Neopets For Your Pocket … Explore Meridell With The Deluxe World Meridell Game!
Written: May 31 '04 (Updated Oct 13 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice case, three cool mini figures, easy to play games, collectable cards.
Cons: Not as fun as the website or board game.
The Bottom Line: Looking to score a rare item code, collectable cards and a portable version of Meridell? This is a great pick …
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| Freak369's Full Review: |
When my boys started to get into Neopets, I sort of laughed it off thinking it was an advanced version of a pocket or digital pet that were popular about ten years ago. Little did I know that the website would be a stepping stone to addiction – now we have the talking pets, stuffed animals, trading cards and the latest trend, the McDonalds mini plushies. I’d seen the pocket versions of the Neopet worlds but never really thought much of them, I mean, how could a mini version game ever compare to a fully interactive website? I’ll be the first to say that these scaled down pocket playscenes aren’t as entertaining or captivating as the website but they are a lot better than I thought they would be. You can acquire a pet, feed it, play with it, take it on adventures and even play games with it – almost everything the website offers. When I saw these for about seven dollars at KB Toys I couldn’t resist getting a few of them – even if they were complete wash the three mini figure and collectable cards would make up for it. And lets not forget that rare item code! I did have trouble redeeming the codes and I chalk this up to the playsets being older and possibly being phased out of the system. I Neomailed Neopets about it, gave them all the information and less than two days later had a new code to use. Not bad at all in my opinion.
Hasbro Neopet Deluxe World Meridell Game
When you first see the game it looks like a big golden egg. To the right side there’s a small blue window that covers the area where the small mini figures are stored. With the Meridell game you get a blue Lupe, green Ixi and a red Draik. The figures are extremely cute and can be used in all the little pods on the Meridell scene. These are used to access the pets that you adopt as well as to play games and purchase food for your pet. When you adopt a pet you need to pick out a name, if it is a boy or girl, what it likes to do [eat, explore play], how it greets other pets [smile, cautious etc] … most of the stuff that you are asked when you create a pet at the site. From there you are asked to confirm your choices and then your pet is entered into the game system. The screen on which things are displayed is pretty small so don’t expect much from the graphics. Make sure you set the time as soon as you start up the game or you will get woke up by the alarm and various beeping noises at the oddest of times. No matter how many pets I create on the handheld games, almost all of them are asleep right after I make them so I have to wait for them to wake up to play with them and get them started on adventures.
On the screen there are various icons – these are embedded in the screen so they never change but they do get highlighted when you pick them. The include food, awards, books, sleep and the cute little Neopoint bag. It takes a while to get used to using this handheld – more so if you are used to the website. There’s a four way directional set of buttons on the left side that are used to control the actions and movements of your pet within the game and on the right side a “yes” and “no” set of buttons that are used to enter and exit games, confirm actions and other assorted things within the game. The actual playscene consists of three areas, one on the top part of the lid, one on the bottom part of the lid and the largest in the middle. The small castle scene at the bottom is so cute, a must see for those who love to explore the castle. You get five “action pods” that you press the mini figures in to – these activate the games as well as allow you to play, feed and interact with your pet. You’ll want to look at the bottom of the pet to see the direction of the raised pins so you don’t end up jamming the piece into the pod the wrong way. You’ll know you pressed it in the correct way when you hear the loud tone and are greeted with your pets name on the screen.
Games
The games that you can play on the unit include Ultimate Bullseye, Turdle Racing, Kiss The Mortog, Negg Drop, Turmac Roll and an auxiliary spot [pod five] for shopping. When I first got the game I could have sworn that there were only three games but there are indeed six. When I read over the instructions there was a game called Yeasty Bread Tomato Toss but I have never been able to get this game to activate when I pressed in one of the figures. The games are pretty basic but can make you a good bit of NP [neopoints] once you get the hang of them. I play the games from time to time but for me they are pretty frustrating since I am used to the more complex and detailed ones at the website. My sons usually play the games when we are on the road and never fail to remind me that “they” are the ones that are keeping “my” pets alive.
Things To Know
• Just like in the online Neopet game, your pets can’t die but they will pack up and leave if you don’t take care of them, feed them and play with them. After a week or so of not using the game I was greeted with my Lupe walking towards the sunset and the message “time to adopt a new pet” scrolling across the screen.
• There is no volume control so chances are you won’t want to play with this in the middle of the night. The power up sounds of the figures being placed in the pods is pretty loud – and rather annoying when you are switching pets every few minutes. The battery compartment on the bottom is protected by a safety screw as well as an open / close slide lock. This comes with three AAA sized batteries already in place and so far they haven’t required replacement.
• When closed the unit is pretty sturdy and will take a few bumps and drops however you will need to keep it inside something to keep the blue window from getting scratched. We keep our in small Book Gear bags that we picked up on sale a few years ago. This is a great bag since we can tuck the fold out instruction sheet in the side pocket and don’t have to worry about the mini figures falling out or getting lost.
• Make sure you hold on to the instruction sheet, you will need it to set up the time, play the games and make sure your pet is happy. The reset button on the bottom of the unit should only be used if the game freezes and allowing it to sit for 24 hours doesn’t fix the problem. The reset button will restore the unit to the same state as when you first opened it, simply put, everything you have done on the game will be eraser and all your pets deleted.
• Instead of a Safety Deposit Box, something that you get on the website, you store your items in the Burlap Sack. This is where all your food, toys and books you purchase for your pet are stored. Unlike the Safety Deposit Box, this has a limit of ten items. Toys can’t be broken like at the website but rather have a play value of three times, after that they disappear.
• There is a rumor that you can get rare item codes when you play the game or reach a high score on a game – so far I haven’t gotten any. The game does come with a few collectable cards, on one of them you’ll see a small sticker with a rare item code printed on it. As I mentioned, I had trouble redeeming it but I contact TNT [the Neopets team] and they sent me a replacement one in about two days.
The Bottom Line
This is a great little hand held game for those who love the Neopets website and the various characters. I couldn’t pass this up when I saw it on sale now that I’ve played with it for a while I doubt I’d pay full price for another one. Why? The graphics are basics, you are limited to what you can do with it and if you lose the mini figures the game is basically useless. For about seven dollars this has been a great toy and I did go back to get a few more of them while they sere still on sale. The rare item code was a definite perk for me but I was a little let down when I redeemed it and got a Faerie Kacheek Mirror, I was hoping for a Festering Coffee or Mag Codestone but hey, it was still cool to enter the code and get something for “free”. If you are a fan of Neopets and come across these on sale, check them out but don’t think you are going to get something that’s even remotely close to what you get at the website.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2004 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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