Tamagotchi Friends or foe?

A new addition to the Tamagotchi family has been released in several countries and will be released next week in The Netherlands (where I live).

"New" features include:
- Bumping, which means holding two Tamagotchi's back to back to exchange messages, play games etc.
- A meter that will show how many times you've "bumped" your Tamagotchi
- Collect jewelry to unlock new games
- 5 games in total (two need to be unlocked)
- Connect to DreamTown (seems to be like TamaTown) to collect items for your Tamagotchi

- A very happy child -

I first heard about this new Tamagotchi through an add from bol.com (Dutch onlinestore like Amazon). I got all excited and went to check out videos on YouTube to see how it worked. I was actually quite disappointed. The screen was vague and still grey scale. The new features weren't very interesting to me. I'd have to buy two because none of the people I know will buy one. That makes it quite expensive at 30 euro's a piece. That's more than I paid for my P's and my iDL e and those come from the other side of the planet.

- The box -

I just feel like it's a very slightly upgraded version of my V4 and after almost 8 years, I expected more. I know we have the P's and iDL's, but those are Japanese/Asian market Tama's. I have to go on Ebay, pay money and pray that the person on the other side of the world will keep their word and then wait for weeks to get it. I can't go to the store and get one of those. I just wish Bandai would release the more modern versions here as well.

Add to that the fact that people already think I'm nuts for having Tamagotchi's (more about that in another entry later). If they release these seemingly low quality, hardly modernized versions, people will think I'm even more of a freak of nature. Whats so interesting about a greyscale Tamagotchi that you "bump" against another one? If they had known about the P's and iDL's, they might think it's a lot cooler to own a Tamagotchi. Or am I just making up stuff here? I don't know.

- Shell looks a lot like the iDL -

I think that after being such fans for over a decade, we as Europeans deserved better than this. I'm sure there will be fans out there that will go crazy over this one. Will I get two? Maybe. If the prices go down or if I find another reason I should have them. For now, I'm crazy about my iDL and my upcoming P.

I've also heard a lot of people who own one complain that they come out of the box with scratches, the silver faceplate wears off quickly and they find it hard to see what's on the screen since it has no backlight. Even after adjusting the brightness.

I think it's fine for little kids, but for the more experienced Tama-fan I don't feel it does the trick. Do you feel otherwise? Please leave a comment below with your opinion.

- Video from my favourite Tamagotchi unboxer on YouTube AtlanticRaven -