Penguin-keeper's Zoo

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I love the little penguin face! Reminds me of Pinga, Pingu's sister, from Pingu! :D
Wow, I didn't even notice that - well-spotted! :lol:

He's a very quiet little chap, it must be said, both in terms of not being very demanding, and in terms of the beeps not being especially loud!

 
As you guys might remember, I mentioned having purchased a 101 Dalmatians Giga Pet online recently. Unfortunately, though, the seller never sent it and didn't respond to messages, and I had to chase the issue up in order to get a refund. This means that I won't be adding that virtual pet to my collection after all - and, after multiple failed attempts now, I'm going to take that as a sign that I shouldn't be bothering with the Giga Pets at all. It's obvious that I'm not supposed to get one! :lol:

My collection is in a pretty nice place right now, with all of my current grails in it except for the MGA Penguin, which I have yet to find. Unless something that I hadn't consciously thought of comes up for sale, it'll probably stay the way that it is for a little while - so, it's time to share an up-to-date collection-shot! :D

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Top row: 20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini, Tamagotchi P1, Tamagotchi Connexion V2, Tamagotchi Connexion V4, Dinkie Penguin, Cyber Pets 168-in-1

Middle row: Chuppi, Penguin Watch, Virtual PETs (32-in-1), Shuku 20 Shunen Tamagotchi P2, Super Gyaoppi 9 in 1, Digimon (Version 1)

Bottom row: Toy Story Virtual Friends Space Explorer, Penpy

Anyway, there's nothing to report with the Shuku 20 Shunen Tamagotchi P2 or the Super Gyaoppi penguin (as I've said before, they're an easy-going pair), but there is a little update for Penpy, so here we go;

Penpy: Firstly, look at this;

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He sleeps in a fridge! I'm not sure if I find this to be cute or weird (my favourite penguin species is a temperate-climate type, rather than an Antarctic one, so I don't automatically find this stereotypical idea to be particularly endearing), but there it is, anyway.

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Penpy didn't wake up on his own for some reason, even though his sleep-bar, which is a thing that Gyaoppi-based pets tend to have, was full. When I woke him up, he was in his next form, equivalent to the Marutchi phase on a Tamagotchi P1.

I will say, he misbehaves quite a lot! :eek:

Also, he has bars for all of the food and drink types, but no Happy meter. However, sometimes he will call because he wants to play a game, even if his meters are full. He isn't misbehaving in these cases - it's just something that he does. It's a bit frustrating, though, because the call-symbol won't go away unless you succeed at the game, and at this age he only has access to one of them - a fishing game where it's completely arbitrary whether pressing a button will let him catch a fish or not. I hope that the other game, where you have to get him to kick a ball (which is unlocked when he's 3, I believe) is better, otherwise this is really going to mar my experience with this virtual pet.

 
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Penpy: So, following on from what I said yesterday, I realised that Penpy actually does have a Happy-meter, it's just that it's been handled in a very unintuitive manner. It's not part of his stats, it's in a separate menu, seemingly so as to make it look like this virtual pet has more "functions" than it really does - after all, we all know that the makers of competitors to the Tamagotchi's throne used to love using the amount of menu-options as a bullet-point on their packaging!

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Also, it shows a penguin-face next to some apples, which is spectacularly unintuitive. Over time, these turn into empty spades (as in the suit found on playing-cards), and the way to fill them is to play a game successfully. One win will change one empty spade into a full apple.

This sort of unintuitiveness seems to be a bit of a problem with Penpy. Last night, he beeped for attention, and I saw a different type of penguin standing on-screen, with really big teeth! After going through everything only to find that it didn't dismiss the alert, I realised that this was meant to look like he was shivering and his teeth were chattering (even though it wasn't animated), and that he needed medical attention! The choices here are pills or a shot, and I opted for the latter, which set him right immediately. Still, there was no intuitive means of telling that he was sick, which is disappointing.

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Penpy changed form again when I woke him up this morning, incidentally. He now looks like a crested penguin of some sort, and he looks pretty cute!

