VS The lastest in high-tech purposelessness, the virtual pet. The concept is simple; on a small LCD screen is a little creature that paces back and forth. It's up to you to take care of the thing so it grows up to be big, strong, and well-adjusted. If you don't, it dies. Simple, yet strangely addicting. There are two types of Virtual Pet on the market right now. Tamagotchi, originating in Japan and distributed by Bandai, was the first on the market, and retails for around $17.99. The Giga Pet, produced by Tiger Electronics, Inc., is the first of the Tamagotchi clones, and retails for about $9.99. The Downlow The Tamagotchi (I'll refer to it as Bob) and the Giga Pet (I'll refer to it as Doug)are extremely similar; they have the exact same menu system; Feed; meal or snack, Light; on or off, Play, Medicine, Clean up their poop, Status, Discipline, and the Attention icon. Care of Bob & Doug is simple; if they need something; food, sleep, medicine, play, or discipline, the Attention icon lights up and you check the Status to see what the little rugrats desire. When/if they die (in the US the Tamagotchi "departs"), you can start over again Differences: Bob the Tamagotchi Bob comes in a plastic egg in various colours, and sports three buttons; select, accept, and cancel. Bob starts out life as a pulsating egg; after five minutes, he hatches as a little black blob with a smiley face. The development of Bob comes in three stages; the blob, which then gives way to one of two more advanced child forms, and then to one of seven adult forms. Caring for Bob is simple; you make sure that his Hungry and Happy meters are full, each displayed as four hearts that are either full or empty. Feeding Bob will keep his food meter full, and keeping Bob happy is very easy and not too demanding; you can play with him; you get five chances to guess which way Bob's face will turn, left or right, with the select and accept buttons; or you can give him snacks. The only time you have to discipline Bob is when he demands attention but doesn't accept any. Doug the Giga Pet Doug comes in six different varieties; a Cat, Dog, Monkey, Alien, Critter, and Dinosaur (specifically, an officially-endorsed Jurassic Park: The Lost World Baby T-rex). They come in a pager-sized plastic case of varying shapes, and has four button; left select, mode/cancel, enter, and right select. Doug starts out immediatly upon activation, wandering around his little virtual world. Care of Doug is slightly different from Bob; you keep each of his Status meters above 20. The food meter is kept up by feeding Doug, the happy meter by playing with him, and the discipline meter by, well, disciplining him. The major difference between Bob and Doug is in keeping Doug happy; it can only be done by playing with him, and this takes attention and dexterity. Each type of Giga Pet has a different game; the cat chases a mouse, the alien levitates things, the t-rex hunts a small rodent, etc. To make sure Doug succeeds in the game, you must press one of the select buttons as quickly as possible, as you have a timer to beat. The Cleaning function on Doug is also different; in addition to cleaning up his poop, you must give Doug showers occasionally. When the screen shows a trail of muddy footprints, its time for a shower. Which one do I want? Depends on how much attention you want to give your little pet. I own one of each; I have a blue & white (the rare colour) Tamagotchi named Timmy, and a Baby T-Rex Giga Pet named Timmy. I've found that an easy-to-maintain pet is the Tamagotchi, simply because you can keep him fed and happy by stuffing him with meals and snacks. However, it does require you to check on it every 45 minutes or so; after I bought the Giga Pet, I only paid attention to the Tamagotchi when his attention icon lit up, and he died at the tender age of 17 days (the record in Japan is 26). The Giga Pet is rather more involved; mostly because of the button-mashing required for Playing. However, the Giga Pet is more interesting; it smiles and waves at you (at least the t-rex does), whereas the Tamagotchi just wanders back and forth, and does weird things at you. On the plus side, the four buttons make it much easier to navigate its menu. If you still can't decide and get both, a word of warning; taking care of more than one of either variety is difficult. My Tamagotchi died because I paid more attention to the Giga Pet. Unless you like killing small virtual animals, take care of one at a time. For more information, try the Toys R Us virtual pet site. It has links to both Bandai and Tiger's sites.