TamagotchiPix - Ocean (Blue)

Truly, I have one mainline Tamagotchi from every release, and while I like some better than others, the fact of the matter is, they're just too expensive to buy now.Currently on the market there are three feasible options for a new Tama collector. You can buy one of the original 1996 remakes that come in a variety of shells. Or you could buy a Tamagotchi Nano which is just as simple as the 1996 remakes but have some interesting license tie-in's such as Hello Kitty, Pac-man, Gudetama.... etc. But with either of these choice, they're ultimately very simple pets and won't offer much for their price.Then there are color Tamagotchis and you have two routes if you're buying what's currently being manufactured: The Tamagotchi Smart or the Tamagotchi Pix. The Smart is a Japanese release. Simple gameplay with a four-panel touch screen control. It's a cute device but there's not much to do on it and it's not future proof. With it's rechargeable battery, one day that device is going to have issues. And if you're not interested in an expensive import from Japan with Japanese text, then might I suggest the Pix?The pix is the bigger cousin to the Smart--charged with batteries (but you can buy rechargeable batteries, which is what I do) and also touts touch controls; except the controls this time are three touch sensitive buttons. It takes a bit of getting used to, and you're bound to have a few accidental inputs, but I would say that it's actually a lot more fun than the Tamagotchi Smart. You can grow/raise adorable characters (no gene mixing) every time. You can do cute activities like throw parties which have new activities each time you throw one. Invite friends over and explore places together. You can use the built-in camera for exploring, taking photos, collecting colors for painting items (red, blue, white and yellow), making all kinds of new food. You can take your Tama to the park, the arcade (with new games that rotate everyday), the store to buy goods and even do a daily raffle. At home you can order in pizza or furniture via the phone and decorate your home with said furniture. You can even update your Tamagotchi's social media with photos, captions and filters... lol. And after about a week you don't need to wrestle with the decision of marrying off your Tama, for in a weeks time, they ask you to put a photo album together so you have a keepsake once they journey back to their home planet. I really like this aspect because then it's not up to me to decide how long I keep my lil' friend and I know I have only a week to spend time with them and make the most of it! But I should note that with max care and friendship, your Tama can actually stay longer.I'd say the Pix really impressed with me with the amount of fun and changeable content. With the On/Meets line of Tamagotchis, I found myself a little bored after unlocking all locations. It boiled down to seeing what my Tamagotchi evolved into then marry it off soon after. Don't get me wrong, the Meets/On have their charm but I'm liking the break from the gene mixing and the new features the pix introduced. It's a big toy and fairly expensive but once they stop being manufactured that price will climb. The Pix maybe your thing, it may not. But you'll never know until you try it.

I've had my pix party for nearly a year now (i got it for myself for my 30th birthday last summer) and i still love it like when i first got it!! the party feature adds a lot of additional gameplay compared to the original pix but the same charm and all the same raisable tamas except for 1 "boy" and 1 "girl." the sitter option is great if you have work or school as it takes care of your tamagotchi from 7am-7pm and only costs one minigames worth of gotchi points per day.the only thing i dislike about modern tamas is theyre gendered unnecessarily. my paintotchi is a blob of paint.. thats not boy-specific. other than that its a blast!!full color, the training for jobs once they leave for their home planet changes based on what you do on the device, and if your friendship is high enough you have the option of keeping them forever as they dont grow old and die in this model!turning the brightness down helps with battery consumption and theres an option to turn the sound off too but id definitely recommend getting some rechargeable eneloop AAAs for continual use as the camera does drain the battery quickly. i personally really prefer using rechargable AAAs instead of a USB-c port because if the batteries wear out i can just buy new ones instead of having the entire device die because of a dead internal battery i likely cannot replace myself. rechargable AAAs is a lot better for device longevity and im not looking forward to the possible "upgrade" to a charger port.Edit: I'm coming back to review the original Pix since I know own all the shell colors and amazon doesn't let you review the Pix and Pix Party seperately which is a shame since they're a fair amount different. I've heard a lot of people hate the faceplate designs on the Pix and I personally really love the purple and green shells. The Pix (and the party) are really lightweight and fit awesome in my hands. it has easily the best hand feel out of any tamagotchi model i own.the click of the camera is really satisfying both in feel and noise. being able to turn the brightness down and sound off is a must for me since i suffer from migraines but get really bored stuck in the dark all day. its nice to be able to check on my tama when i cant do anything else. i do wish the brightness had a few more options as the lowest setting still feels brighter than it needs to be to see it but there might be hardware/software limitations im unaware of.I LOVE the touch buttons. I know this may come as a surprise since so many reviews dislike them and I honestly hated them at first but once I got used to them (didnt take much use, just some trial and error) I prefer them to traditional buttons. I'm autistic so when I'm feeling a sensory ick it's nice to not have to feel the whole button and press down hard. just a light tap or swipe does everything I need. i also just love petting my tama. it feels really immersive!changing the faceplate is possible if you dont like the design but be careful! you might scuff the shell a bit getting it off. One of my biggest complaint about tamagotchis versus other Vpets is they aren't usually designed with a faceplate change in mind. this is really annoying considering the amount of the consumerbase that ends up changing the faceplate or customizing their tama in various ways.im not going to review them here since this is just for the device but i made myself a fuzzy spider shaped case i love to pet when i play with it and theres many other soft/fluffy/fuzzy case options on etsy if you don't like silicone.