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SCMP Reporter

Japan's youngsters are queueing round the block for the latest versions of Tamagotchi pets - palm-sized angels and dinosaurs Parents who have watched their children get hooked on Tamagotchi chickens, should be warned. New versions of the game could have them raising bugs, fish, dinosaurs and even angels.

  Bandai, the maker of the hand-held game, has had trouble supplying enough Tamagotchis - or 'cute little eggs' - since the toy was introduced in Japan in November and overseas in May.

  Though 10 million games have been sold in Japan alone, adults in some Asian countries worry it is too grim.

  Players feed and discipline their pet, in the original version a chick that 'hatches' at the start of the game. Those who ignore beeps for attention watch their chick die.

  The toy has been banned in schools in the Philippines, Hong Kong and South Korea as too distracting or upsetting.

  In the Japanese game, the dead chick turns into a ghost and a headstone rises behind it. In the version sold in 25 other countries, it turns into an angel.

  'We don't think the game has a bad psychological influence on children,' Bandai spokeswoman Michi Taneda said.

  'It is about raising a pet. An egg hatches and you learn how difficult it is to raise a pet. One day it dies.'   In Japan, the game is labelled for children 12 and older. Elsewhere they are labelled for ages eight and above.

  Ms Taneda denied that new versions of the games, and others in the planning stages, were created to reduce criticism.

  This month, the company introduced a game in Japan where players raise a ghost that turns into an angel. It prays for them in return for care.

  Pushing three buttons, the owners feed, play with, clean up after and protect the angel, just as they do the chickens.

  When the angel completes its 'training,' it does not die. Instead, it goes back to 'the city of angels'.

 But if neglected, it becomes a devil.

  Sales have been brisk, and Bandai expects to sell two million Angel's Tamagotchis by the end of October.

 In June, Bandai introduced Digital Monster, a Tamagotchi that features a dinosaur.

  This can be connected to another palm-sized Digital Monster machine so the two adult dinosaurs can fight. A screen message declares a winner, who gets stronger.

  The loser must be nurtured back into shape. The angel and the dinosaur are usually sold out in Tokyo, but Bandai said it had no plans to sell them overseas yet.

   It is busy developing two new versions, one featuring the sea and another, bugs.

  Another plan calls for more chicks - male and female ones that can be raised in two separate hand-held games.

   Later, they can be connected so the two can mate and produce their own baby chick.



Parents' blessing for angel?