On Tamagotchis old and new
To many people's surprise, Tamagotchis are still around. They're not going nearly as strong as they used to be in the 90's, but they've got a decent following and some cool new stuff.
After Tamagotchi's initial few releases in the late 90's, the franchise was revived again in the early 2000's, bringing the "V2" and it's 5 or so following versions, each containing different, new things you could do. Some you could get your Tamagotchi a job, some you could raise a whole family, and some you can attach add-ons to, to unlock more games. Not to mention, each of the new toys had infrared to connect to others, and codes to connect online. In other words, there are tons more to do with your pets other than just feed and play. The core mechanics are all still there, but they now have their own little world.
Recently I developed an interest in Tamagotchis again. The last one I owned was when I was young, one of the first ones to come out, and I never touched on them until now. I wouldn't doubt it'd been up to 15 years since I played one. I finally got my hands on the only one I could find, a "Tamagotchi: Music Star", or a V6. I really wanted to experience the nostalgia of raising a tiny virtual pet again, and despite the gimmick of your Tamagotchi forming a band or something, I was happy to see the core growth game-play was in-tact. So I started up my new Tama and was excited to see what kind of thing it would grow up into. What I found inside of it, as well, was a lot of things, instruments it could play, toys you could buy, a shop, a music school, places for it to go. It was the same basic toy from my childhood, and it was fun, but something was different, the feel wasn't the same.
I got a few more Tamagotchis over time, a V4, a Tama-Go, etc. I also obtained one of the original release Tamagotchis. That one I definitely wanted to try, and see just how simple it really was. After finally getting the right batteries for it, I hatched the Tama and played with it. Of course, I could tell all the details weren't as balanced in the original ones as much as the newer ones, because the newly-hatched baby was an absolute attention-hungry terror, while all forms afterward were laid back and barely needed attention at all. While caring for it over about the week or so that it was alive, I mainly noticed how simple it really was. You could play one game with it, feed it two different foods, and clean its poop. I wondered what it was about it that was so interesting when I was a kid. The screen or background didn't even change when you played the left/right game, it just stayed in place. It couldn't go to the park like in my Tama-Go, it couldn't have a name like in my Music Star, and it couldn't interact with anyone or anything else.
Bringing it with me everywhere as usual, I pondered this for a while. Then one day I took it out of my pocket, and looked at the little guy floating mindlessly around its background-less screen. It had nothing, nothing but me. And that's when I realized it; it didn't need to have a built in park. It didn't need to have a store or a school or a whole world at all. When I was young, I took him to the park myself. I took him with me to school. It's world was nothing, so it's world was my world. It wasn't a pet in a world inside the toy, it was a tiny pet in my world too, looking at it through the screen. It played with others because it was there next to the others, not because they could play a bowling game via infrared. It could only be in our world if it was to do anything.
The new Tamagotchis do some adorable and interesting things. They can play on the swings at the park, go to a school with a Tamagotchi teacher, and Tamagotchi mailmen deliver them letters from all over the Tamagotchi world. Heck, the pause mode in the V5 is sending your Tamagotchi family on a vacation, the screen showing various vacation spots in their "World". The elaborate world they live in is all contained inside that toy. You're just there to feed them and play the many games inside as well. The feeling of being a tiny little pet all by itself in a toy, needing you and your world to grow and play, is not really present. I love all of the toys and their differences, but I found out that was why the nostalgia wasn't really coming back as much as I had thought it would. The original Tamagotchis truly were less of a toy and more of a "pet". They were more capable of feeling like a real pet because they couldn't really do much more than a real pet should, and to make it do that, you'd have to really bring it around with you and set it in the sandbox next to your sandcastle you made for it. Not that children these days wouldn't use just as much imagination with the new toys as they would with the old ones, but something about the feel is lost with them gaining a whole world for themselves.
All kinds of Tamagotchis are good and fun in their own right, but each have their own particular feeling, the biggest contrast being between the old and new ones. Do you want a pet who shares your world as a simple being in it, or do you want to care for a being that can do all sorts of things and explore a world separate from your own? Advancements are great, but for some things, less can be more.
