It can be played without the figurines. The Tama-Go does come with a figurine in the box though.
I think that the price of the figurines is fair enough because it contains 2 games to play on the tamagotchi, as well as unlock other things on the tamagotchi itself as well as on tama-town.
I do think it's rather big. I think that they could have made them a bit smaller from seeing the inside of it on binary's log, but hey, I'm not gonna complain.
~shawdy~ ^_^
P.S. - I just read
THIS TOPIC that BANDAI states that Tama-Go will be available in Toys R Us, Kmart, Target and Wal-Mart nationwide.