Cyber Love Rules (Bandai Tamagotchi Connection Version 2)

Member Name: susie19

Product:	Bandai Tamagotchi Connection Version 2
Date:	09/02/06 (3231 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A non-messy pet, fun and interactive.

Disadvantages: Small and easy to lose.

If you have ever fancied a pet that doesn't make a mess, doesn't smell, doesn't drain your finances or roll in the mud, then I might have just the thing for you. But, if you need the love and affection of wet kisses and a waggy tail then you might find this pet a little lacking.

The Tamagotchi
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The first electronic cyber pet hit the world back in November 1996. It was a pet in your pocket, a computer chipped pet which you fed and played games with until it grew up. The tamagotchi is a small hand held computer game which is simple to use and fits within the palm of an adult hand.

The craze swept the UK in the 1990s but soon fizzled out. Our kids got one when they were (too) small and it was never properly played with and ended up no doubt at the next school fair. The tamagotchi craze ended because the pet was rather boring. You fed it, played games with it and if you forgot it died and you had to start again.

Enter the Tamagotchi Connection Version 2
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The makers of the tamagotchi are Bandai, a Japanese company. They have recently come up with an ingenious idea to restart the tamagotchi craze. Version 2 was launched in 2005. This time round the tamagotchi is more of an interactive toy because you can connect tamagotchis via infra red and make them become friends, share presents and have babies!

Cyber Pet
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The tamagotchi connections version 2 cyber pet is slightly oval in shape and has a hard plastic colourful casing with a screen in the centre. It is small (approx 3cm x 2.5cm) and has a key ring at the top so that you can attach it to a clip or whatever you like. Underneath the screen are three raised buttons to control the functions on screen. These are buttons A, B, C (although they are not labelled), but it is useful to know this for further understanding of how to work the controls.

Button A
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Pressing button A chooses the function items which are all around the edge of the screen. These are:

• Health Meter • Food • Poop Scoop • Games and Goods
• Playmates • Behaviour • Medicine • Sound •Friends

Button B
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The middle button activates time and date settings and is used to select the highlighted function of Button A.

Button C
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This is the deslection button and returns you to the main screen.

Getting Started
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When you first get your tamagotchi, a tab is released to start the life of the pet. An egg appears on screen and within a couple of minutes it hatches and you will discover if you have got a boy or a girl pet. You then choose a birth day for your baby and programme in a name of your choice (up to 5 letters). The aim is now to care for your pet by feeding it, cleaning up it's mess, playing games with it and dishing out medicine if it becomes sick or gets toothache. To care for your tamagtchi pet properly you also need to discipline it so that it doesn't become a spoilt brat! It is possible to raise your pet to age 23+, but I think the best we have managed is 8 years.

Learning the Controls
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Playing with the tamagotchi is the best way to learn how to care for your pet. The tamagotchi comes with minimal instruction so it is really a case of trying it and finding your own way around. You may well find this quite addictive once you get started! When your pet is a baby it requires really frequent attention but it also sleeps a lot so you are unable to do anything with it whilst it sleeps. (There is a way to wake it up though), perhaps I shouldn't tell you that, it's cruel to wake a sleeping baby!

If you don't care for your baby properly it gets in a grump and won't play games. You then have to discipline it (no longer give it a spank as in the first edition) but give it time out and then praise!

Caring for your Pet
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A series of love hearts informs you whether you are caring for your pet properly. If it is hungry you will see 5 clear love hearts; when the pet is not hungry, all these hearts become black. There is a similar chart for the happiness of your pet. If it is unhappy, you need to play games with it, give medicine if it is sick (indicated by a little tooth for tooth ache or a skull face for sickness), give your pet praise or buy it a treat from the shop.

Paying for your Pet
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Playing games with your pet wins you money to be added to your account. With this money you can buy special items from the shop which are for sale These can be edible treats or goods like boots or a bow tie! The maximum you can have in your account is £99.99 but it takes a long time to achieve this as you only win a few pence per game.

Connecting
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The version 2 tamagotchi has an infra red connection at the top of the toy which if placed near another transfers information so that you can make a boy and a girl fall in love and have a baby! They can also share presents this way. This makes the toy much more fun than the old version because it can be played together with friends.

Fun?
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This game is great fun and I would suggest best suited to children age 6 and above. It is great for car journeys (in daylight). Tamagotchi version 2 does not get boring, in fact over time you discover lots of new and interesting things about your pet. For example, the type of pet that hatches can be different each time, from a duck faced creature to an onion shaped thingy. Then there are moments when your pet appears on screen having a bath or watching TV. There are 4 games to play but you don't get them all until you've managed to care for your baby to various stages. When you progress far enough to get the best game called slot, where if you hit the jackpot of OOO, you get £9.99 added to your account and fireworks on screen!! The first time you do this you cannot be silent about your achievement!!

If you able to care for your pet well, you can proceed through several generations. The child of the parent grows to adulthood, reproduces and then the parent dies (symbolised by a pair of wings)..RIP ma/pa!

One of the best things about the tamagotchi is that you can start it again if your pet dies. You can get either a boy or a girl so if you are not happy with the sex of your pet to start with you can reset it by poking a sharp object in the hole at the back to restart the egg hatch.

Then there are some fun things that you can programme into your tamagotchi. Tama codes. These can be found on tamatalk.com. You can get some extra treats for your tamagotchi by keying in codes. This can give your pet a frizzy hairstlye, love potion so it can have cyber babies (without a mate), a whole cake and more.

Availability
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The tamagotchi is usually sold in bigger toy shops and is also available on Amazon, Firebox.com, Woolworths and John Lewis. It retails for between £10 and £13. There are lots of different colours to choose from.

Final Note
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The tamagtchi is small and can be easily lost. We know this as ours was lost for about 2 weks. I swear I was going mad hunting for it. Every now and again I would hear it's little electronic cry and was unable to locate the sound. Extremely frustrating! So, if you get one, attach a scoubie cord to it... and if you don't know what a scoubie is then you've missed another craze...

Oh and another thing, if you're a light sleeper, you may hear your pet singing in the night time, (although you can turn the sound off). Much more bearable than a dog pining to go outside for a wee though!

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A hand held electronic cyber pet toy. great fun to play with. A non-messy pet!