Giga Pets Interactive Digital Pet Toy for Kids, Cryptids, Ages 5+ | Portable Keychain Companion with Handheld Care, App-Free Activities for Travel and Nostalgic 90s-Inspired Gifting

I first stumbled on Giga Pets rereleases at a Target, but passed them up as the AR aspect of older releases didn't interest me. I had the Lost World T-Rex as a kid, and it's the virtual pet I most remember from my childhood. Wish I had sprung for the rereleases earlier, as I finally went for these new Collector's Editions with some improvements from the AR releases (got all 3 versions), and I think they're my favorite virtual pet rerelease yet between the ones I've tried. I don't want to go too in depth on where other virtual pet rereleases have had their issues for me, as it varies pet to pet, and despite issues, I still overall have enjoyed all the rereleases I've tried. I don't want to discourage anyone from trying out various virtual pet rereleases and finding their favorites. The Giga Pet rereleases, which I've been running for 4 days now at time of writing (2 of them work days), are my favorites so far and one reason is they fit my lifestyle best. I often cannot check on virtual pets for hours on end at work (especially in the morning). These Giga Pets have so far been robust enough to last for a long time without absolutely requiring care. Sure, their stats drop considerably by the time I can check on them at lunch, but they're not sick or dead. Additionally, I still have the option to force them to sleep for a few hours to slow down the stat drop rate. But if I forget to do that, I'll still probably have an alive and reasonably healthy pet a few hours later, just one needing attention. Each Collector's Edition pet also has a variety of games you can play to raise happiness, which helps keep up variety. None are too terribly difficult, but it's nice to switch it up (though for the "jump the hurdles" game with the Unicorn, I wish the Unicorn was on one side of the screen instead of the middle, to give a little more lead time to jump). Additionally, many actions affect multiple stats, instead of each action only affecting one (for example, tricks can raise discipline and happiness, as long as you reward your pet afterwards). Feeding a meal affects hunger the most, but also health and happiness. Also, the animations. See the video to see some of the animations each pet goes through when you're not interacting with it. Every action also has some cute animations, and some animations can even communicate needs (the dog starts scratching itself when it needs a bath, for example). The animations give each pet a lot of life and personality. There's also a battery save idling image when you don't interact with your pet for a time, and a low battery warning. Battery case is easy to remove, you only need a small Phillips head screwdriver and a fresh CR2032 battery. It seems they have enough memory to allow a battery swap without losing progress, as I briefly disconnected a battery in one of mine and it picked up right where it left off when I reconnected it. Overall I have very few complaints about these so far. What small complaints I do have (like one of the Unicorn games) are far outweighed by what I've enjoyed. I haven't had any issues with any color or shell decorations rubbing off, but I do carry each pet in a small headphone case to and from work. The biggest complaint is that two of mine arrived with small screen scratches, but a bit of Displex fixed those and they look like new. I have to tilt the screens in a very specific way to even see where they were. For the MSRP price of 15.99 USD, these are a worthwhile purchase for anyone who's curious about them. Final note: In my pictures and video, I want to point out that I swapped the factory keychain out for ones I took off spare Digimon 20th anniversary devices.

This is so cute. My daughter loves it, BUT! I’ve had it for THREE DAYS and it’s already flashing a low battery sign??! Thankfully I have some coming today but seriously? I hope the new battery lasts longer or this was a huge waste of money. UPDATE: amazing customer service! After a new battery it has been working much better! Would definitely purchase from this seller again.

