Virtual Pet Fans have been by Since September 1999!
I'm specifying that this is "V1" of the Digivice because I fully expect Bandai to bring over the
D3 (the funky "new" digivice sported by the kiddies and baddies of Digimon 02: The Next Generation.)
The Digivice I currently have will probably be obsolete, which I really don't mind, given the
numerous problems with the toy as it stands. Briefly, it is a virtual pet/pedometer along the
lines of Pocket Hello Kitty and Arukotchi (the pedometer pet version of Tamagotchi, released
only in Japan).
By the by, I don't watch the Digimon animated series regularly, nor do I own an original
Digimon keychain pet. If I make any factual errors in this review, please forgive me; I'm
working on what information I've gleaned from the official Japanese Digimon website, and
a continuing series of articles in Shonen Jump Magazine.
The Digivice comes from a line of toys inspired by an anime inspired by a manga inspired by a
virtual pet toy. The closest equivalent to this that immediately comes to mind is Pokemon Yellow,
which was a videogame inspired by an anime inspired by a manga inspired by a videogame.
However, Pokemon and its assorted merchandise had relatively little leeway, in terms of how far
they could stray from the original videogame and its concept. Digimon, on the other hand, has
increasingly less to do with the original tamagotchi-esque battling virtual pet game. It has
the same characters (kinda), the same setting (sorta) and the same attacks (mostly), but the
toys and the anime aren't really "the same" as the original keychain pet. The Digivice is
clearly a toy based on the anime and its "rules", rather than what used to be the boys'
equivalent of Tamagotchi.
For some reason, Japan has several variations on this pedometer/adventure toy,
in which every step you take counts as a step taken by your virtual pet. For example, if you
take ten steps, your virtual pet takes 10 steps in its little virtual world. And, in the case
of the Digivice, your little virtual pet periodically blunders into a little virtual virus,
which virtually tries to massacre your pet.
(In the case of Pocket Hello Kitty and Arukotchi, of course, you merely met new friends and
occasionally found new items with which to prettify yourself. No messy virtual combat there.)
You begin the game by selecting your Partner Digimon. (Aka the Party Digimon). These are the
Data and Vaccine Digimon who accompany the "Digi-Destined" on the anime/cartoon. I'd list
their names, but in this game they are more or less interchangeable. Sure, they look different,
and their animations are not quite the same, but all of their attacks appear as cone-shaped
energy balls, and they do the same amount of damage, have the same number of HP, etc. All in all,
I'm hard-pressed to find any actual differences between the characters you can choose.
(Interestingly enough, Gatomon/Tail-mon is treated as the same as Agumon et al, even though
her Gatomon form is the equivalent of, say, Greymon. Angewomon is not Gatomon's "Perfect" stage
in the Digivice game; for some strange reason, a bizarre wolfy Gabumon-ish creature is displayed
where her "Perfect" stage image should be.)
To resume: You choose a partner Digimon. Then you clip on the Digivice and walk. And walk. And
walk. Walking is the only way to clear a "level" and meet the Boss Digimon for the area; walking
is the only way to rack up D-points, necessary to Digivolve and lost whenever you lose a battle.
Walking is pretty much all you can do.
If you don't like all that walking, you can try to decrease the number of steps necessary to
clear the area by playing slots (I still haven't figured out how to do this game, given that
the Slots game consists of two flipping cards that reveal Digimon) or by playing the card game,
which consists of two spinning cards that reveal Digimon. From what I understand, the card
game requires you to press the button (A or B) closest to the Evil Digimon. If you press
the correct button, the Evil Digimon goes Boom. The Good Digimon (if there are any on-screen)
jump up and down for joy. If, however, you choose wrong, the Good Digimon look upset (or,
more to the point, are killed, should you hit the button closest to them by mistake).
And yes, I have mistaken the Good/Party Digimon for Evil Digimon before. It was rather
frustrating, as I'd realize what I'd done about a split-second AFTER I'd already pressed the
wrong button.
By winning the game, you decrease the number of steps necessary to clear the area. By losing,
you increase the number of steps necessary to clear the area. I think that winning/losing
battles has a similar effect, but I can't swear by it.
As you walk around, you will periodically be attacked by Evil Digimon. Battles last for about
three rounds (possibly more, if you're fighting the Boss Digimon for the area), with the last
man standing (with the most amount of HP) the victor. Your duty, as a partner
to your Digimon, will be to choose a course of action, and mash buttons. Your options are:
For no apparent reason, the Digivice has NO BLINKIN' FREAKIN' BLEEPIN' CLOCK FUNCTION.
I cannot express just how frustrating that is, particularly as I've grown accustomed to relying
on my various virtual pets as a back-up watch in case I've forgotten my wristwatch at home or
on my bedside table.
Furthermore, there's no reasonable way to keep it silent. It makes a horrible bleating noise
(more of an electronic tune, really) when your Digimon is being attacked, it continues to make
noises as your Digimon attempts to Digivolve, attempts to attack, gets attacked, is successful
in its attack, is unsuccessful in its attack...
In short, every time you press a button, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a brief cacophony
of noise and blinking LCD screen. This can get tiresome after a while.
Although, to be fair, you can turn off the sound, this prevents you from hearing your
Digimon's wails and pleas for help when it gets attacked. You could periodically
check on your Digivice to see if your Digimon is being attacked; however, the screen
automatically blanks out if you haven't been pressing buttons for a few minutes, so you'd have
to keep hitting the B or A button to see what's going on. While it is possible to
simply remove your Digivice and only play with it when you have the time, energy, and patience
to deal with a screaming virtual pet, this rather nullifies the "pedometer" (i.e., counting
how many steps you take every day) aspect of it.
The good thing about the Digivice is that it's backwards compatible (?) with the original
Digimon keychain pet, and should be compatible with the D3 toy and other Digivices as well.
Using the VS function, you can battle against other peoples' Digimon! Hurrah!
This is a really tough one for me. As you can see above, there are several aspects of this
game that leave me underwhelmed. Some of these come from being spoiled by Pocket Pikachu and
Pocket Pikachu Colour, I admit. As well, my neurotic need to use the Digivice as a pedometer
(rather than a toy that uses a pedometer function to calculate distance) is also coming into
play. I could also note my irritation that the critters de-evolve after every battle, but
that's more a quibble with the Digimon cartoon taking liberties with the Digimon virtual pet-line,
rather than the Digivices themselves.
I give the Digivice (V1) a rating for B for Good, or about 7 stars out of 10. They may deserve
higher, but that's the highest I can give them when I consider that they don't even have a
clock function. Grrrr.
Virtual Pet Fans have been by Since September 1999!
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