I’m a pretty big fan of virtual pets, especially Digimon ones. I often get asked about my favourite virtual pet, which is always a hard decision (however, I usually answer with the Digital Monster Ver 20th).
However, there are a few items in my collection that I may not use much, but have a soft spot for, as these are the lesser known and more unique Digimon virtual pets, however, nobody really talks to them because, they’re well, lesser known and unique Digimon virtual pets that are unpopular or lesser known because of being a limited release or an awkwardly timed release, or just, for some reason, aren’t that popular.
So that’s why I’ve decided to write a bit of a run down on some of the unpopular or otherwise lesser known-about and possibly more unique Digimon virtual pets that are out there.
5 Unpopular/Lesser-Known/Unique Digimon Virtual Pets
Digimon Accel
Originally released in 2005 (during the several years break between the release of Frontier and Savers), the Accel came out in four different themed ‘versions’ – Nature genome, Evil Genome, Justice Genome, and Ultimate Genome.
The Accel featured a few Digimon that had been raisable before (Agumon, Piyomon, Palmon, Tentomon, etc) as well as some previously unraisable Digimon (Impmon, Terrerimon, etc).
However, in addition to these fan-favourites, The Accel also featured some new Digimon who were essentially making their debut on this device (Dracumon, Kudamon, and Commandramon, to name a few).
This virtual pet also featured a relatively unique face plate system – you could actually easily remove the slip of paper underneath the plastic in the toy in order to customise your device. You could print off designs or draw up new ones and make your device completely unique!
In the mid 00s, Digimon virtual pets had started being released with a three-prong connector instead of the standard two-prong, and the Accel was no different. With this connector, you could battle, trade, and even Jogress with other Accels.
Further making this a unique device is the DNA and DDP scanning feature. Similar to the following Digivice release, the Digvice iC, the user could scan their own hand as well as special DDP chips to unlock items, special battles, and DNA to feed your Digimon with.
DDP chips were sold separately in blind packs, but one came prepackaged with the device.
What sets this device out from other virtual pets is that evolution requirements are not time based, nor are they based on training and care mistakes – evolution requirements, like the iC, the user feeds DNA to their Digimon to determine what evolution would occur.
Besides the features listed above that make it one of the more unique Digimon virtual pets, it also has feeding, toilet, lights, and training features that are standard with virtual pets.
I’m actually raising an Accel right now – the Justice Genome!
Digimon Pendulum Cycle
Ugh.
The Pendulum Cycle was released after the original 6 Bandai Asia released Digital Monster virtual pets. There were three versions – version 7 (Deep Savers), version 8 (Nightmare Soldiers), version 9 (Wind Gaurdians), and version 10 (Metal Empire).
Like the version 6, they were the continuation of the virtual pets using the Pendulum Roster.
Unlike the Digimon version 6, however, the Digimon Pendulum Cycle shits me to tears.
This device pops up on various places every now and again with the same question – “Found this in my cupboard, what is this?”.
So why is this one of the unique Digimon virtual pets if it’s just a port of the Digimon Pendulum versions 1-5?
First of all, a pretty neat feature is that the Digimon devolves back to the Child/Rookie stage at the end of every day. This is more inline with the anime, where Digimon will evolve but then will become their child form once more. This is not the reason this toy is the bane of my existence.
So why is this virtual pet the absolute worst? The evolution requirements make absolutely no sense.
A while ago, I decided to collect all four of them and then record my findings on WithTheWill as nobody else had any idea HOW the Digimon evolved. My findings basically determined evolution was weight dependent.
Also there’s a really annoying bug that if you start your Digimon late at night and it doesn’t get to its child level and just sleeps as a baby, your Digimon is now a baby forever. CONGRATULATIONS!
Thank Christ they didn’t release a version 11 to be the Cycle version of the Virus Busters.
So is this lesser known because of it’s Bandai Asia release, or is it just because nobody could be bothered to work it out?
Speaking of the Pendulum Cycle, another lesser known device is the Pendulum Neo. I’m not listing this as one of the unpopular/unique Digimon virtual pets because it’s not a virtual pet – it’s a Digivice quest toy.
Digimon Pendulum Neo
The Neo is another Bandai Asia release that had the same shell as the Pendulum Cycle, but it was a quest based toy like the Digivice pedometer toys, as opposed to a virtual pet. It’s similar in this way to the iC’s English release (the Data Link), however, the Data Link did not have a pedometer.
