#wishcat

Based on the WishCat Korean animated series by the same studio that brought TeeniePing, the WishPad has a 2.8 inch touch screen and comes with a stylus (that can be separated in half as the feather part has a sensor), a strap, one card, card portfolio pages, activity pages, and a binder than can hold all the pages as well as the device itself.

I find that the home button on my device keeps getting stuck, and I noticed that there is some extra acrylic that jams it, so must be a manufacturer error with just mine.

The device has 20 games, the ability unlock Wish Cats to care for, a shop so you can renovate your room, and some pointless profiles for human characters from the animated series. Here is what I think of it!

Pros:

Audio - It has cute music and a lot of spoken dialogue, including cute cat meow sounds. The speaker isn't the best quality of course, but I am very pleased with all the audio.

Graphics - The animations aren't very smooth, but the sprites themselves are super cute and in the mini-games there is usually a lot of detail on screen. The device sometimes even displays the full-on 3D artworks as the characters appear in the show.

Exterior design - The design of this device is intricate and dazzling! Every detail, including the little cat ears and paws, is gorgeous!

Variety of games - 20 games is a lot, and they're of varying difficulty and styles. Many of them are really basic but I still find myself failing to win sometimes even as an adult. A few are like "move the character to avoid or collect objects", but there's a Bejeweled-style game, dress-up games, a tennis game, a very simplified rhythm game, etc.

Battery level on display - The device takes four AAA batteries and there is a meter with 4 bars in the upper right of the screen sometimes, so you know how much power is left. Oddly while I was playing, the meter went down to 3 bars but later back up to 4 bars haha.

Decent touch screen - I've had touch screen toys where the touch sensors were literally divided into only 4 areas... Thankfully, this is more like a normal touch screen even if there's a slight delay to respond. You can even move your cats around on the main room screen, which I find nice because you can choose precisely where you want each cat to sit!

Cons:

This device is almost useless unless you buy separate figures. You do NOT earn ANY points for playing a game UNLESS you have scanned a card from a separately purchased figure, after which the corresponding game's "Star mode" will be unlocked. This means you CANNOT buy any wallpaper or furniture for your room unless you buy additional figures. You better hope the figure you bought corresponds to a game that isn't too hard to win, and that you're okay with playing the same game tons of times for points. Additionally, you cannot care for any cats beside Iemeow, or read ANY profiles for any of the cats, unless you buy these extra figures. I understand the former so that scanning the cards will have more incentive, but the latter bothers me because the boring human profiles are readily available. Thankfully I bought 5 Wish Cat figures as well, but the fact that an entire feature (buying furniture and customizing your room) is paywalled feels scammy to me.

Even if you do buy figures, you have to grind - You earn 20 points for winning a game that you have scanned a card for. How much is the cheapest customization item? 1000 points. The most expensive is 20,000 points. Three of the games have a "Special mode" where you can win 300 points instead of 20. For each of these three games, you need to scan 5-7 unique and specific cards to get Special Mode. I find this quite predatory considering the toy is for young children and the figures with the cards cost $10 or so each. Despite me buying 5 figures, they aren't the right ones for any of the exact lists, so no Special modes for me!

You cannot pet the cats! - I was almost devastated to discover this! Despite the touch screen, if you touch the cat while in care mode, nothing happens. Instead, you can choose petting under one of the options and WATCH a hand pet the cat... I saw this petting animation in marketing and assumed you could pet the cat manually, so I am a bit disappointed!

The card it comes with doesn't really do anything - It's a card of Iemeow (the default cat on the device), but it does NOT unlock Iemeow's profile or Star mode for her game. It just plays the Wish Cat music theme and a simple looping animation of all the Wish Cats. That is still cute and nice, but I had thought it would at least unlock her profile... You still need to buy the separate Iemeow figure for all that.

Neutral aspects:

The stylus has a sensor, but... - In care mode, you can choose to feed, bathe, or play with your cat and to activate the option you selected, you have to touch the base of the plastic feather to the emerald above the screen. This is cool, but if you lose the stylus or even just the removable feather bit, you won't be able to care for the cats at all.

You can get extra foods and toys, but... - They are single use. And to get a new food or toy, your Wish Cat has to have a full meter, and their meter will empty after you exchange it for the new item. So, you deplete your Wish Cat's meter entirely in exchange for an item that will increase the meter by 2 bars once... It's a little odd. But the extra toy animations are cute, at least.