Pod plays Tamagotchi for GameBoy! (Comments OK, No Spoilers Please)

[KuchipatchiPod]

So I decided to boot up Tamagotchi for GameBoy (I do own the cart, but I'm playing on emulator so I can take screenshots and see the cool SGB effects -- interestingly, you can get different shells for the SGB background!).

I've only ever dabbled in this game before -- as a kid I would play it on car rides or whatever, get a headache (as playing games in the car always did), and then start over the next time I played. So I never got very far. Then as an adult, I've revisited the game now and then but I haven't gotten very far; I don't know if I've ever even done one of the contest thingies! So this will be a bit of a "blind" playthrough for me. Hopefully this will be fun for people who have never tried the GB version as I will try to explain all the details of the game.

When you start a new game (I had to delete data, so I guess I had played on this emulator before lol), you are given the options "Choose Egg" or "Explain." Explain option will tell you about the various game functions, including "tournaments," which include racing, beauty contests, some kind of knowledge exam, and "other." I don't know what all this entails, so we'll have to find out together! (Please don't spoil for me if you have played before )

When you decide to choose your egg, you are taken to the Egg Room. Here there are 8 eggs you can choose from. I chose this one with stars because it is yellow, and that's my favorite color out of the options.

But then it took me to the naming screen, where the egg was green!!

Then when we went into the Tamagotchi House, the egg was black! WHAT IS THE TRUTH, GAME???? I wanted a Yellow egg!!!

Anyway, I named the little thing Rory, which hatched into Shirobabytchi. You can get randomly Babytchi or Shirobabytchi from the egg, and you have the ability to grow into both P1 and P2 characters! I don't know all the characters you can get or how you get them, I just know that there are a big group possible from those two

When Rory first hatched, he was grumpy... this is because like all hatched newborns he is very hungry and unhappy. So it's time to feed him...

You actually have five options for food (!) this time, with three of them being for meals: Bread, Meat, and Carrot. The snack options are Ice Cream and Cake.

Tamagotchis actually have preferences of which type of food they like. Not sure if this makes a difference in their evolution or not (again, don't tell me just yet XD) or what, but it's a feature of the game anyway...

When bread came down, Rory got wide-eyed and his mouth watered before he chomped it apart. Very funny!

When I gave him meat, however, he groaned to the side and ate it reluctantly...

And when I gave him a carrot, he did nothing in particular but eat it. So I took a screencap of the eating sprite because it's so cute.

After eating, it's time to play. There are three games you can play, but we'll get to the other two next time, because I only had a few minutes to play today and wanted to make sure I had enough time to write this entry. Plus it'll give more to talk about in future entries anyway

Playing is everyone's oh-so-favorite minigame from the P1 release, called "Smile Game" in this version. You have to press left or right and hope that RNG plays in your favor and your Tamagotchi looks the same way 3 out of 5 times or better. Very... fun... (I hate it).

Fortunately we only lost once, so we only had to play the game 5 times. It's very possible to get on an unlucky streak and have to play the game like 10+ times On average it should take like 8 times... which is not fun at all.

So after we have eaten and played, we can see Rory's hearts are full on his status page. Sadly it does not tell you the name of the evolution character, so you have to know them from outside the game somehow. This is one of few games I actually don't have the box and manual for sadly so I'm not sure if it lists the characters in the manual. I guess I can look up a copy of the manual for next time.

You can also see that in addition to the normal Life and Fun meters, as well as the Deed meter (which is for discipline), there are IQ and Body meters! More on these next time...

You may also notice in the top right there are three squares. What could that mean? Probably most of you know already, but if you don't, it's a very nice surprise! Actually, I'll just tell you. You can raise three Tamagotchis at once! Isn't that cool? It can feel a little hectic but since it was designed to be played that way, it's not so bad.

If anyone has any name suggestions for future Tamas, please let me know! I am really bad at coming up with names! Names can be 6 letters long, and I won't use any obscene or inappropriate names of course.

Also can anyone guess Rory's namesake? Winner gets 5 cookies ^^ A hint is that it is related to sports.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Nice log! I logged Tamagotchi Game Boy once, but I was taking photographs from real hardware, instead. It's one of my favourite Tamagotchi versions, and I hope that you have fun with it!