I almost included the Neo (as well as the Xros Mini, for that matter) in this list, but as it’s not strictly a virtual pet, I thought I’d add a that small anecdote.
Digimon Pendulum Progress
Speaking of virtual pets that are demanding to the point of tedium, the Digimon Pendulum Progress!
The Progress was released in 2002 and 2003, alongside the D-Scanner Digivice toys.
The Pendulum Progresss is unique in that you can Jogress with the Japanese release of the D-Scanner. This is actually really fun when you can scan barcodes, get Digimon, and then Jogress with the digimon you have raised on the Progress.
Another unique feature of this toy is that, depending on how much you play it at certain times of the day, you’ll get a different evolution – so the time of day you train your Digimon is part of the evolution requirements. It’s a unique feature that sets it out as something fresh in terms of evolution requirements. However, this may not suit your real world schedule.
After awhile, your Digimon starts to wake up later (around lunch time), and when it does that, you know it’s close to death. This unique feature is pretty cool, albeit sad.
Admittedly, I’ve never been able to reach perfect on this toy, so feel free to judge me.
The progress and the Cycle are my least used out of my collection because of how annoying they both can be, but at least the Progress has some sense as to why certain things happen. However, I do want to revisit it and hopefully aim to raise something decent, I just don’t have the patience.
Maybe I’m just bad
Digimon Twin
Contrary to what I initially thought, L and R is not ‘left’ and ‘right’ but ‘liberation’ and ‘revolution’.
The Digimon Twin were sold as a two pack (L and R) initially, and then some later releases were individually packed. The Twins are pretty unique that they were released as a two pack – something that had been done with Tamagotchi virtual pets, but not so much Digimon pets.
Prior to the Digimon X, theDigimon Twin was the most recent original virtual pet (2007).
Connecting between the two causes events – you can get special eggs during these events. Connecting is obviously one of the main distinguishing features for the Twin; when connecting, you can watch the two Digimon playing or eating. Connection is uniquely done over IR.
In general, this virtual pet is rather similar to the Tamagotchi Connection line of virtual pets – IR communication, watching the connected characters interact, unlocking items when connecting. It’s really rare to see a Digimon pet have connecting as more than just a battle feature – sure, you can Jogress and trade, but there’s something special about having them connect and just hang out.
Also, they featured in Digimon Next, so that’s neato.
D-Gather
Bandai Asia, I love you, but please stop.
Yes, I know I’ve mentioned this one before and about how it’s not a virtual pet.
But the side game is meant to be used as a virtual pet, and because of that, wouldn’t it mean it’s technically one of the most unique Digimon virtual pets?
The D-Gather, as mentioned in a previous post, has no clock feature; evolution requirements depend primarily on training and how the Digimon is battled and trained. As there’s no clock feature, requirements are not met over time, but over battles.
Another feature that sets it out is the fact that food is not an infinite resource – the user has to gather food via the tedious claw game.
Overall, I like the D-Gather less than the both the Progress and Cycle; at least they’re virtual pets that follow general virtual pet mechanics (well, the Cycle sort of follows some mechanics). The D-Gather is just a pseudo-virtual pet. However, if you want to raise Digimon such as Renamon, Wormon, or Armadillomon, you will have no choice but to play with the Digimon D-Gather.
Do you know of any of these toys? What would you say are some of the lesser known and more unique Digimon virtual pets? Let us know in the comments!
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Talking about rare, if the list can be made longer, I’d include D-Cyber as well. It is just a port of Pendulum X for Asia release but it is an actual Digivice in the Digimon D-Cyber manhwa. Interesting thing is that it could connect to all 2-pronged devices out there, so that’s neat. The downside is the device is so fragile (wire in the hinge prone to snap, screen burns or went shadowy easily) and has a serious ergonomic problems as well (it feels so dangerous to shake it while you flip the screen open yet you shouldn’t open and close too many times).
Yeah, I know of it, however, I only wanted to talk about 5, there are many other lesser known virtual pets as well, I just wanted to cover these five.
Thank you for your comment. I had one that had a weak wire, so I sent it to my friend as a gift since he always wanted one and likes fixing Digimon pets. Unfortunately, it means I no longer have one.