In September of 2005 a series of interactive toy’s begun under the name Pixel Chix. These games were interactive with an LCD screen and came in many forms over the years. Marketed towards young girls by introducing them to life through little pixel girl pals. Created by Mattel, these games were desgined for you to live within a house with your character. You were able to dress them up, feed them, have pets and put them to bed. Over time the toys begun to add more to how you could play with different generations.
When thinking back on these games, which ultimatly ended as physical devices in 2009, we are met with intense nostalgia – an analytical framework which these games can be viewed through. I wasn’t sure if Pixel Chix would be an incredibly niche “old” game, especially considering how little it is brought up in spaces when discussing childhood games. However, after looking through the responces of this tweet of mine I knew it wasn’t just me who felt that hard love for these games as kids.
Pixel Chix House created a loveable expierence in little kids. Not only were you able to dress up and play with your girl pal yourself, you were able to connect the houses together and vist each others homes anc charaters. This created a connect, in person expierence for kids in the 2000s to play together. There was orginally three styles, “Cottage”, “Loft”, and “Mansion.”
Over the years Mattel made many different generations of Pixel Chix.
Road Trippin Vehicle, 2005
2-Story House, 2006
Love 2 Shop Mall, 2006
Roomies, 2007
Babysitter, 2007
Unlockets Charm, 2007
Pixel Chix TV, 2008
Fab Life, 2008
Secret Life of Pets, 2007
McDonalds Happy Meal Toys, 2008
Pixel Chix was also hosted as a game under “EverythingGirl.com” which lasted several years past the production of them in 2009, until the site closure in 2014. This makes me question the way I would analyse this game. As stated before, when talking about nostglic games Pixel Chix is non exisitant in many spaces as an option. Yet, when directly asked many of us as kids loved them so much. Until doing research I had no idea that the there even was a website game.
Unlike many different childhood games like “Temagotchi,” and “Cooking Mama”, Pixel Chix has not made any kind of new wave technoglical developments, there has been no new console game or phone app. It’s like it never really made that big of an impact, or if it did consdering they even had a McDonalds toy line, that it was not long lasting at all. Maybe this has to do with the games being developed by Mattel the toy line which is always mass prodcuing new content.
Pixel Chix might not be something that instantly comes to mind for anyone, yet it still has managed to fit in the gaps between the ones you do think of straight away. I think that has to say something, it’s not hated as i saw in the replies to my tweet, but its not remembered even though it was well liked. It’s a game that really sticks out as a fever dream to many people – which in a way is quite a unique type of nostaglia.
Tangled In The Great Escape 