My impressions of Penpy so far are mixed, but leaning towards the positive side. There are some problems with unintuitive features and unclear graphics, the first game is terrible (as I mentioned yesterday), and the buttons are horribly-designed (they're hard plastic, with a small rubber plunger on the inside that's structured like the better buttons that you find on other virtual pets, and the response from them is pretty bad). But on the other hand, the foundations are solid, as it's a Gyaoppi-based pet that tries its best to differentiate itself both from Bandai's iconic virtual pets, and from other Gyaoppi-based ones as well. Though perhaps it shouldn't have strayed quite so far from the Gyaoppi standards, in places - adding an extra meter for snacks and moving the Happy-meter out into its own separate menu are not positive changes.

I can easily imagine Penpy having slightly frustrated people who might've chosen it as their first or only virtual pet back in the day, and that's not the best category for a virtual pet to fall into. It's by no means bad if you're already experienced with other types of virtual pets, though.

 
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Penpy: First things first, Penpy changed again, as he seems to do every morning;

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He's got more of a crest going on, now!

That good point aside, I'm honestly getting really frustrated with Penpy. Now that he's 3, the second game was unlocked, and winning or not is just as arbitrary as with the first! The alternating animation-frames and beeping would have you believe that both the fishing and ball-kicking games are timing-based, but they actually aren't, and the outcome seems to be totally random. It's almost as if they pasted graphics suggesting a single, timing-based outcome over the top of programming for a left/right guessing-game - in fact, I've started playing them as if they are such, and I'm seeing more success! :eek:

It's incredibly frustrating, because not only does it add to Penpy's unintuitive nature, but it also means that you waste a ton of time trying to fill up his games-meter, because you have no real idea as to whether or not you'll win and fill up a spade-apple. And I've noticed that, unless they're all empty, the marks in the games-meter only show as non-filled apples, which makes this menu even more unintuitive than I already thought it was!

I usually wait until the end of a run to give my verdict on a virtual pet, but in this case there's no way that I can do that - especially not since I saw a signature suggesting that another member has Penpy on their wishlist.

I cannot in good conscience recommend Penpy to anyone - it's a frustrating virtual pet not only because of how unintuitive it is, and because of how bad the buttons are (they're so bad that they'll sometimes register a beep but won't act as if you've pressed them, so they won't highlight any menu options), but also because of how much better it should be because it's Gyaoppi-based. If you want a Gyaoppi-based penguin virtual pet, get a Super Gyaoppi 9 in 1 and pick the penguin option. If you want any penguin virtual pet, get a Dinkie Penguin as well! Just think twice before going for a Penpy, as it's extremely unintuitive and frustrating, and the arbitrary nature of the games leads to a lot of wasted time. If nothing else, it's certainly not suitable for running alongside other virtual pets, because it takes an unreasonable amount of time to make him happy!

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I got Penpy (I am aiming to collect penguin virtual pets, after all), and it's far from the worst penguin virtual pet out there (at this point, I would still have to award that dubious honour to Penguin Watch), but it's also nowhere near as good as it looks, and I think that it's only right to warn people about that.

After this run is done, I won't be running Penpy again for a while. It's obviously a virtual pet that needs one-to-one attention because of its flaws, and there are others that I'd rather run again before giving Penpy another chance.

EDIT: Right after I finished writing this, Penpy beeped because he was sick. Except this time he had a different, more intuitive animation, showing him looking ill and shivering. This one required pills to put right. This is the first time that I've seen an intuitive animation from Penpy! :eek: However, it doesn't negate my verdict, above. Penpy simply has too many problems to be worth recommending to anyone.

 
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Penpy: Nanananananananananananana!

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PENGBAT!

 
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Shuku 20 Shunen Tamagotchi P2: Last night, Mimitchi passed on.

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Goodbye, Mimitchi.

I'll be taking the Shuku 20 Shunen Tamagotchi P2 out of the rotation for now. It's a really fun virtual pet, and a really nice re-release of the originals, but I want to try to get the amount of virtual pets that I'm running down to one or two at the most.

I highly recommend the Shuku 20 Shunen Tamagotchi line, incidentally. It's a good re-issue that shakes things up a little bit by adding a real penalty for snacks (overdoing them in the child phase can lead to an early death), and making some things, such as pooping and sickness, a little less scheduled. If you want to show support for a more classic approach to the Tamagotchi line, you can't go wrong with these.