(Please don't spoil for me if you have played before )

No spoilers, but a warning: This game's translation is very much a Japanese-to-English Dictionary type of translation (it was quite common in the 1980s and 1990s to have a secretary who knew English handle translating games, and this one heavily has that sort of vibe to it), and some text is translated catastrophically badly - such as the option to kill the Tamagotchi and start over, which is harmlessly labelled "Home" in accordance with the sugar-coating of the concept of death in the virtual pets that was going on at the time. Be careful!

You can also see that in addition to the normal Life and Fun meters, as well as the Deed meter (which is for discipline), there are IQ and Body meters! More on these next time...

Not a spoiler, but there are actually two hidden meters that are vital to success, which the game never tells you about! They're called "Fear" and "Mine" (bad translations of "Stress" and "Selfishness"). There's a code on GameFAQs, and I suggest that you input it before you get too far with this log, because you'll need the information from those meters.

 

[KuchipatchiPod]

Thanks for the help Penguin I did play some more before reading your post so I haven't input any codes yet, but I'll do so the next time I play. Hopefully it's something I just have to do once! "Fear" is a funny stat name, your Tamagotchi fears you how sad XD

And yeah I went to the "Home" option and it was like "ARE YOU SURE??" So I was afraid to press Yes. Good to know it's a kill button (that's a little grim though).

Anyway, here's how my adventures have continued:

So, Rory is happily bouncing around the screen. Now it's time to show one of the other games you can play...

These are the three games you have access to: Smile Game (which I talked about last time), Study Game, and Sports Game. Study Game raises your IQ level, while Sports Game raises your Body level. Since Rory is an athlete, we're going to work on the Sports Game with him for now.

The Sports Game is a little obnoxious, but a little fun at the same time. Your Tamagotchi must hop around and collect falling baseballs from the sky. The ground is divided into five columns where baseballs can drop, and simply being in the same column as a ball before it hits the ground counts as a "catch." You can hold a direction and tap the A button to make your Tama jump in that direction, but it will also randomly jump on its own, which can be quite frustrating as it may hop over to one side of the screen and then a ball fall to the other side.

My main strategy is to try to return to the center after catching one ball so that I'm more capable of reaching any of the available columns. But of course, sometimes Rory has his own ideas and hops away from the center...

A total of 10 balls will fall, and to win Game A, you have to catch 5 of them or more. There's also Game B and Game C, in which you have to catch 7 and 9 balls respectively.

Catching 9 balls is very hard and can be insanely frustrating when you fail many times in a row. But fortunately for me and Rory, I got it on my first try this time!

I don't know the exact mechanics to how the IQ and Body stats raise, but my general "strategy" is to play Game A twice to get Body to 50%, then play Game B once to get it to 75%, and finally Game C to get it to 100%. Losing the game seems to have no effect on the stat, and winning will raise it, but if you play Game A when you are at 50% or more, it doesn't seem to raise, and Game B won't raise it from 75% to 100%. Maybe it's possible to play them over and over and eventually raise a bit (like as if they were raising it by only part of the way, and the game only displays every 25%?)

Anyway, Rory is now a star athlete with a full Body meter! As you can see, Life has dropped by one so it's feeding time again. I decided to give Rory a diet of only carrots, as it's healthy for his career as a pro sportsman. He doesn't hate them, so that's good. Plus we don't want to spoil and fatten him up by eating so much bread XD

Sometimes when Rory is bored (less than full Fun hearts) he will just space out like this with a derpy look on his face. Very cute. Sometimes instead he walks around more slowly without all the bouncing.

And to show off more cute sprites, here is what happens when you feed the food that fills up the Life meter. The Tama's belly bulges and they let out a puff of air Very cute, I love this one.

They also let out a puff of air when they are relieved by letting out a poo.

There was getting to be little to do with Rory other than wait for hearts to drop, so I decided to hatch a new egg. This time I picked the blue egg and named her Ami, since she is going to be my "IQ" themed Tamagotchi. Bonus cookies if you can guess the reference I know I asked for name suggestions but I wanted to play a little more last night and needed to come up with my own names lol.

The blue egg hatched into another Shirobabytchi, so there's not much to show in the way of new or interesting sprites and reactions; it's basically the exact same as Rory.

