morino

Appearance

Morino or Forestgotchi is available in four colours:
- Yellow with vines (as shown on the left)
- Brown with yellow border and buttons
- White with brown characters & yellow border and buttons
- Yellow with leaves design and a red border.

The Morino Tamagotchi was scheduled to be released in the U.S., right after the Ocean Tama, but by that time Bandai stopped the Tama production :-(. It would have been called "Tamagotchi Garden". Please have a look at the original advertisement in Bandai's catalogue from 1998.

The Character

In tamagotchi garden there is an entire family of garden characters to be discovered! These characters are the most elusive group to come from planet tamagotchi... even the Tamagotchi characters have difficulty finding them, due to their small size. Of course there are times when certain characters come out to find what they need to survive. Strangely enough they are most often discovered when they are looking for food. Unlike the garden creatures here on earth, they eat the most unusual of foods.... watermelon, ice cream, sugar cubes, lolli-pops and more. The challenge of raising a Morino is that it needs to be at a certain temperature to become an adult.

The Game

Morino has got a touch screen, like Angelgotchi. You've got to tap the screen to scare predators away. New on this Tamagotchi is a screensaver, that will activate itself after five seconds, it represents two trees and your garden creature flying between them. Like said before there are many different things Morino will eat, it depends on the character you get what kind of food you can choose from.

You can hatch a white or a polka dot egg, the last one will produce Kabutochi. Although it resembles the Rhinocerous Beetles of Earth, Kabutotchi can be told apart by the fact that it stands on its two hind legs when active. It is incredibly prideful and vain, and because status is decided in his culture by body size, he spends all of his time body-building and making himself bigger.

Growth Chart

Baby-mo-chi: A very small Forest Tam, he lives anywhere in the ground so long as it's not under a willow tree. He eats mainly leaves, and other things with similar nutrients. It's rumored that the swaying and rustling of the Willow leaves and branches makes him think of ghosts, and scares him, but no-one know if this is true.

Imochi ("Potato bug/Potato grub"): About the size of an Earth caterpillar or grub. Lives in cabbage fields. He loves to eat cabbage rinds (or whatever you call that hard part in the middle). His dream is to someday eat a piece of cabbage with a lot of mayonnaise on it.

Koganechi ("Coin-beetle"): S/he has a shiny, iridescent body, which is rumored to be about the size of a 500-yen coin (um... about an inch or more across). Can be found around Mount Akagi and sometimes the flashier areas in town. It's believed to get its nutrients either from money, or something stuck on money. It's rumored to know the burial place of the Treasure of the Great Tokugawa Shogunate.

Tento-chi (Lady bug): Lives in safflower meadows. Makes a living by exchanging Safflower oil to the Koganechi. It has charming polka dot stars shining on its back, but they can't be seen, even using the magnifying glass.

Chobi-tamachi ("Little Round bug"): Chiefly lives in the lower branches of trees, and spends its life time going back and forth over thin branches. It uses certain flower pollens as make-up, and gathers various flower extracts to make beautifying lotions with, so it is suspected that it is a make-up maniac.

Minochi (Caddis fly larvae): It's always covered in a cloak of twigs and leaves, and lives on many-branched trees. It is the most fashion-conscious of the Mushichi (Tamagotchi bugs) and changes at least 5 times per day!

Mushibachi (lit. "Insect (infested) tooth", ie. Cavity): His normal habitat is inside a Tamagotchi's mouth, but out of an increasing sense of racial guilt about the fact that he was a Cavity Bug, he moved out of Tam Mouths and spends his time in the natural world. His mighty spear makes him quite popular among those of the opposite sex. [no comment]

Gejichi ("centipede/millipede/icky thing with many legs, often spiny"): Often seen below trees with spiny or thorny flowers. The spiny hairs covering his body not only protect him, but also allow him to rub against the asphalt while running around, thus cleaning the streets.

Fun-koro-gachi (lit. "roller of dung", Dung beetle). He has a round body and often lives in farms and fields. He lives on poop with special nutrients in it. His hobbies include playing with his own poop by rolling it around.