"A 2D Girl in a 3D World!"
Pixel Chix were a line of virtual friend/pet toys similar to Tamagotchi.
Rather than a pet or creature to take care of, the player controls a young woman/teenage girl. The toy has miniature dollhouse furniture behind an LCD screen, which displays the game's sprites. This gives the illusion of the girl interacting with the world (i.e. sitting on the couch).
Though the toys proved to be popular, Mattel discontinued them. The final product was Fab City Life, which lacked the typical dollhouse furniture and also acted as a piggy bank.
Pixel Chix were released in several languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Greek and Hebrew.
The following products were released from 2005 to 2008:
- House (2005)
- Road Trippin' Cars (2005)
- 2-Story House (2006)
- Love 2 Shop Mall (2006)
- Roomies (2007)
- Babysitter (2007)
- Pixel Pets (2007)
- Fab City Life (2008)
Tropes:
- Age Lift: Possibly. If the Pixel pal is high school age in the house games, she must be older in Roomies to buy a 3 bedroom apartment.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: On Mattel's online portfolio, an image of the blonde haired girl has black hair.
- Adaptation Name Change: The instruction manuals for later games refer to the House toys as "Hangin' at Home."
- Adapted Out: As mentioned below, the "bad ending" from the first game is absent from the 2 Story House and can only be obtained by using a hidden debug menu.
- Appearance Angst: The girls in the "bad hair day" minigame from the mall.
- Artistic License: When your character applies for a job at the mall, the manager gives her one right away. No application or interview needed!
- Alliterative Name: Super Smarty
- All-Stereotype Cast: Pixel, Diva Queen, Miss Sporty, Punk Rocker, DJ Hip-Hop, and Super Smarty.
- Ambiguously Brown: DJ Hip-Hop's toy charm depicts her with dark skin. In game, her skin is white, like the other characters.
- Animated Adaptation: A British children's program block aired several animated shorts as well as putting them on the British Pixel Chix website.
- Animesque: Subverted in the television ads.
- An Odd Place to Sleep: The last character you add to the roomies house will have to sleep on the living room couch, much to the characet's dismay.
- Babysitting Episode: The babysitter house, obviously.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Diva Queen, Super Smarty, and Miss Sporty, respectively.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The Pixel pal, though a bit sassy, is generally nice. This takes a complete 180 when you ignore her. Lampshaded on the toy's packaging:
"Give me attention or I'll give you attitude!"
- Berserk Button: Pixel does NOT like being neglected.
- Big Fancy House: The Roomies house. The blue original house is referred to as a "Beverly Hills mansion" despite it only having two rooms.
- Bratty Half-Pint: The little boy in the Love 2 Shop Mall and Fab City Life games. At the mall, he'll try to steal money from the cash register! The baby in Babysitter can also be viewed this way.
- Break the Cutie: The bad ending can be seen this way.
- Catchphrase: "Fabulous!"
- Classical Music Is Boring: All the girls, sans Smarty, feel this way in the Roomies house.
Everyone (except Smarty): "You can't dance to this music!"
- Cruel Player-Character God: Your Pixel Chix views you this way after neglecting her. To be fair, she relies on you to eat, change her clothes and leave the house.
Pixel: "Hey! I thought you were my friend! Where have you been!?"
- Debug Room: Pressing the Yes, Food and Go Out buttons on any house toy will bring up a debug menu. This can be used to the player's advantage to instantly get to level five.
- Downer Ending: Ignoring your Pixel Chix will cause the levels to go down, cobwebs and a ghost to appear and your Pixel pal outright refusing to do certain activities. Eventually, she will move out of the house and the only way to get a new girl is to reset the game.note
- Downloadable Content: A game on the website allowed you to get decorations for the Roomies house via an aux cord. Another had a mystery boy visit the house.note
- Girlish Pigtails: Worn by Sporty.
- Happy Birthday to You!: When connecting a house to another toy, one of the possible animations has the girl from the other toy going to the house toy to celebrate the girl in the house's birthday. The clip of Pixel singing "la la la la!" is reused when House!Pixel blows out her cake candles.
- Mouthing the Profanity: In one of the aforementioned CITV shorts, Pixel proclaims "housework sucks!" The website later changed the video to have Pixel's line removed.
- No Name Given: Most of the characters are never given real names. Although, the black haired Pixel pal is sometimes referred to as "Pixel."note
- Prone to Sunburn: Sending the character outside in a bikini will result in her getting a sunburn every time.
- Put on a Bus: The toys were discontinued in 2009, though the website could be accessed for some time afterward. Mattel seemed to forget about the product for years. However, in a recent update to the company's online portfolio, a section for Pixel Chix (along with other discontinued toys, like Diva Starz) was added.
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Similarly Named Works: The Pixel Petz line is also called The Secret Life of Pets. - The Power of Apathy: Pixel can ignore and be rude to customers if the "no" button is pressed.
- Primp of Contempt: When ignoring customers, the Pixel pal may check her nails.
- Tag Line: "A 2D Girl in a 3D world!"
- Temporary Bulk Change: Feeding your Pixel pal too much will cause her belly to become slightly round. She panics (complete with a "yikes!"), does some jumping jacks, then instantly takes the weight off.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Diva Queen and Miss Sporty. You can even make them share a bedroom.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Sporty doesn't seem to mind things like fashion and makeovers.
- Two Aliases, One Character: Diva Queen is also called "Beauty Queen" in the Roomies commercial. This name seems to have used outside the U.S. as well.
- Virtual Paper Doll: Most toys feature the ability to change your pal's outfit.
- Video Game 3D Leap: Subverted as this only happens in the commercials.
