Digimon’s Monster Hunter Virtual Pets Let You Upgrade Your Own Rathalos

In honor of its 20th anniversary, Monster Hunter intersects with Digimon for one of the coolest official Monster Hunter products we’ve ever seen: Monster Hunter-themed Digimon Virtual Pets. This transition means a lot of things, and that’s something we can’t really say for the next period. Monster Hunter themed Fender Telecaster electric guitar (looks great though).

Two Monster Hunter V-Pet Color devices are available, and both are themed after iconic Monster Hunter creatures: a red device based on Rathalos and a blue device featuring Zinogre. Both monsters have unique variants that combine them with a classic Digimon; Rathalos merges with the Digimon Greymon to evolve into RathalosGreymon, and Zinogre and Garurumon evolve into ZinoGarurumon. These special forms can be obtained through on-device pet breeding mini-games and battles.

You can collect and level up over 30 monsters in the game, including other Monster Hunter creatures like Mizutsune, Rajaang, Nargacuga, Tigrex, Gore Magala, and Khezu. Like other V-Pet Color devices, these are roughly 1.75 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide and feature full-color mini LCD screens, buttons, and speakers. You can pre-order Monster Hunter V-Pets $100 each at Big Bad Toy Store. We expect pre-orders to go live at other retailers soon. Both models are expected to be released next February.

• Monster Hunter x Digimon V-Pet Color – Rathalos — $100
• Monster Hunter x Digimon V-Pet Color – Zinogre – $100

Yes these A lot Expensive little gadgets – V-Pets with full-color screens are significantly more expensive than regular V-Pets with cheap low-pixel LCDs. They are also quite rare in North America. On Amazon you can: Buy a Japanese import V-Pet with a full-color display for $105 from dealers (this model was $70 when it was released).

For those unfamiliar with V-Pet devices, the early beginnings of the Digimon series were electronic pet raising keychain games. Digimon is best known these days for its anime, trading card game, and video game adaptations, but the franchise got its start in the late ’90s with the Digital Monster series of virtual pets. The keychain toys, later rebranded as Digimon V-Pets, were released shortly after Bandai’s other popular virtual pet: tamagotchi. Instead of just breeding a small alien creature, V-Pet monsters are bred to fight both in-game and against other players.

If you want to train a monster for battle without spending $100, you can get modern versions of the original for less than $15 on Amazon.

Digimon Virtual Pets

Tamagotchi Virtual Pets

Bandai has also revived Tamagotchi in a big way with a number of different crossovers featuring the popular series.

Monster Hunter Wilds, the next game in Capcom’s popular action-RPG series, is scheduled for release on February 28, 2025. Check out GameSpot’s games pre-order guide For details on various editions and pre-order bonuses.