Woogies Toy Review
Monsters That Wreak Havoc – Radica Games 2008
Ever thought tamagotchi’s were for wimps? Who wants to look after ‘pets’ when you can unleash monsters that wreak havoc! Developed by Radica Games in 2008, Woogies were virtual monsters you could train for battle by making them burp, growl and shout.
Radica Toys made a range of electronic and LCD games, including the popular Skannerz from 2000 that allowed you to collect, train and fight monsters by scanning bar codes.
But these Woogies weren’t as interactive or fun. No feeding, looking after or caring for your Woogies is necessary. These virtual monsters were incredibly simple… Too simple. And failed to capture the interest of its target market. Released in 2008, a year after the initial iPhone, digital distractions were simply a click away. The Radica Woogies as a virtual pet monster, fails at the most basic level of being fun. But let’s explore the Woogies as both a toy and an electronic device.
Meet my Woogie
The Games
There’s three games built into the virtual monster. Grunt, Burp and shake. Each of the games uses a different function that’s been built into the Woogies, such as making noise back to the device or turning it the right way around. Each of the mini-games is designed to help make your Woogie stronger when battling friends.
Considering these tamagotchi style toys don’t let you feed or care for your monster, the games are the only real interactive part of the experience… But there’s not much to see here.
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The Toy
Radica released the Woogies in a range of colours. Each toy had a silicon skin covered in soft spines which housed a hard plastic ‘brain’underneath. The overall design is incredibly simple and uses physical responses, like, shouting, shaking and rolling to play the built-in games. As a virtual pet, the toy is too large to carry with you but it also doesn’t require constant care and attention.
Networking with Friends
The big appeal to virtual monsters like Digimon was the ability to train and then battle your monsters. The big issue, the games weren’t fun. The toy was too big to carry everywhere and the fact you literally don’t know anyone who owned one.
So you’ll be playing this virtual pet solo unless you buy two. Which is pretty sad way to experience it. The Radica Games Tamagotchi toy, the Woogies, didn’t work and outside their cool design, there’s no real functionality.
Radica Toys as a company produces a large range of LCD and electronic toys. As of 2006 it’s been acquired by Hasbro and continues to branch out into board games and video game accessories.
Loving miniature games? It’s interesting the Apple iPhone was already released when devices like this were still hitting the market. If you really want to experience some mobile gaming that was fun, see our review on Java titles released for mobile phones.