I really hope that these come to the West - after how well the 20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini has done, I'd imagine that these would do well, too.

Super Gyaoppi 9 in 1: The penguin changed back into the chest-beating pengorilla again yesterday, which means that he'll probably change back into the wild-eyed spinning penguin again today or tomorrow. I guess that these transformations during the adult phase are a lot more interesting if you're in a situation where the care that the virtual pet gets varies, which would cause this to lead to multiple different forms throughout a single run.

Penpy: I'm even less impressed with Penpy today than I was yesterday.

At exactly midnight Penpy started beeping, having randomly died at the age of 5, even though I hadn't taken bad care of him. This is one seriously inconsiderate virtual pet!

Oddly, Penpy has two death screens.

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A grave, as shown on the normal screen...

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... And a ghost, if you switch to what was formerly the clock screen.

I'm not going to run this one again for a while. I'm actually glad that it's already over!

If anyone is considering getting a Penpy, do yourselves a favour and avoid it. It's not worth the hassle.

 
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Super Gyaoppi: Things have been so uneventful with the Super Gyaoppi that I completely forgot to mention that the penguin did indeed change back into the wild-eyed spinning form again. :lol:

I've also been thinking about what to run next, and have decided to run the Super Gyaoppi again, but with two differences: Picking a different animal, and not using the pause function when I'm busy, so as to hopefully vary up the possible transformations.

As for what animal I've decided on, that'll be a surprise. ;) I will say that it's not the chicken, which I previously mentioned that I was considering, though.

 
Super Gyaoppi: Things are still uneventful. This morning, the penguin regressed back into the fat chest-beating form again, and once again he's stomping around like a boss. No prizes for guessing what he'll turn back into within the next couple of days. :p

 
Super Gyaoppi: Well, here's a surprise! :eek: The penguin changed form again - and this time it wasn't back into the wild-eyed spinning penguin!

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This time, it was into an adorable spinning punky penguin, instead! :D (Please pardon the weird-looking photo - I caught it mid-animation-frame.)

This was the result of a couple of care-mistakes that resulted from forgetting to pause the virtual pet and then ending up leaving him without care for a while, to the point that his Happy meter was left empty for a bit. This happened twice, I believe.

It's really neat to see a different form for once, and it's adorable, to boot! :wub:

 
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Super Gyaoppi: The penguin has transformed again!

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Today, he grew into this big fella! He's joyfully vaulting around the screen like this, and he looks very happy indeed.

This was a big surprise - I wasn't expecting him to transform again so soon!

 
How does he even move around when he takes up 3/4 of the screen? XD
This is probably going to be a bit difficult to see because I had to apply a lot of optimisation to this GIF, but;

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Like this.

And once he's done vaulting over to one side of the screen, he does the same on his way back over to the other side, too. :lol:

 
lol, that's great! XD Fantastic animations.
The animations are definitely a big highlight of the Super Gyaoppi - it's something that it really gets right.

I can't wait to see how the other animals look, when I run it again in the future.

 
MGA Penguin: I took delivery of this virtual pet, today, and I'm really happy to have gotten it! Once again, my thanks go out to Porg, who alerted me that it had come up for sale. :D

The first thing that I have to say is how cute this one is. The little penguin hatchling is adorable.

Moreover, he waddles around in a style reminsicent of the Nano Pals line.

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Sometimes, he'll go to see a big mountain and what appears to be a snowman...

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... And other times he'll go to see some other mountains that aren't as big. Or maybe it's some cracked ice.

I will say, though, that the discipline animation is incredibly mean.

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It shows a hand beating the poor penguin, while he cries about it! :eek:

And the worst thing is that you have to do this simply to fill up his discipline bar, rather than because of him calling you for no reason. :(

Anyway, after the disappointments that were Penguin Watch and Penpy, it's a refreshing change to deal with a dedicated penguin virtual pet that's well-made and intuitive. This feels like a high-quality virtual pet, and I really like it so far.

