Neopets, the pet adoptable site that briefly captivated the world, has once again begun to ascend in popularity. This time, however, it seems to be resonating more with adults than it's original target audience.
The browser game recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a surge back into the spotlight accompanied by new merchandise, plushies, add-ons to the site, and even graphic novels with familiar Neopets characters.
In the wake of Neopets’ enduring legacy as an immersive, unique world for all ages are many forgotten lines of merchandise that have long since been abandoned. One such line that’s now facing a resurgence in popularity is the line of Neopets’ handheld devices which were released over twenty years ago back in 2002 & 2003.
While many of these handheld games are now long neglected or defunct, there’s a growing market for working specimens funded by Neopians (the site’s name for residents/players of ‘Neopia’, the world Neopets inhabit) who want the unique gaming experience they may have never experienced with the devices’ original release.
My Earliest Memory Of Neopets
The unique experience of Neopets’ main site provided a safe place for kids (and adults) to explore a virtual world constantly expanding with new items, games, and things to do (until the site pretty much ceased to have new updates for a span of several years, that is… but that’s a story for another day).
I made my first Neopets account at age 7; I was hooked instantly, and most of the pets I originally played with as a kid are still active on my account. Of course, as soon as I became addicted to the site, my attention turned to the Neopets expanded universe - plushies, books, and of course, handheld devices that would allow me to bring Neopets everywhere I went.
As an adult, I was surprised to find that the handheld games are fairly simple because they entertained me endlessly as a child and seemed so complex. My first Neopets handheld came with me on any car ride over half an hour long; during stretches where I wasn’t allowed to play on the computer due to various misbehaviors, offline games my family largely forgot about were there to provide comfort and entertainment.
A few times, I even snuck it into school in the pocket of my coat for visits, which was a little disruptive but made me feel very cool. While that first console became defunct many years ago, the fond memories of always having a Neopet there to entertain left me with a lifelong love for the franchise.
As an adult, I have much more appreciation for the simplicity of the offline Pocket Neopet; gaming experiences that don’t pressure me to purchase add-ons, upgrades, or a slightly improved second version are always a bonus.
There was no incentive to buy more or even really to collect them all; the charm of having one Neopet you had to care for daily was enough.
Cloudy Beginnings & Poor Marketing Campaigns
Neopets’ handheld games have a somewhat cloudy history - there are few references to their existence through the main Neopets site, and it seems they had an almost nonexistent advertising campaign to begin with.
Known as ‘Pocket Neopets’, the devices were created to mimic an offline Neopets experience for hardcore Neopians who couldn’t bear to be away from the site’s charm. However, from extensive searching, YouTube digging, and bugging Redditors with aforementioned handheld games, I’ve pieced together a rough history of these unique devices.
The games were originally a Hasbro product produced by Tiger Electronics. There were eight different versions of the device in total which retailed at $14.99 for ‘Standard’ and $19.99 for ‘Deluxe’ (which were functionally the same, but had ‘cooler’ designs). They were available in large retailers such as K-mart, Target, and Toys ‘R’ Us, as well as smaller children’s retailers such as Limited Too and the now-defunct Libby Lu; while their US release was the widest, news updates from the Neopets site reference the toys being available in Canada and Australia too.
They’re all fairly similar in design - egg-shaped handheld games that flip open to reveal a ‘board’ for you to move a Neopet figure around. Each figure fits in with a peg that you also use to activate different buttons on the game; games, food, and the hospital. There’s a small screen, and directional arrows, along with an ‘enter’ and ‘cancel’ button, and that’s how the entirety of your gameplay is completed.
There are different variations based on different Neopets locations; my game flips open to reveal a tiny version of Mystery Island, while others include Faerieland, Neopia Central, or other in-game locations from the site.
Each comes with a different figure; Neopets species such as Grundos, Kacheeks, and Kougras were popular, while some species weren’t beloved enough to be immortalized as a tiny plastic piece essential to gameplay (the game is still operable with a pen or other object if the figure is lost, though).
These figures do contribute heavily to the value of the game; working games without figures tend to resell for much less. While the setup is simple, it’s easy to see why these games were beloved by many, and continue to be prized collectors’ items; my own game’s Yellow Kougra figure is well-worn from use by the previous owner.
