Penguin-keeper
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Much like The Works did in December of 2017, the UK discount chain Poundland is currently selling cheap virtual pets. However, unlike the ones sold by The Works, which cost £3 or £4 at the time (before later being reduced to £2), the Poundland ones are, of course, cheaper!
This is the first time that I'm aware of that it's been possible to walk into a mainstream British retail store and buy a virtual pet for £1.
They're marketed as Digi Pets (and, in French, Animaux Pixellisés), and are distributed by a company called Keycraft Global. The packaging indicates that these are a 2018 release for this company.
Naturally, the software used on this virtual pet is the oh-so-common 168-in-1 program that's commonly found on counterfeit Tamagotchis.
However, as you can see, this virtual pet isn't trying to fool anyone into thinking that it's a Tamagotchi, so it's not a fake itself. The packaging carries fanciful pictures of generic-looking pixel animals along with the name Digi Pets/Animaux Pixellisés, and the generic heart-shaped shell carries similar pictures along with the name "Jia Yuan", making it clear that it's just a cheap, generic virtual pet.
I actually already have a penguin-shaped 168-in-1 virtual pet, which I've written about before. However, because of the pictures on the Digi Pets packaging, and because the packaging doesn't state that it's a 168-in-1 pet (or claim any number of pets at all), I took a chance on it to see if it has any changes from the usual 168-in-1 software.
Whilst the software is largely the same in what it offers, this virtual pet uses a slightly different revision of it to the one that I reviewed before, which was a nice surprise for the gamble of £1! These are the differences that I've found so far with this version;
1: The pet sometimes gets sick, which doesn't seem to happen on my penguin-shaped 168-in-1 pet.
2: Weight-loss works correctly when your pet takes part in activities that should cause them to lose weight, such as games and work.
3: It doesn't poop as much, though it does still sometimes do so several times in a row, calling you again immediately after you've cleaned up the previous poop.
4: The display stays on for much longer, meaning that the unit doesn't go into sleep-mode every few minutes. This means that the pet is active and able to call for your attention for longer periods of time (something that it cannot do when it goes into sleep-mode).
5: It appears to actually keep time - and fairly well, at that. The penguin-shaped version that I have forgets what time it is after a little while, but this one doesn't seem to have done so yet.
I haven't found any more differences yet, but these changes alone make this version a little bit more fun than the 168-in-1 pet that was already in my collection.
The other main difference is outside of the software, though - the casing, and the printing/painting on it, is a bit better-made than my penguin-shaped one (which, ironically enough, cost me £3, so it was £2 more expensive than this one).
As I said back when I reviewed the penguin-shaped version last December, I find these cheap generic virtual pets to be fun for what they are - a weird, non-complex virtual pet that you can buy for pocket-change. I still feel the same way. These are never going to compete with a Tamagotchi, but they're clearly not supposed to - they're just a random oddity.
Still, if any British collectors around here want to add a strange little virtual pet to their collection, Poundland is the place to go right now!
These do seem to be the first-ever £1 virtual pets to be sold by a big national chain, after all!
This is the first time that I'm aware of that it's been possible to walk into a mainstream British retail store and buy a virtual pet for £1.
They're marketed as Digi Pets (and, in French, Animaux Pixellisés), and are distributed by a company called Keycraft Global. The packaging indicates that these are a 2018 release for this company.
Naturally, the software used on this virtual pet is the oh-so-common 168-in-1 program that's commonly found on counterfeit Tamagotchis.
However, as you can see, this virtual pet isn't trying to fool anyone into thinking that it's a Tamagotchi, so it's not a fake itself. The packaging carries fanciful pictures of generic-looking pixel animals along with the name Digi Pets/Animaux Pixellisés, and the generic heart-shaped shell carries similar pictures along with the name "Jia Yuan", making it clear that it's just a cheap, generic virtual pet.
I actually already have a penguin-shaped 168-in-1 virtual pet, which I've written about before. However, because of the pictures on the Digi Pets packaging, and because the packaging doesn't state that it's a 168-in-1 pet (or claim any number of pets at all), I took a chance on it to see if it has any changes from the usual 168-in-1 software.
Whilst the software is largely the same in what it offers, this virtual pet uses a slightly different revision of it to the one that I reviewed before, which was a nice surprise for the gamble of £1! These are the differences that I've found so far with this version;
1: The pet sometimes gets sick, which doesn't seem to happen on my penguin-shaped 168-in-1 pet.
2: Weight-loss works correctly when your pet takes part in activities that should cause them to lose weight, such as games and work.
3: It doesn't poop as much, though it does still sometimes do so several times in a row, calling you again immediately after you've cleaned up the previous poop.
4: The display stays on for much longer, meaning that the unit doesn't go into sleep-mode every few minutes. This means that the pet is active and able to call for your attention for longer periods of time (something that it cannot do when it goes into sleep-mode).
5: It appears to actually keep time - and fairly well, at that. The penguin-shaped version that I have forgets what time it is after a little while, but this one doesn't seem to have done so yet.
I haven't found any more differences yet, but these changes alone make this version a little bit more fun than the 168-in-1 pet that was already in my collection.
The other main difference is outside of the software, though - the casing, and the printing/painting on it, is a bit better-made than my penguin-shaped one (which, ironically enough, cost me £3, so it was £2 more expensive than this one).
As I said back when I reviewed the penguin-shaped version last December, I find these cheap generic virtual pets to be fun for what they are - a weird, non-complex virtual pet that you can buy for pocket-change. I still feel the same way. These are never going to compete with a Tamagotchi, but they're clearly not supposed to - they're just a random oddity.
Still, if any British collectors around here want to add a strange little virtual pet to their collection, Poundland is the place to go right now!
These do seem to be the first-ever £1 virtual pets to be sold by a big national chain, after all!
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