Price: $49.99 RRP
Buy Now: Amazon
Estimated Time With Gear: 2-3 weeks
What Is It?: A digital pet with mini-games (15 pets in 1 device)
Product Manufacturer: Spin Master
If you grew up in the 90s like me, you’d remember those glorious days of caring for and interacting with a Tamagotchi. Feeding it, playing with it and, let’s be real – just making sure it doesn’t die. I wasn’t “allowed” to own one myself (my parents were smart); however, I would get to borrow my neighbour’s Tamagotchi overnight sometimes and looking after a little digital friend that eats and poops was the 90s kids’ dream.
Fast forward to 2023, and there’s a new cutie pet in town, and its name is Bitzee – the digital pet you can touch and feel.
Opening up the small purple box for Bitzee, my son and I were greeted with a pixel-created dog that said, “HURRO!” Bitzee immediately shows off its cuteness and quickly steps you through a helpful tutorial on interacting with your new friend.
There are up to 15 virtual pets to unlock and collect, some rarer than others. You unlock new pets by caring for your current Bitzee. Taking the time to feed, pat and even clean up their poop will increase their love meter and help you work towards unlocking more cutie friends or even growing the current pet you have. You interact with your Bitzee by using the swipe bar at the front of the Bitzee and tapping gently on the top of the display. Sleeping and other play functions like tilting the Bitzee box from left to ride or front to back will cause your little friend to slide and face plant just like it would if they lived in a box with four walls. These actions got us laughing and realising more and more how adorable our new friend was. The happier you make Bitzee, the cuter it gets. You can grow your Bitzee from baby to adult form, and when it’s done growing, it can obtain a cute costume to become a super Bitzee. Giving your Bitzee treats will help to make them extra happy and attract new Bitzees to your home. They suddenly appear with their cute greeting, and you check your information sheet to see which Bitzee you’ve just collected.
On unboxing, the information sheet you receive seems overwhelming and a bit intense, but you soon realise it’s necessary so you remember what symbols and prompts mean after you’ve completed the tutorial. The mechanics of interactions and the symbols that the toy shows you took a little while to remember, but once you wrap your head around it, you’ll be interacting with your cute little friend easily in no time. My son was so overcome with the excitement and cuteness of Bitzee that I had to remind him to slow down and pay attention to the instructions, and soon after, he could easily understand Bitzee’s prompts.
The evolution of each Bitzee levels up much faster than I anticipated. This is to enable extended game features that enable you to play unique mini-games with each Bitzee. Collecting and growing your Bitzees could have been slower to enjoy the characters’ cuteness levels for longer because once they’re fully evolved, there isn’t anywhere to go except to continue caring for your friends. The evolution was so fast that I accidentally grew a Bitzee without my son, only to have to explain that maybe it just magically got a cute costume because I absolutely would not be stealing that moment away from him…oops. To be fair, once you have unlocked even a few Bitzee, you are continually getting prompts from others needing your assistance. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself busy as a bee taking out the poop trash for one before swiftly getting told another needs sleep.
Bitzee is a super cute new addition to the digital pet world. It brings modern interactive technology for a toy you want to interact and play with continually. My son and I found ourselves constantly smiling at its cute characteristics and sounds, and once unboxed; he wanted to play with it daily to take care of his newfound friends. Even though my son kept accidentally calling our pets “Bootsie” at first, he swiftly fell in love with his new digital pet.
