The Aquapalz pets are probably one of the most unique pets I have ever encountered, and I think they are a must-have for one's collection. They come in three different animels: dolphin, fish and jellyfish. I have the dolphin and the jellyfish. I may or may not get the fish, but if I find it for cheap enough then I will.

The menu and buttons on this pet are quite unique. Basically, the pet does not use icons. You press a specific button in order to access the menu. The first option is a meter which tells you how happy and hungry the pet is. The second item is a food icon (a pacman face eating a ball). Once you select it a piece of food is dangled above the aquarium and the pet will swim up to the surface to grab it. Sometimes if it is really hungry it will jump and snatch, but other times it will poke at it and then take it very tenderly. If it is not hungry or it needs something else it will poke at it and then reject the food. The third menu item is a temperature and water cleanliness meter. These must be checked regularly since there is no attention icon. The more you change the water and oxygen level the healthier the pet will stay. You must also keep the temperature at a specific level or it gets sick. The next option is for giving it attention. You can play with it essentially. The next option is for games. The games are very cute and unique. For the most part some of the games are the same on all the pets, but for each pet there is something unique. The next meter is for medicine. Sometimes it won't take the medicine or it won't eat until it grows. At this point you must keep a close eye on it. If you miss it growing and don't get to its health meter right away it can die very easily. Sometimes when it is young some options are not available to use on the pet so it will only eat for instance and nothing else.

The very last option lets you turn off the sound, and turn off and on the backlight (the screen lights up). Turn off the backlight to save battery.

I give this pet an 8 out of 10. I would give it a 10 except for the fact that the buttons take a lot of getting used to, the pet requires four LR44 batteries, rather than just two like most other virtual pets, and the shell is not particularly pretty. It looks more like an mp3 player than a virtual pet, but maybe that's what they thought would get people's attention. Also there is some kind of weird hatch that opens up at the top and I am not entirely certain what that is for. The directions do not seem to indicate anything.

Pictures of the ones I own:




















Price:
I got mine for about $10-20. You can get them for about $25-50 these days on eBay. Get them while they are cheap because they may become more rare.

Growth Chart:

I do not have a growth chart, but I can tell you that in the way of the growth the pet does not change much except to get bigger in size.

Tags: aquapalz, virtual pets