The Digimon virtual pet monster, or vpet, is being re-released in celebration of its 20th anniversary in the US and the nostalgia it invokes may make you wonder if you should buy one. Get all the facts before you lay down $20 for a slice of the ’90s! You can check out the Amazon listing for the Digimon Bandai Original Digivice Virtual Pet Monster to see more pictures and the official description from Bandai. It will start appearing in stores from mid-July and, as you may have caught, it will retail for $20.
Upgraded Features
While Bandai’s marketing team has stressed the nostalgia factor, these devices aren’t simply re-releases of the original toys. There are quite a few new features that make it more exciting than what you may have played in the late 1990’s. Here’s what you can expect from the new Digimon vpets:
- Expanded roster of Digimon to discover and raise
- Ability to Digivolve to an even higher level
- Decreased time required to Digivolve to next stage
- Two Digimon can be raised at once
- Battling can be done on single device
- Tag battle mode with two Digimon
- DigiFuse and combine your Digimon to Digivolve (Jogress)
There are some great reasons to pick up this new release, not least of which is the ability to raise two Digimon simultaneously! Bandai has also been kind to the modern fan with its faster Digivolution schedule that can take as little as two days to reach the last stage instead of the original’s painful six.
You also won’t need a friend to test your Digimon’s strength either. As mentioned above, you can now participate in single and tag battles right from your virtual pet without the need to connect with a friend.
Have your original pet around? The new 20th anniversary virtual pet even has the ability to connect with it and battle!
The Verdict
We highly recommend picking up the 20th anniversary Digimon virtual pet. If it were simply the same as the original that came out in 1997 it might be a hard sell, but with all of the upgraded features and additions the purchase is a no-brainer.
A more difficult question is, “What color should I buy?” We’ll leave that one up to you.
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