Interestingly, the ‘location’ of your Neopets game, whether it’s Faerieland or Meridell, has little to no impact on gameplay. Regardless of what your device looks like, standard gameplay is not much different from a Tamagotchi. In all honesty, and speaking as an endless Neopets hype man, the Neopets handheld devices were certainly capitalizing off of the Tamagotchi craze occupying the nation at the time, only with familiar Neopets characters to care for.
Notably, Neopets also produced a more direct copy of Tamagotchi - similar games known as ‘Mini-Pets’ on stylized keychains. The only downside? The console is certainly made for small hands - efficiently pressing buttons was sometimes a challenge, and made me feel a bit like a great-grandma tapping away helplessly on an iPad for a moment while I got used to it.
Understanding The Gameplay
The gameplay is pretty simple and straightforward. There are three mini-games that you can play to earn Neopoints to feed and care for your pet just like on the site - Poogle Race, Negg Drop, and Techo Says for the Mystery Island console. Some consoles vary with different mini-games, although the rest of the gameplay remains identical.
Poogle Race is similar to an activity on Neopets’ site in which you pick a Poogle, a four-legged Neopets species, and hedge a bet on them to win against other competing Poogles. While the game on the site only requires selecting your Poogle and clicking, the handheld game allows you to control the Poogle’s speed and actually win your race, which was certainly satisfying as a longtime player who had always put my Poogle racing bets up to fate.
The next game, Negg Drop, is simple, but addictive; using the left and right directional buttons, you control a basket to catch Neggs, an item from the site that can give your pets boosts. Catching Neggs gives you points, while catching black Neggs causes the Pant Devil, one of the site’s recurring ‘villains’ to steal your points and end the game. I can’t imagine that many kids today, with iPads and TikTok at their fingertips, would find these games as engaging as they were at the time, but as an adult who grew up playing similar games, the simplistic gameplay was soothing and straightforward.
The final game, Techo Says, is a digital version of Simon Says (or a tiny, low-quality Bop It). During the game, your device’s buttons will light up and make sounds in a sequence; like Bop It, you must repeat the sequence, with the sequence growing gradually more difficult to replicate (truthfully, I only made it to 6 rounds). While none of the minigames are anything groundbreaking, each one is a fun way to kill some time and make some Neopoints.
The game’s main mechanics outside of the minigames are just as simple; you can access shops to purchase food, toys, and Petpets (a mini pet, for your Neopet) to enrich your Neopet and keep them healthy. Feeding and playing with your Neopet are your primary ways to interact, but you can also put your pet to bed.
While that may not all sound thrilling, the gameplay is similar to that of a Tamagotchi in the sense that if you don’t grind to get enough Neopoints to support your favorite little freeloader, your Neopet will get sick and will need to go to the hospital.
To your Neopets’ credit, interacting with them produces a cute animation; your Neopet will excitedly play with a new toy, munch on food, and sleep peacefully. While the animations vary by Neopet, my Kougra tends to either itch his ear impatiently or drop down into a playful crouch if left to idle. The experience is overall more relaxing than playing with a Tamagotchi; while your pet does eventually get hungry and caring for your Neopet is an essential part of gameplay, it doesn’t require near-constant care or stress.
Earning enough Neopets to keep your pet fed, happy, and healthy isn’t a huge chore. (However, it’s important to note that Neopets don’t ‘die’ on these consoles - if neglected for too long, they pack their bags and walk away into the sunset.) If, however, you know you won’t be able to cater to your Neopet’s whims for a few days, an ON/OFF switch on the bottom of the console will allow you to take a break from Neopetsitting without losing your pet.
A Curious Collectible
So why the big demand for these simple games that struggle to occupy more than an hour of your time at once? It’s hard to say what exactly has led to the big surge in popularity, although the resurgence of Neopets as a brand certainly has thrust more of a spotlight on these previously long-forgotten games.
I was lucky to find my (heavily!) used game to replace my long-broken version for $55, which still seemed rather extravagant for a simple handheld console that retailed for $14.99-$19.99.
Depending on the individual console, its Neopets location, and what pet it comes equipped with, prices can range from the low end of $50-75 USD apiece to $200-250. For example, one new-in-packaging Lost Desert console sold for $199 on eBay in February 2025; a similar working console (Meridell) lacking the original packaging sold for $125. Working versions of the console are listed for $249.99 on Amazon, perhaps the most pricey retailer for these games.
