Shimeji Home : My desktop pet is a free app that puts a cute animated pet or buddy onto your desktop. Once you have picked out a character from the selection, you will be able to interact with them to pass the time.

Like Feed and Grow: Fish and My Talking Tom, the app allows you to interact with a virtual pet. It does not offer as much interactivity as some of its rivals, but there's a wide range of buddies to choose from.

A variety of adoptable buddies

Shimeji Home : My desktop pet features a strong variety of buddies you can pick. The most basic — and the one featured in the branding — is Akita Dog (an adorable Pomeranian). There are plenty of others, ranging from weird creatures to "chibi" versions of the characters from Naruto. All of which can be adopted.

Play with your desktop buddy

Once you have chosen the buddy to adopt, you can sit back and watch him or her walk around your screen. You can also play with them directly by nudging, prodding, or even throwing them. They will always bounce back for more, no matter how much you push them around.

Questionable English

The app has clearly run into translation issues, and the on-screen captions (including character descriptions) are often written in garbled English. For example, the description for one adoptable buddy reads, "Like the Virgin Mary, she has a spirit of fraternity." Still, the point is more in the graphics than the writing.

A bit of fun for your desktop

Shimeji Home : My desktop pet is an app suited to users who want a bit of cartoon fun on their desktops. There are rival virtual pet apps that offer more interactivity, but this one doesn't really aim to compete. Its purpose is less as a time-killer and more of a desktop decoration.