Shortly after hatching Ami, Rory went to sleep. Here he is with a nightcap and pacifier. I turned the light off to let him rest. I think if all of your Tamas are sleeping, you can advance the clock until one of them wakes up, but since we have two and only one is asleep, we can't do that.

And then to add more mayhem to my caretaking, I decided to hatch one more egg. I chose the black egg as this is going to be my deliquent Tamagotchi. I named him Thaao -- there's no surprise meaning to this one, it's just my name XD This time he hatched into Babytchi, which is fitting since that's my favorite of the two babies. Though honestly the "grumpy" newborn sprite is not as cute for Babytchi compared to Shirobabychi.

I go back and forth between giving Ami bread (because her namesake likes sandwiches) and carrots (because they seem healthy), but Thaao gets a diet of ALL BREAD. He gets to eat his favorite food every single meal!!! Because he is a spoiled Tama who doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to.

Which means he doesn't have to play Smile Game if he doesn't want to! Instead, he can eat all the cake and ice cream he wants! The ice cream animation is so cute in that they actually lick it with a big tongue sticking out, instead of eating it with the same animation as the other foods.

Once Thaao was satiated, it was time to work on Ami's IQ. The Study Game is a bit funny, but also frustrating because I'm not sure how it works. An equation is given at the bottom of the screen while the Tama darts around frantically trying to decide the answer. The Tama is given three equations, and you have to get 2 out of 3 correct to pass the minigame. The problem is I can't seem to figure out if there's a way to influence which way your Tama goes. I try pressing the directional buttons, which will initiate movement, but the Tama doesn't always go the way I press. Maybe it increases the chance of them selecting your chosen answer, but like the Sports Game, they have a chance of doing their own thing as well?

When Tama fails the game by getting 1 or 0 answers correct, they throw a little tantrum.

Game A, B, and C differ by the complexity of the equations and the number of possible answers. In Game C, they add subtraction to the mix, and there can even be up to 4 possible answers!

Similarly to Rory and the Sports Game, I won two Game A, one Game B, and one Game C to get Ami's IQ level to 100%.

After playing with Ami, Thaao was hungry for more ice creams. But feeding him too many made him sick. Maybe I will have to play Smile Game a bit after all...

You have the option to give pills or a shot. I figure since he got a tummy ache, a tablet would be better than a shot, so I fed him two sets of pills and he got better. Here he is munching the pills with a disgusted look on his face. That's what you get for eating too many ice creams, buddy!! (Even though it was my fault for feeding them to him...)

And that's all I played last night

I think I will hold off on inputting the code for the two hidden stats for now and just let these guys grow and die "naturally," then when I get new eggs after I'm done with this trio, I'll input the code and try to focus on the new stats, too. Add a bit of longevity to the game for me.

Here is how the care differs for each Tama right now:

1. Rory eats solely carrots and always plays Smile Game to increase Fun. He focuses on Body since he is an athlete.
2. Ami eats a mixture of bread and carrot and always plays Smile Game to increase fun. She focuses on IQ since she is a genius.
3. Thaao eats only bread as it is his favorite food, and enjoys cake and ice cream to increase fun. He doesn't increase Body or IQ because he is lazy and spoiled.

And here is a poo to leave you with

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I did play some more before reading your post so I haven't input any codes yet, but I'll do so the next time I play. Hopefully it's something I just have to do once!

It is.

The Sports Game is a little obnoxious, but a little fun at the same time.

I really like the Sports Game!

And to show off more cute sprites, here is what happens when you feed the food that fills up the Life meter. The Tama's belly bulges and they let out a puff of air Very cute, I love this one.

This game has so many adorable animations. It's funny how the Game Boy influenced the monochrome graphics of the original toys, and then allowed the same characters to become even more expressive when they appeared on the Game Boy itself!

The problem is I can't seem to figure out if there's a way to influence which way your Tama goes. I try pressing the directional buttons, which will initiate movement, but the Tama doesn't always go the way I press. Maybe it increases the chance of them selecting your chosen answer, but like the Sports Game, they have a chance of doing their own thing as well?

