Tomasz Sienicki/ WikimediaTamagotchis were many people’s first loves, as a kid you lived and breathed for those digital little pets.
And thankfully, in a troubled time when it seems all hope for the future is lost, the virtual pets are returning to take us back to the ’90s right before Christmas.
Everyone loved to feed and care for their Tamagotchi for a week or two at best, before they forgot about it for a while and came back to find the Tamagotchi dead. You’ll be able to relive this childhood memory of murder this festive period!
Bandai NamcoBandai Namco had actually already revived Tamagotchis earlier this year in Japan, and the craze started all over again.
To help spread the craze, they’re bringing the little devices back to the US next month, and it might just be better than the original version.
Back in the day, the little buddies couldn’t survive for much more than half a day if they weren’t looked after properly, so loads of kids got absolutely blasted by their teachers for looking after them.
The process has been somewhat simplified in the latest version, and the devices themselves have been considerably slimmed down so you can fit in your pocket with your iPhone.
Bandai NamcoDespite these changes, the ultimate goal of Tamagotchi is still the same: keep your little buddy alive and happy.
When your digital home for the creatures gets fired up for the first time, one of six Tamagotchi will hatch, and from then on it’s all on you.
To keep them happy and alive, you’ll have to feed them when they’re hungry, turn the lights off when they need to sleep and comfort them when they’re not well.
Most importantly, you’ll have to clean up after their poop.
The device itself is around half the size of the original ’90s version, and the process of looking after your little friend has been drastically simplified.
You won’t be able to play games with your Tamagotchi this time round, it’s all about survival in a digital 2017 world.
It also makes it much easier to care for, which is probably a good thing when we have loads of other shiny screens to distract us away from our parental Tamagotchi responsibilities.
You have the choice of six different cases for your Tamagotchi shells, but that won’t affect which of the six original Tamagotchi hatches when the time comes.
PAIt sounds like the perfect mix of nostalgia and streamlined performance to make sure that Tamagotchis will certainly be the latest Christmas craze for 2017 – and not even among kids either.
The Tamagotchi craze was absolutely huge back in the ’90s and ’00s, and by 2010, over 76 million of the things had been sold worldwide.
The word Tamagotchi is actually a portmanteau, which combines the Japanese word tamago, which means ‘egg’, with the English word ‘watch’.
PAThe creatures were such a phenomenon worldwide that a string of films and short films have been created as well as more than one anime series.
They’re released on November 5, so be sure to pre-order them for the not quite ’90s price of $14.99.
