In the mid-ninties most of us were crying over the death of virtual pet, the indistinct pixellated blob taught us about life and death and the consequences of forgetting about your friend and then watching it starve to death. And now, your children (or your friends children) can experience the cycle of life because the Tamagotchi is back.
Bandai, the Japanese toy maker behind your incredibly needy friend is relaunching the digital pet as “Tamagotchi Friends.” The new release will look very similar to the ones we enjoyed but since this is the 21st century, the new ones are updated to fit into the life of a smart phone owning toddler. The most notable change is the ability to actually choose one of several different “characters” to raise as your own (because this is very accurate to actual child rearing.)
Tamagotchi Friends also comes fully loaded with “short-range communication.” This lets you and your (human) friends bump your Tamagotchis together so they can interact and play. Also this is a great time to spell out life lessons to your child (or the random kid you see playing with it, hey, I am not judging.) “When you’re bumping your Tamagotchis together, it’s like you’re bumping the Tamagotchis of all of the people they’ve bumped in the last year.” Life lesson bomb.
Unfortunately, Tamagotchi Friends won’t be hitting US soil (at $20 a pop) until fall of next year. Of course, you can always keep your god complex satisfied with the app version until then.