This is my understanding of it. Repeated pressing seems to make a difference, but as with the randomness of the Smile Game, I'm not sure if there really is some sort of pattern to it or not.

After playing with Ami, Thaao was hungry for more ice creams. But feeding him too many made him sick. Maybe I will have to play Smile Game a bit after all...

This is the game where the deadly snacks that we know so well from the Gen 1/Gen 2 remakes originated from! There's even a speedrun category for it called "Death%".

And here is a poo to leave you with

Charming.

 

[KuchipatchiPod]

Death%... that is funny XD I wouldn't expect this to be a game people would speedrun hahahaha. And yes there are SO MANY adorable animations, I absolutely love it. I'm overwhelmed with cuteness the whole time ^^

So I played a little more, and while I was attending to Thaao, Rory called. But I didn't make it in time, as he only called for a few seconds. Then when I went to check on him (I switch between Tamas by going to the Status screen then switching from there), his status was fine so I thought maybe he had misbehaved. But he was just hopping around happily...

Then I noticed there was something a little different about his face... then I realized...

He had evolved! Can you tell the difference between Shirobabytchi and Marutchi? It's very subtle hahaha. Marutchi is a little bigger and so has more room for expression on its face.

Since each character has their own favorites (it's linked to character, not the individual Tama), I decided to try out the different foods for Rory as Marutchi. Now he hates carrots So much for his vegan diet... he still loves bread but just is OK with meat. So now I'm feeding him meat so he can get protein for them gains. LOL I wanted to keep feeding him carrots but I feel bad feeding him something he hates all the time.

Ami also evolved into Marutchi. Then she refused to play Smile Game when she didn't have full Fun hearts, so I scolded her... and her angry face was quite terrifying!

I fed a few more cakes and ice creams to Thaao and... suddenly he flattened out into a little Babytchi pancake and the screen started flashing black and white rapidly. It was very scary!

Then the screen went completely white and little images of Thaao in pain faded in and out o______o

Then Thaao grew wings and floated away to the heavens...

I think this is my first time seeing the death animation in this game o_o It was pretty intense!!!

And I couldn't believe he died as a baby. IDK why they even give you the option to give them ice cream and cake if it makes them die so fast XD It should be a little more lenient, I feel, hahahaha.

I was then prompted to "Save," with eight slots I could choose from. When I saved, it saved a little "Memory" of Thaao in the slot! Neat!

There's some kind of weird stats under the age, a "!" stat, a star stat, and ... something else. I'm guessing these are for wins in the tournaments...? Not sure.

Afterward we are taken to the Laboratory screen, where I chose to hatch another egg.

This time I chose the white egg (the "opposite" of Thaao's black egg) and named him Dennis after my husband. This one I'm going to try to have "perfect" care with and make him good at both sports and intelligence (even though my actual husband would not be that great at either LOLOL don't tell him I said that)

He hatched into a Shirobabytchi so now all three Tamas in my care are a white circle with a smiley face lol.

The other two Tamas went to sleep as it was night time, so I could focus all my attention on Dennis.

He got sick almost right away, which I thought was quite strange. Here he is cowering in fear for his shot After getting the first injection, he went mad, darting around the room and yelling, but after the second one, he seemed quite happy to be well again. The little scared sprite made me feel bad for giving him a shot, but otherwise he would just be eternally sick, so it was for the best...

And that's where I stopped for this play session I hope you enjoyed reading.

 

[TamagotchiLover16]

Tamagotchi when disciplined:
“Ugh… Fine…”

 

[atompalace]

This is a great log! It’s super fun to learn about how the GB game works, I didn’t realise it had as many details as it does. Is Ami a reference to Sailor Moon?

 

[KuchipatchiPod]

Yup, you got it! I love Sailor Moon

I need to get back to this log... I keep playing little bits here and there but nothing to log about has happened yet XD

 

[atompalace]

Yup, you got it! I love Sailor Moon

I need to get back to this log... I keep playing little bits here and there but nothing to log about has happened yet XD

Me too! A great reference you’ve made!

Fair enough, I’m sure something new will happen. We’ll look forward to it patiently!

 

[tamagotchivideo]

this is such a fun log so far..!! i dont see a lot of logs for the console games so this is really cool! excited for whenever the next entry is going to happen!