Cupets Review

Back in the days of my youth I can remember one of the biggest crazes that caught my attention, the Tamagotchi and virtual pets, everybody had one. I took mine everywhere with me but admittedly I could never keep one alive more than 30 days, they always met their fatal end. My mum was overjoyed that I had stopped asking for a kitten because I now had this low maintenance alien creature to look after and nurture….(until I forgot about it) and had to hit that rest button.

Fast forward a few years and virtual pets are still popular, with more varieties available with the evolution of the smart phone and their apps. We were recently sent one of the 12 quirky cube shaped ‘Cupets’ from Flair to review, all ready to be brought to life via a downloadable smart phone app. The 12 available Cupets include Hardy the tortoise, Kit the cat , Alpha the wolf, Cup the dog, Gum the pig, Bubble the frog,  Tweet the bird, Shorty the snake, Radar the bat, Soup the fish, Zola the mouse and finally Bush the wild boar.

We were sent Radar the bat and for the past week we have been looking after him, feeding him, bathing him, playing games with him and exploring the Cupets virtual world with him.

Radar is a flying disaster! His constant attempts to fly and his clumsiness leave a trail of destruction wherever he goes

The downloadable app is available for Android and iOS devices and is really easy to download and set up ready for your new pal. The little square creature itself has a cute little face on one side and a QR code on top as well as a tether which means you can attach it to your mobile device if you so please.

By inputting the code you can bring your Cupet to life using augmented reality and play with him via the app on your phone. You don’t actually need to have the physical Cupet handy to play, that’s more for the Augmented reality feature. For us the fun and excitement came from the app, the physical cupet provided us with the code so that we could use the app and play. The Radar Cupet is currently residing on Little Leg’s backpack for days out.

Much like the 90’s Tamagotchi, the Cupets need taking care of but with much more features. As you look after your Cupet you can unlock new features and games on the app and earn coins which can be exchanged for food, medicines and even some cute little accessories for your pet. There is even the opportunity to earn medals for fulfilling certain criteria, my 10 year old self would have loved this.

Each Cupet has needs bars to that you need to help maintain: Health, Energy, Hunger and Happiness.  To keep them happy, you train your pets by playing ball with them or teaching them to read. You can feed them a variety of meals and snacks, you have to clean them clean them and even feed them medicine when they are not well. These supplies are limited though so if you run out of any items you can purchase more by using the coins that you earn whilst playing on the mini games.

Little Legs loved the feature of being able to dress your pet in hundreds of different outfits and accessories, she soon learned that you could take pictures of your pets and then started to build up quite the collection of Cupet pictures with various expressions and clothing.

The mini games section is a great little feature as it takes the virtual pet a little further to stop the child getting bored with simply tending to the pets needs. I like that you have to play to earn more coins to unlock and replenish items. It can become slightly addictive though.

They can also be played offline which is great for keeping Little Legs entertained and we want to limit her access to the internet. She has loved playing with the Cupet, and we used it a lot whilst travelling on holiday, particularly when keeping her entertained during a 5 hour long flight.

If you have more than one Cupet they can interact and open up more game possibilities, I’m certainly tempted to buy another one so that Little Legs can play by herself on her tablet and we can see them interact, purely for the enjoyment of Little Legs of course.

The Cupets retail for £6.99 which gives you the physical cube toy and the access code for to download and play the free app.

Find out more about Cupets at Flair

Disclosure: We received our Cupet to review but all the opinions expressed are my own.