Ever since the November 23rd 1996 release of Tamagotchi in Japan there have been hundreds of Virtual pets popping up all over. Tamagotchi is the original and very first Virtual Pet. Also by far the best. I am a dedicated Tamagotchi fan and won't buy any other knock-off versions that are so available out there.

Now I am not saying that these other Vp's are bad. Because some do have potential for being a very good V-pet. The problem I find with them is most companies are so fast to rip off bandai's original idea, when the companies could probably think of other things that are just as fun for v-pets. Now there are some companies that have tried to be different. Nano pets are one of the better rip off versions. I'd play with one, border line on buying one, but I haven’t bought one. But too many vp's have been released that are a almost exact copy of Tamagotchi. That anger's me.

Another thing about these other v-p's that just isn't nearly as fun is they are not original. You have no control over the pets future. Most rip offs are just one character. Tamagotchi can never be beat. On just the Tamagotchi you can get 7 different adult characters. With generation two, DigiMon, DigiMon 2, Oceangotchi, Forestgotchi, Osutchi & Mesutchi (whom alone is rumored to have at least double the adult characters than Tamagotchi), I'd say no one can beat Bandai's originality. There are at the very least 7 adult characters per Tamagotchi incarnation. Part of the fun is wondering whom you will get. Plus the characters have personality. And they aren’t so demanding that you can take them with you and they can enjoy your life as you can enjoy theirs. If you sit through a movie with a Tamagotchi, unless it is in certain stages it will not bother you and the both of you can enjoy the movie. All I'm saying is one character all the time with the same schedule and no variation is the quality of fun for one week. While Tamagotchi has the ability to be fun for at least 5 months of different characters.

So if you want my advise I'd say if you want to try a non-Bandai virtual pet I'd recommend a Nano pet. The worst ones out there seem to be Gigapets. I've seen the horrible graphics and these pets require so much that they die easily, usually after 7 - 10 days. No one can make them gorgeous animation’s like Bandai! :) In the future I will try to make a list several knock-off versions and give my thoughts.

Last updated: February 25th, 1998
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