 
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That shell is fantastic!! I really dig ones with tampographed writing on them as decoration in addition to branding. The button color really pops with the grey, too.
It's brilliant, isn't it? The more "realistic egg" colour is such an unusual one, compared to most virtual pets from the era, since most of them tended to be very bright and colourful. And you're right, the pink really does stand out against that.

The two "cracks" running out from the sides of the screen look really nice when viewing the unit from the side, too, as they look somewhat realistic when viewed from that angle.

 
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Super Gyaoppi: This is one easy-going virtual pet! The big penguin is still joyfully vaulting around the screen, and he's super-low-maintenance at this point.

I don't know if it's because I've used the pause feature, or because the aging is just unusual on these (like it is on Chuppi), but his age currently reads as 21, even though I'm pretty sure that I've been running the Super Gyaoppi for longer than that.

Either way, these guys stick around for a really long time, and they don't ask too much of you at all. I very highly recommend the Super Gyaoppi to anyone who might be considering one.

MGA Penguin: It turns out that the MGA virtual pets go to bed at 11pm, so the little penguin hatchling was up pretty late, considering his age!

My only gripe so far is that he beeped at 1am, having pooped whilst asleep, and turning the lights back on provided no clue as to why, because all that I could see was him sleeping. I had to go through the menus and figure out what was required by trial-and-error.

Still...

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The penguin looks so cute when he falls asleep!

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When you turn out the lights, it shows a door closing, and then you see the penguin sleeping inside an igloo. (When you turn the lights back on again, you see the door opening, before the usual virtual pet display resumes.)

It turns out that this virtual pet keeps time even when you put the clock into Set mode, and will eventually simply return you to the main display if you leave it like this, which means that there's no way to pause this one. Thankfully, though, his Happiness, Hungry, and Discipline meters all take an extremely long time to drain, and he doesn't poop a huge amount (when I got to check on him, after being busy for most of the day, he'd only pooped twice), so even if you're unable to tend to him right away, it's not a big problem - even if he's left for most of the day, they won't completely empty as long as they were full before he went to sleep. It seems that these MGA virtual pets are nice and low-maintenance.

It does take a few minutes and, in the case of the left/right guessing-game, a bit of effort, to refill the bars, though (but thankfully, if there are multiple poops, they all get cleaned up at once, unlike the Super Gyaoppi). However, I didn't really mind this, as he's so incredibly cute that it's fun to simply spend time tending to him. Well, except for having to fill up the Discipline bar! :(

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When I was able to check on the little hatchling, I found that he'd grown! I didn't expect him to change form on his second day, I must admit. But then again, apparently these virtual pets only have a lifespan of nine days, so I don't know why I was expecting slower progress than what I've seen...

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He has two food-choices, though these aren't analogous to the Meal and Snack options on a Tamagotchi, as they both only affect the Hungry meter. The options are squid or fish. I don't know if this will affect how he grows up, but I've mainly been sticking to squid, so far. When he's had enough food, he will refuse to let you open the menu again until he actually needs more.

If anyone is interested in learning more about this virtual pet, or about the MGA pets in general, then I highly recommend

//www.tamatalk.com/IB/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png one about the MGA T-Rex Dino, which shares the same programming. The latter sheds more light on the MGA virtual pets in general, and on how they work, but both are informative viewing.
 
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Now that I've got my MGA Penguin, it's time for an updated collection-shot! :D

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Top row: 20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini, Tamagotchi P1, Tamagotchi Connexion V2, Tamagotchi Connexion V4, Dinkie Penguin, Cyber Pet 168-in-1
Middle row: Chuppi, Penguin Watch, Virtual PETs (32-in-1), Shuku 20 Shunen Tamagotchi P2, Super Gyaoppi 9 in 1
Bottom row: Digimon (Version 1), Toy Story Virtual Friends Space Explorer, Penpy, MGA Penguin (Penguin Time)

MGA Penguin: Once again, at 1am, the penguin pooped in his sleep. I get the feeling that he's going to do this every night. Thankfully, the Penguin Time version of the MGA Penguin is quite quiet, so this isn't a big deal to me, but I can see how it would be very annoying if the speaker was louder.

I also wanted to share how cute the little penguin looks when he's eating a squid;

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How cute is this little guy?! :wub:

 

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