Tamagotchi Mini: Unnecessarily simplifying for the modern day before it was cool

Yes, this is the best tie into Digimon that I can do at the moment. In my defence, this is basically what Digimon started off as. It wasn't a Pokemon rip off, it was a Tamagotchi rip off.

It's somewhat surprising what things just won't die. I don't know if it's a testament to how beloved Tamagotchi's are, or that people really don't want real pets. While the original Tamagotchi's were released just before my time (I was alive, but you don't give small electronics to a one-year-old), they did get a small resurgence when I was in Primary School with the "Tamagotchi Connection" line around the mid-2000's. Now in 2018, they're back again with a re-release of the Tamagotchi Mini's, and the originals apparently getting a re-release in a few months (at least in the US according to a Wiki I'm using to make sure I get some dates roughly right). Aimed purely at nostalgic fans of the original toys, I figured it would be somewhat interesting to see how well these things hold up by today's standards. Will this appeal to kids nowadays? One way to find out.

So. First thing's first. What is a Tamagotchi? In a single sentence, it's a Pet simulator toy. Upon activation, you will be given a Tamagotchi egg in game, and once it hatches, it will be your job to raise it all the way up until it dies, in which you start again. There's no way to keep it alive, it's an inevitability. In order to keep it alive for as long as possible though, you have to feed it food and lollies, clean up its droppings, give it medicine when it's sick and turn off the lights when it goes to sleep. It is as basic as a pet simulator can get and while that's fine in theory, I never found the Tamagotchi's complex to begin with even when the ones I had were more complex than this.

This is where the story of the Tamagotchi Connection line comes into this review (and I really hope I'm right with the name as I don't have my original Tamagotchi anymore, I got rid of it over a decade ago). In that model, you had a number of mini-games you could play with your Tamagotchi to keep it happy, there was a basic Infrared connection system in them to play with other Tamagotchi's, a shop system to buy better foods. Heck, the original Tamagotchi models had more features like its own mini-games, a discipline mechanic, and even the original models of the Mini back in 2005 had a pause mechanic. I don't see the reason to simplify something like a Tamagotchi, as pet simulators aren't very complex by nature. In fact, the more interaction a pet simulator generally has, the more invested a player becomes with the virtual pet.

In terms of plastic and circuitry, these things are tiny! That picture above is not edited at all, that's their size compared to a Prime Master, the Pretender armour they come with, a 3DS cartridge and its own battery. They're so small there isn't a way to turn them off (which granted I think is common for Tamagotchi's, but normally they have a button combination for that, which the Mini's are lacking). Their small size and weight do make them good keychains though, which goes alongside the portability they have by nature. It's pretty easy to put them on something like a handbag, or what I did, a lanyard. and have them on you to care for them. When they need your attention, there's a speaker on the back that you can turn on and off, but like the glorified calculator screen, the Tamagotchi's have, the speaker only outputs basic beeps, no real tones.

While that goes well for the nostalgia factor, it does mean these feel extremely cheap to make. This is a technology used by things like the Game and Watches, calculators, and only slightly more advanced than the cheap electronic toys you'd find in McDonald's or by Tiger Electronics. So why the heck do these cost 30 Australian dollars? Seriously Bandai? Granted a part of that's easily retail overhead, but still? Maybe if it had more too it like the Tamagotchi Connections did (and no I'm not saying that for the sake of personal nostalgia) but considering what else you can get for that price, these aren't worth the cost. I know that sounds like a down note to end on, but this is genuinely a case of something just not being worth the price of admission (which granted doesn't excuse the fact that I did pay that price for it). There are other things better worth the money. If you really want a Tamagotchi, you're better off finding a second hand one of a version you grew up with. I'll see you on Wednesday at the main site for the start of the Sailor Moon Marathon. In the meantime, I'm going to go give Gnaw his dinner.

He said it tasted like chicken