Super Gyaoppi 9-in-1 Review

Name: Super Gyaoppi 9-in-1
Manufacturer: U.I
Produced:1998
Country of origin:Japan (but made in China)

First a little about this unit, I got this one from a toy collectors stall at a popular weekend market. I personally didn't find it, my partner and a friend ( he collects action figures) went while I was at work and he asked only to have had a handful of pets pulled from a shoebox behind the counter. He just picked the ones that looked different from what I already had and picked them up ( he got 5 of them) for about $20 Australian. Considering the pets were all 90's originals and in perfect working order, I think it was a good find.

Aesthetics:
This unit is a clear, light blue oval shaped pet, with green and white writing and images of 3 the available creatures. It has key chain attachment with a small length of ball link chain. The screen is longer and flatter than the traditional egg shaped pet. The background is the similar green, blue and pink metallic background popular with Vpets at the time.
While the Gyaoppi 1 had 2 shell designs, the oval shape and the dinosaur shape, to my knowledge the Super Gyaoppi was only available the oval design.This is not really a flaw but i do enjoy the variability. The shell is large while the internal workings aren't that big making it a nice size for a hand held toy.

*Creatures*
This game is a multi-pet. I know that to many now the multi pet represents a dodgy 24-in-one, 48-in-1, 100+ in-1 dinkie dino knockoff, but this was made in the golden age of the V-pet and the Super Gyaoppi is definitely one of the better multi pets. the pets available in the Super Gyaoppi include a cat, dog, dinosaur,duck alien, frog, penguin, bird and a panda.These pets include may that have been in previous pets from this company, in particular the dinosaurs from the Gyaoppi series, the duck and the bird. The creatures varies nicely and change while still being recognizable as that animal. A cute touch is the food choices change from character to character so your frog and cat eat different foods.
The designs for the time are detailed but, due to the larger LCD pixels than are used in newer pets, the detail was limited.

*Icons*
The icons for the menu are clear and very understandable pictogram's each representing the an action to care for the pet. This pet is different as it has icons along the side, as well as the top and bottom of the screen. These are not actually selectable, but actually represent when the pet has made a mess, there is room for three of these.


*Sound and Sound quality*
The beeps this makes are musical however can be quite harsh and high pitched,sadly i have found the sound is often linked to the glitches and bugs in the Gyaoppi pet.
The sound is quite loud and will easily alert you when the pet needs attention, and the alarm function is loud enough to wake up most sleepers.


Game-play:
The basic game play of the Super Gyaoppi 9-in-1 centres around the care of a small pet of your choice, the aim being to raise a pet from birth to adulthood up until it dies. This care includes, feeding, cleaning, playing with, discipline, medical care control of sleep patten. The games used for entertainment of the pet are different from most other pets. They are a little harder and are more interesting than the basic "guess what side" game. The games are a dodge the falling rocks game and a hi-lo card game.

* Life stages*
The pet has several life stages stages, and the potential different pets it turns into in the adult stage is pretty huge. depending on the kind of care you provide (I'm unsure how much this is in account as I've played through it a few times and gotten different pets with similar care), the pet has a potential to become one of ten adults, with another secret life stage.

The pet begins after being born into a baby stage, I say being born because egg animals hatch from eggs and cats and dogs just climb out of a cardboard box. I like this touch because most multi pets I've played with have a pretty generic start up. The baby stage is not as demanding as some pets, but I've found takes longer to care for.
The games are easy to play with no matter what life stage the pet is in. The games and care available don't change through the life stages. Gyaoppi is one of the many pets you can advance a life stage by playing with the clock function.

This pet has the real potential for being played through repeatedly, as the nine pets all have so many different outcomes.

*Buttons* The unit is designed with 3 buttons, the first being menu, the second being confirm and the third being cancel. The first and third buttons double as directional buttons in the dodge games.The first also acts as the high button and the second as a low button in the Hi-Lo card game.
The buttons are nice and responsive but are a bit close together for a pet with such a large shell, making it hard for someone with larger hands.

*Resilience*
The gyaoppi pets are pretty hard to kill and while without regular care you can fall behind in some games, it is easy to catch back up. but without care any of the other stages die in a matter of hours, some faster than others depending on the adult stage.

Additional features:

Clock-Yes
Connectability-No
Sound on/off-No
Pause-No
Alarm-Yes

Overall this V-pet is a bit annoying to run, while the game play itself if fine, the bugs which see you restart frequently make it hard to enjoy the game through to the end. This does tend to ease off a bit after a couple of so persistence pays off. Sound cant be turned off so this pet is best started off when you have time on your hands or "paused" by suspending the clock function. the pet can still be cared for in situations where you need to be quiet , you can muffle it quite well in a movie theater etc, but you have to anticipate when it may beep. I found the pet fun to care for, particularly the games in this V-pet. It has a fun feature of remembering past pets you have raised which is pretty rare for its time.

May also enjoy:Gyaoppi 2
Dinkie dino
Nano pets