Tamagotchi On - Wonder Garden (Lavender) (42844)

I was one of those kids with a keychain blob of Tamagotchis and other digital pets in the 90s, so when I saw these newer Tamagotchis finally get an English release, I had to get one... and then another one! My friend also got two. No issues with scratched screens on arrival as mentioned in other reviews (though the screens do scratch extremely easily, so you will need to be careful), but one of my friend's boxes had a huge rip through it so it sounds like there are quality issues with the packaging/physical product design in general.As far as the Tamagotchi game goes, I thought $60 was a bit steep, but I still got two of them so they're definitely worth it if you like digital pets. The artwork and character animations are really cute, and the different locations and items are nice. The amount of characters you start with is limited, but the whole focus of this set of Tamagotchis is marrying them and breeding them for different character combinations and traits. This is definitely the most fun part for me, and while you do need two Tamagotchis to unlock all of the locations and characters, there's also a phone app that lets you do matchmaking with other players and the monthly app-specific character. This way you still have a chance to get traits from characters you don't have. You can also get extra items and Gotchi points from the app as well, though right now there's not much you can do beyond that.Once your Tamagotchi is 2nd generation, you can have its parents watch it most of the day so you don't have to worry about it getting sick or dying while you're at school or work which is a huge plus and makes the game feel more chill. Sometimes your Tamagotchis will have two kids instead of one (though they're effectively one character in the game) which means more chances for fun gene combos.The only real complaint I have about these is the battery life. I have a set of high powered rechargeable AAA batteries, which you'll definitely need since these things eat through batteries like they're nothing. I get a Low Battery screen about once a week. This seems pretty ridiculous to me, especially since the batteries are only half drained when I take them out to charge them. My friend got a pack of non-rechargeables and only gets slightly better battery life than I do even with minimal use.I'd love to see them bring over more of the Japanese characters either through the app or a future release, but as-is, these are fantastic if you loved the original Tamagotchis! And they're great for newcomers as well. Just watch out for the battery life.

I bought 3 of these, one for myself, my wife, and my 5 year old and we've had a great time playing with them. You can't really interact with eachother as much as I'd like. For example playing games together, but you can visit and get a lot of neat little things for doing so, build up relationships, marry, and have a new pet from that marriage. I find these can be a great tool to teach responsibility as the first few stages really require a lot of attention and you need to take care of them or they'll get sick, hungry, unhappy, and eventually pass away. Don't worry though it's not a one time use, you can start over again as much as you'd like. The App is definitely a tad disappointing as it looks like it offers so much more than it does. It's really only good for marrying the Japanese only versions of the tama and getting the genes from say hello kitty or the fantasy ones and for items you can't get in the game. I urge you look up tamatown as Theres a wonderful app that someone who visited Japan brought their tama and grabbed all the data they could from the tama kiosks there, brought it back, and made an application for the pc that allows you to make your own character, marry them, give yourself money, and items. You can even add the characters to the parks so that way you still have to work for the marriage and not feel like you're cheating. It's a great app, I encourage you read the instructions though. I found it's helped with my daughter's because she doesn't have to do that daily grind for coins and what have you since she's only 5 And some, not all, of the mini games are a bit challenging. They're simple to learn but hard to really get the max 200 coin each time unless you have a fast thumb or good reflexes. Anyway I recommend this to anyone looking for something fun, entertaining, and light hearted for the family. I drive over the road and it's just added to that pool of stuff to talk about and show when I'm gone. It's truly great! I hope Japan might decide to give us more in the future, the tamas just arnt as popular over here like they use to be and they're still huge over there I mean kiosks?! That's awesome.