To buyers’ credit, finding a game in working condition complete with figure is not an easy task; these games were an integral part of many folks’ childhoods, but many of these much-beloved childhood toys were damaged beyond repair or lost indefinitely, as beloved childhood games and toys often are.
That means that surviving games have experienced a huge inflation in value since their release as no more will be produced, and broken games are often difficult or impossible to repair. The remaining games on the market aren’t just relics of a bygone era - they’re the only surviving evidence of once widely-played devices that live on in many people’s memories but have little documentation on the Internet.
Purchasing and playing with these devices, along with sharing more about them, is all that prevents the Neopets handheld experience from disappearing down the pathway of lost media. Maybe I’m just a sucker, but the drive to collect these important artifacts from one’s childhood makes perfect sense to me - even if the price is a bit extreme considering what you’re getting.
Originally, there was a bonus to purchasing Neopets pocket devices - a rare item code that was contained in the packaging. Many Neopets fans coveted codes obtainable from merchandise, which further inflated the items’ values years after release.
These codes were redeemable at the ‘Grundo Warehouse’ on Neopets.com, much like codes that accompany plushies, stickers, and other merchandise. Sadly, finding a Neopets device in original packaging is very difficult, so while a code from 2002 would hypothetically still work on the site, it’s unlikely you’ll find one for an affordable price.
A Quick Note On Zizzle Handhelds
An even lesser-known member of the Neopets family of handled consoles is the later release known as the 'Zizzle console', aptly named for its production company (Zizzle) - and mainly because it's how the console was branded on release. The Zizzle handheld was released in 2009 (7 years after the original Pocket Neopets) and is somewhat more advanced than previous Neopets handheld games. The square, sleek console did not come with an assigned Neopet & corresponding figure like the Pocket Neopets consoles, but instead allowed players to choose from one of 6 Neopets. The console also allowed players to travel to different areas in Neopia to play various minigames, which provided a more expansive world to explore than Pocket Neopets. Sadly, these consoles are very rare, and it’s uncommon even to see one pop up for resale.
How To Start Collecting Neopets Handhelds
If you don’t have, or maybe never had a Neopets handheld console, where should you start? The market is often overwhelming, and you’re unlikely to get a Faerieland version of the game, which seems to be the most highly prized (again, your game’s ‘location’ has no impact on actual gameplay).
However, there are plenty of outlets where you have the opportunity to find one of the dwindling few available handheld games at a reasonable price. Well-known reseller sites such as eBay, Mercari, Depop, and others may offer you used Neopets handheld games; however, some may be marked up in the hopes of getting a maximum profit. I found success purchasing mine from a thrift store’s online shopping center; while it might not be convenient, digging around in less-traveled outlets may help you find a reasonable price.
Let’s be upfront; the Neopets pocket games aren’t the most original or even the most fun handheld games on the market. In today’s age, you could likely buy a ‘better value’ console & games and have many more hours of play than you would shelling out $200 for a Faerieland Neopets console. But that doesn’t mean these once-forgotten devices have no value.
I look forward to seeing a new (and/or returning) generation of Neopians uncover & play with these games and share them with others. So, if you have the time and the interest, I fully recommend that anyone invested in Neopets, or looking to learn more about this longstanding virtual world, tries their hand at finding one of these to spend a few hours on now and again.
Your Neopet will wait patiently for you each day, and you might find that the less-than-challenging gameplay gives you a respite from the demands of social media and the constant overstimulation found in today’s digital landscape.
The Future Of Neopets
If Neopets were to release handheld games in the future, would there be an audience waiting for them? While my initial answer would have been ‘no’, after immersing myself back into the simple play of my Pocket Neopet, I would say there’s a devoted fanbase who would welcome new additions with open arms.
It’s unlikely we’ll ever see a direct re-release of these old consoles, so if you don’t have one already, don’t give up the hunt now. But, in an overwhelming world, many folks are looking to turn to simpler play and disconnect from browser-based activities that invite unwanted advertisements and player-to-player interaction. If Neopets ever chooses to move forward with making new handheld consoles, surely there will be longtime players who are excited, but hopefully, there will be some new players who get to experience Neopia for the first time, too.
