Bandai Re-Releases Tamagotchi After 17 Years!

I have these things at the best of time, although admittedly I did actually own one 17 years ago and it was a fun distraction from the daily rigours of life… ok no it wasn’t, it was garbage, but it was a trend and everyone had one.

The little egg shaped key ring toy was a big deal back in the mid 90’s, using just three buttons and a questionable black and white pixelated display, you would feed, play and generally care for your digital pet. This involved cleaning up when it poops, throwing it a toy, telling it that it has been good / bad and so on. In short, it is a little bit stupid, but this is from a time when smartphones weren’t even a thing and Snake wasn’t released on a Nokia phone until the following year!

Now the little digital time wasters have turned 17 (did that make you feel old too?) and Bandai have resurrected them from the dead by revamping the brand. Tamagotchi Friends will be out for Christmas and would make a great stocking filler over the holiday season. American fans will even get the colour screen edition early next year, but us Brits will have to stick with the old school screens for now.

The whole thing is still pretty much the same, with the addition of an NFC style feature allows you to send your pet off to play on someone else egg by bumping them together, the only downside being you’ll need to ask someone if they also have one.

Thank you Engadget for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Engadget.