Tamagotchi Familitchi
Version 1 Tamagotchi
After Tamagotchi's initial few releases in the late 90's, the franchise was revived again in the early 2000's, bringing the "V2" and it's 5 or so following versions, each containing different, new things you could do. Some you could get your Tamagotchi a job, some you could raise a whole family, and some you can attach add-ons to, to unlock more games. Not to mention, each of the new toys had infrared to connect to others, and codes to connect online. In other words, there are tons more to do with your pets other than just feed and play. The core mechanics are all still there, but they now have their own little world.
Recently I developed an interest in Tamagotchis again. The last one I owned was when I was young, one of the first ones to come out, and I never touched on them until now. I wouldn't doubt it'd been up to 15 years since I played one. I finally got my hands on the only one I could find, a "Tamagotchi: Music Star", or a V6. I really wanted to experience the nostalgia of raising a tiny virtual pet again, and despite the gimmick of your Tamagotchi forming a band or something, I was happy to see the core growth game-play was in-tact. So I started up my new Tama and was excited to see what kind of thing it would grow up into. What I found inside of it, as well, was a lot of things, instruments it could play, toys you could buy, a shop, a music school, places for it to go. It was the same basic toy from my childhood, and it was fun, but something was different, the feel wasn't the same.
I got a few more Tamagotchis over time, a V4, a Tama-Go, etc. I also obtained one of the original release Tamagotchis. That one I definitely wanted to try, and see just how simple it really was. After finally getting the right batteries for it, I hatched the Tama and played with it. Of course, I could tell all the details weren't as balanced in the original ones as much as the newer ones, because the newly-hatched baby was an absolute attention-hungry terror, while all forms afterward were laid back and barely needed attention at all. While caring for it over about the week or so that it was alive, I mainly noticed how simple it really was. You could play one game with it, feed it two different foods, and clean its poop. I wondered what it was about it that was so interesting when I was a kid. The screen or background didn't even change when you played the left/right game, it just stayed in place. It couldn't go to the park like in my Tama-Go, it couldn't have a name like in my Music Star, and it couldn't interact with anyone or anything else.
Bringing it with me everywhere as usual, I pondered this for a while. Then one day I took it out of my pocket, and looked at the little guy floating mindlessly around its background-less screen. It had nothing, nothing but me. And that's when I realized it; it didn't need to have a built in park. It didn't need to have a store or a school or a whole world at all. When I was young, I took him to the park myself. I took him with me to school. It's world was nothing, so it's world was my world. It wasn't a pet in a world inside the toy, it was a tiny pet in my world too, looking at it through the screen. It played with others because it was there next to the others, not because they could play a bowling game via infrared. It could only be in our world if it was to do anything.
The new Tamagotchis do some adorable and interesting things. They can play on the swings at the park, go to a school with a Tamagotchi teacher, and Tamagotchi mailmen deliver them letters from all over the Tamagotchi world. Heck, the pause mode in the V5 is sending your Tamagotchi family on a vacation, the screen showing various vacation spots in their "World". The elaborate world they live in is all contained inside that toy. You're just there to feed them and play the many games inside as well. The feeling of being a tiny little pet all by itself in a toy, needing you and your world to grow and play, is not really present. I love all of the toys and their differences, but I found out that was why the nostalgia wasn't really coming back as much as I had thought it would. The original Tamagotchis truly were less of a toy and more of a "pet". They were more capable of feeling like a real pet because they couldn't really do much more than a real pet should, and to make it do that, you'd have to really bring it around with you and set it in the sandbox next to your sandcastle you made for it. Not that children these days wouldn't use just as much imagination with the new toys as they would with the old ones, but something about the feel is lost with them gaining a whole world for themselves.
All kinds of Tamagotchis are good and fun in their own right, but each have their own particular feeling, the biggest contrast being between the old and new ones. Do you want a pet who shares your world as a simple being in it, or do you want to care for a being that can do all sorts of things and explore a world separate from your own? Advancements are great, but for some things, less can be more.
Tamagotchi Familitchi
Version 1 Tamagotchi