While the inspiration is clear, this is not just another Tamagotchi rip off. In a lot of ways I prefer this giga pet over the comparable Tamagotchi originals. The two major things in my opinion are the games and the care mechanism. Let's be honest the Tama P1 & P2 only have one each, and P1 is entirely based on chance. The giga pet has 2 games for every life stage that are unique to each cryptid, and a special game for when you have a high care level as an adult cryptid. They are very entertaining and even require some skill. Some are easier than others, but they're all fun in their own way. This variety helps keep the care from becoming too repetitive. As far as the care mechanics there are several needs you need to meet: hunger, discipline, health, and happiness. Taking care of these needs can have a positive or negative affect on other needs. For example feeding the healthy food option improves hunger and health, while feeding a treat improves hunger and happiness, but decreases discipline. Bathing might increase health but decrease happiness. Playing games will increase happiness but decrease discipline. Some actions restore a more points than others, ie. Healthy food will increase more hunger than a treat, scolding your cryptid will increase more discipline than training, and games will increase more happiness than training, but the negative effects are greater too. I love this mechanic and it feels very dynamic and "realistic" in a way. BUT that doesn't mean the Tama Classic doesn't have it's own charm! You don't get to see any of your points or Care Mistakes with your Tama, and these invisible mistakes have a real effect on how your Tama evolves. Good care unlocks certain "prettier" tamas while poor care unlocks some very quirky characters. I like them both, but many people have preferences that they like to aim for. I like that sense of consequence, that feeling after a busy week not knowing what you're gonna get but feeling attached anyway. A visible consequence or reward for your diligence. Which brings me to my one major con with Giga Pets Cryptids: they don't die. If you fail to care for them they run away to the wilderness where you can catch them again at a later date with no consequences. They're still at the same life stage they they left in, and their stats are always at 50%. I don't have any other giga pets, so I don't know if it's the same across the line. It's something I didn't expect to miss, but I do. I'm clearly an adult, but as a 90s kid I have a long history with Tamagotchis. I remember the real life drama that was checking in on your Tama and finding out they had passed. It wasn't traumatic, but it did instill a real sense of responsibility. I cannot stress how cute these VPets are, and that cycle of care and growth until they're grown up and either die of old age or move out is very rewarding. You've evolved your Tama as a result of your care, and no matter how they turned out you've successfully done your "job" as a caretaker. And then you get to start again. The Cryptids don't die and so you never get to start from the baby stage (unless you reset the device, which is very easy to do). Essentially, you can keep your Cryptid forever. A pro and a con. We've all had beloved tamas leave before we were ready, and I love that the lifespan is essentially tied to the care mechanic. Better care = healthier tamas you can keep longer. The last major difference is in the pets themselves. With Tamagotchi you collect the different pets by completing their life cycle and starting over with a new egg. You only ever care for one pet at a time. But with the giga pets Cryptids you raise Bigfoot to adulthood and then you have the opportunity to catch Loch Ness or Mothman and once they grow up you can catch the final one. Once you have all three, you are essentially caring for 3 v pets at the same time. Comparing one pet each, the giga pets are generally easier to care for and much more forgiving. But when you have three it can be a lot, much harder than Tamagotchi in that case. I don't always run three at the same time, you can just neglect the others and they'll run away until you want to catch them again. I do wish there was more randomness to how you start. You always start with Bigfoot, and then get the opportunity to catch the others. I wish in addition with the death feature, it would be random which cryptid you start with. It would be a pleasant surprise. I also wish there was a positive and negative variation of each cryptid depending on your care. If these features were added, I feel like it would be the perfect v pet. That being said, there's no such thing as a perfect v pet and I understand that there are many people who would appreciate the lack of a death mechanic. However in my opinion I do feel it does a disservice to kids. All my life I've had a variety of real world pets, and in a way I do credit Tamagotchi for being my first pet at such a young age. It allowed me to experience the positives and the negatives of caring for a life, even if it was virtual. However as a game and a toy, both Tamagotchi and giga pets are excellent. And I've had a blast with these Cryptids over the last year. I will definitely be getting more gigapets, I'm currently eyeing the pixie because it's so cute. As a parent you can't go wrong with this giga pet, and as a collector I definitely think this is a must have!

FINAL UPDATE 6/14/23: We finally figured out the trick to this -- turn off the sound. If you turn the sound off, the annoying battery symbol disappears. We've been using the same battery mentioned in the previous update three months ago, and it's only just now started flashing the low battery symbol again. It's sad that you can't use the sound effects, but we've managed to max out the age and weight (100yrs and 40lbs, respectively) on Star Cat, so I'd say there's significant longevity without it. UPDATED REVIEW 3/18/23: I came back to add a star. After posting the initial review, we decided to just let the cat go until the battery died. It's now been WEEKS since the "low battery" symbol started popping up, but the dang thing is still going. I can't give it a full five stars due to the annoyance of having a flashing low battery notification consistently interrupting play, but it seems to have a better battery life than even the toy itself would expect. ORIGINAL REVIEW: Our 6yo loves this thing. The screen is clearly visible (especially when compared to a Tamagotchi screen), the variety of games is appreciated, and Star Cat in particular is not too needy. If it weren't for the battery situation, this would be a 5-star toy. This cat is two weeks old today, and we're already on its FOURTH battery! The first battery started to die the day after we removed the tab and started it up, and each subsequent replacement has only lasted a couple days. Luckily, it doesn't do a hard reset and lose progress at each change, but we'll probably be letting this one go completely once we run through the pack of batteries we bought for it.

