas to emasculate me which caused me to distance myself from Tamagotchi ), the only Digimon things we got was anime, and anime tie-in toys.

Like if you look at the history of how Bandai handled virtual pets despite them being essentially pokemon before pokemon, it's pretty easy to see why they dropped the ball so fucking hard these days. They're getting better but there's still room for improvement, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Digimon. Tamagotchi is mainly where they're improving but Digimon has no support in english speaking territories unless it's anime nostalgia, while Tamagotchi is at least trying to do better.

[ukikimon]

Oh, you KNOW I had to get this to test it out.

[launturnforest]

[debleb]

[majorbitchi]

Happy New Year 🎉

I have been in a digipet slump for awhile but I am excited to get a new GigaPets 😄

Who doesn't love cryptids?? 😱 I just started it yesterday so Bigfoot is still little lol. I like the gameplay more than the fairy one 🧚‍♂️ which was way too complicated to be fun. Starcat/Compukitty is fun too! I gotta get the froggy and the unicorn ones now 🐸🦄💜

[cometcrystal]

Who was the copy editor for the gigapets cryptid instructions. I would like a word

[geekkboy]

i love my lil guy hes so cute

[midnightbutterfly13]

Mail time! 💌

Some of my two favorite things combined! Cryptids and digital pets. 🖤

This is Gizmo he's a baby Bigfoot.

This is also my first Gigapet. I've mainly played a lot of different Tamagotchi over the years. I'm so far really enjoying the game play. It was a bit of a change, but so far, it's been fun and cute! I also love the little noises the device makes, and the shell is giving autumnal vibes with cryptid and cottage core. 🖤🍂

[justaregularblognow]

GigaPets could be so much better if it was more like the pocket Neopets and you earned gold from playing the games that you could then use to buy food and toys which have a set number of uses before they run out and you have to buy them again. The way the programming works now, you just have to feed them and give rewards for tricks and you'll get to full stats super quick, there's actually no need to ever play the games.

It would also be nice if the ones that have multiple pets (like the bunnies or the cryptids) would work more like the deluxe pocket Neopets in that you can choose how many you want to run at once and which ones, since the GigaPets are so needy.

Also they should definitely remake the GigaFarm. It's too bad they don't have any contact info on their website where people can make suggestions.

[digi-tama-in-your-pocket]

It looks like there's a new Stitch virtual pet popping up from a company called Lexibook.

I found out about this through the Giga Pets discord server, and as it turns out, this is a stealth Giga Pets release, the team who worked on Giga Pets said that they actually worked on this.

It seems to be difficult to find listings though. I see it listed on Amazon as currently out of stock.

Lisenced virtual pets are normally a bit of a hard sell for me but I think Stitch works thematically as a virtual pet and I think Lilo and Stitch ( the animated one anyway, I have no interest in watching the live action film ) is one of Disney's top tier movies and I had a blast watching the animated series which was very obviously trying to get the pokemon audience ( though in hindsight, it feels kind of like Yokai Watch ) so maybe if I can get this one at a decent price, I'll pick it up.

[ukikimon]

I like all the yellow devices together. Though, I am cursed with few LR44 when I want them...

[launturnforest]

so, giga pets frog gets a 10\10 out of me. the dinosaur was... ok? 7/10 the unicorn was 4/10 fairy was 9/10.. i feel like i need to make log on my wordpress.

[pinsonmyleather]

GIGA PETS~ ギガペット(*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡

[cozygaymes]

???? I'm sorry but do we still not know what Tomodachi Life's gameplay is? After all these years I thought we understood what type of game it was? Why am I still seeing people equate the gameplay to the Sims?

You don't have the option to control any of the miis, you look after them. You know... Like a virtual pet. Almost like you could put them on your backpack or the belt loops of your pants.

Guys... It's in the name.

[oleskellybones]

new mobile theme... what do you think...? 📇💼

[sennenpharaoh]

He just holds the little device.

"So... what is this thing? And why is it going up so fast?"