This is really cool! Has bigfoot, Nees, and moth man pets! Great for a gift 🎁

Mine does not alert when it needs something it doesn’t beep it makes every other noise but doesn’t beep and it is not muted I also had to reset it cause it was glitching everytime I’d play a game

It brings back memories from my childhood.my kids love them. overall good quality. Just the battery did last that long. Three days after getting it the battery died

I own quite a few classic 1990s Giga Pets as well as several of these new-era Giga Pets. I've also bought a few of the new-era ones for my cousin's young kids. While I enjoy some of the new ones, especially the frog and StarCat, I am about to stop using or recommending new-era Giga Pets mainly because of my frustration over battery issues. Firstly, the absolute longest I've had batteries last in one of my new-era Giga Pets was 30-something days (which is quite bad compared to the old ones). Usually I have some sort of battery issue start within several days. I learned, first of all, to never use the battery that comes in these new pets; they will not last for many days at all. Buy your own name-brand battery and swap batteries when you open a new Giga Pet. However, I just did this with my newly opened unicorn and put in a new (not expired) Energizer battery, and I only got to use the unicorn for 4 days before it started flashing the low battery icon on the screen and having the screen go blank. So I attempted a battery swap. Here's where the second issue comes in. Swapping out batteries in these new-era Gigas is always a struggle for me. It's super easy with classic Gigas. With these ones, it can be hard to get the battery out (you've got to push in the metal lever on the side just right, which can sometimes be a struggle, and then the battery shoots out). Then trying to get a new battery to go in and stay in is even worse. I have especially struggled with this in the unicorn I got for my cousin's child and my own unicorn. Pushing in the metal lever on the side doesn't help, and the lever gets damaged from my attempts. I tried to get a battery to stay in the Giga for my cousin's kid by cutting out little round pieces of cardboard to put in the battery compartment to try to hold the battery down and in place. That worked temporarily. My own unicorn also will not hold a battery now and I've only gotten 4 days of use out of it -- and I think the metal lever is damaged from my attempts at getting a new battery to stay in. This is just ridiculous and not worth the hassle. There is no reason for such an annoying battery compartment design. I really wish they would change this. Also, the way the new-era Gigas start glitching for a while before the battery totally dies is another major annoyance for me. The old ones functioned normally right up until the battery died, and then it would just go dead with a blank screen . . . like any normal electronic device. I don't get why these new ones are so dang glitchy. All the icons start flashing and the pet starts displaying the animations it shows when it needs things, because all the stats have suddenly dropped. And the screen will be flashing in and out, going blank. It confused me a lot at first, and I came to learn that's just normal for these things if the battery is supposedly getting low. You're supposed to be able to swap the batteries out quickly in these new Gigas and continue with the life of your pet instead of having to start over. That would be pretty cool and wasn't something that was possible with the old ones. However, I have never succeeded in doing a battery swap quickly and perfectly enough. I was also told by someone on a virtual pet forum that even when they thought they had swapped out the battery quickly, their pets' life did not carry over. So that seems kind of like false advertising and I'm wondering if anyone has ever succeeded in continuing their pets' life through a battery swap. Why even list that as a feature if it's nearly impossible? When it comes to the design of the pets, I get annoyed that all of these new ones make animal sounds. I like my Giga Pets to just make little beep sounds. That's something I like about my old ones, that they sound more like little classic video games rather than making animal noises. They should offer these new Gigas in both forms, like the old ones had versions with animal sounds and without. And the amount of noises these new ones make when you leave the pet alone is ridiculous. In my opinion, virtual pets should not make noise when you're not interacting with them except to beep when attention is needed (if any of its scores fall low and it needs to be fed or something). You can mute the device, of course, but then you don't hear calls for attention. In conclusion, the pet designs are kind of nice (if you don't mind the sounds or mind keeping in muted) but these things have bad technical design in the ways mentioned and I will no longer be buying these for myself or anyone else unless these issues are improved.

Kids really love it! Compared to $100 gift we bought them and this is what they play the very next day and evryday.

Ma fille est ravie mais les piles sur que quelques jours dommage

Stupendo!! 😍

Got these for a very long car summer road trip. They sucked when I was a kid because you'd go to school and they'd die, but absolutely perfect for an "I'm boooorrrred" moment. Better see if your pet needs a snack or a bath! The battery life is not great, so we also took along a pack of those.

Fun and easy to play with two modes, easy and hard this is a fun little virtual pet and the cat sounds are cute. My only complaint is that the battery died less than 24 hours later, so either I got a diff battery or this thing drains them like nobody’s business, will put a new one in and hope it’s just a diff battery. Build quality is solids thou and the buttons arnt to stiff or stick. The games are very responsive as well and performance is smooth with no glitching. EDIT: had to return for replacement as it started to glitch out on me. Hoping the replacement works better as it is a fun little pet.