Demon Slayer Tamagotchi

A Tamagotchi based on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise!

The first thing you might notice about this release is that it retains the original Japanese packaging and programming. This is the first for a release that’s been brought over to the USA. English instructions can be found over on Bandai’s website.

When you start up the toy, you’ll see a little scene play out and you’ll be presented with a generic, low-ranking character that will grow into a character from the franchise depending on how it’s cared for.

Hello Kitty Tamagotchi

The Hello Kitty Tamagotchi! The theme of this Tamagotchi is probably clear based on name alone. It's adorable, packed with charm, and is nicely animated considering the size. It's a more Vanilla experience compared with some of the other crossover Tamagotchi Nanos that have recently come out, but I think the sheer cuteness helps make up for it.

It's a normal, simplified Nano experience this time around. Feeding your Tamagotchi will show Kitty delivering your chosen food or snack. You'll be feeding your Tamagotchi some of Kitty's favorite foods- apple pie and milk!

There are two games to play here. The first is a game of timing where you press the button that corresponds to falling musical notes. The other involves helping Kitty use balloons to fly to the end of a course while collecting other balloons and avoiding crows that fly in your path. Neither are particularly difficult, but they're both pretty fun.

Jordy Tamagotchi

Based on the NINIZ mascot of the same name, the Jordy Tamagotchi is the first Korean-exclusive device!

When you first turn it on and set the time, you’ll get to see Jordy defrosting from a glacier. After this, the upkeep itself is standard as far as Tamagotchi Nanos go. Feeding, playing with, and cleaning up after Jordy is all done through simple menus accessed with the A button The biggest difference here is the lifecycle.

Evatchi (Evangelion Tamagotchi)

The Evatchi, also known as the MULTIPURPOSE EGG SHAPED DECISIVE WEAPON EVATCHI! As you can probably already tell, this is a Tamagotchi featuring characters from the Evangelion franchise. Even if you don't know anything about the Evangelion franchise, I think the character design and gameplay are enough to support this as a standalone toy.

When you start it up you'll get to see a quick scene featuring the Second Impact, and your Angel Fetus arrives! The characters here aren't really cute in a traditional sense, but they are really cool and weird. They're pretty decently animated  considering the size, and there are a lot of characters to raise and unlock. In a change from traditional Nanos, some characters are available right away while others can only be unlocked by raising other sets of characters first.

Tamagotchi P1 & P2 Re-Release

I finally got the chance to try out the new Tamagotchi P1 & P2. I couldn't find them in any nearby stores and nobody knew when they'd be in, so I ended up ordering them off of Amazon instead. The good part about that, though, was that I was able to get the exact colors I wanted!

Starting off, I love the box art! It really brings back the feel of the 90s release. I've always loved the look of the vintage designs. If you'd like to get a closer look, you can see some high-quality box scans here!

The Tamagotchis themselves are nice-looking for the most part. I didn't have any problems, but some people have said they've had issues with the quality of some of the painted-on shell designs. Try and get a closer look at them before buying, if you can.

Tamagotchi Mobile Games

Since the P1/P2 Tamagotchi seem to be set to release at the end of September, and a new color Tamagotchi is set to release in Japan, I thought this would be a good time to talk about some Tamagotchi mobile apps! Yay!

The first I wanted to look at was from the Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. product line that Bandai was promoting a little while back. It was essentially a clone of the P1 and P2 Tamagotchis, though it did feature the ability to zoom in on the Tamagotchi you were raising so you could see them bigger and in color. This would also change the game you would play, though it just meant it taking longer for the same reward.
The more Tamagotchi you raised, the more background and shell types you would unlock, which was a pretty nice feature.
This was later taken down and replaced with the Tamagotchi Classic app. The release of this one was a bit odd. Two versions of this exist, one that features P1 characters and one that features P2 characters. The P2 version for the most part only seems to have been released in regions that did not previously receive the original L.i.f.e. app.

UraTama

The Ura Jinsei Enjoi Tamagotchi Plus, or the UraTama as it is more commonly known, was released in Japan in 2006 and could be seen as a sequel to the previously released EnTama. The UraTama is comparable to the English Tamagotchi Connection V4.5.

One of the first things you probably notice upon turning it on is that the pixels are a nice, light blue color. Very relaxing, although a bit harder to see than the regular black ones. Not so much that it makes a huge difference, though.

Added to the status screen is a menu for your Tamagotchi's GUTS Points, which affect which character it will grow into. These points can be earned in a variety of ways.

The first way to earn GUTS Points is by playing one of the three games with it, the first game raising the first type of point and so on.

Tamagotchi Connection V4

The Tamagotchi Connection V4 was released in 2007. It was based on the Japanese EnTama, but had some unique features of its own.

The status screen now has an area for displaying the skill points your pet has earned. These affect what character your Tamagotchi will grow into.

You can receive mail, which replaced the light icon. There are three types of mail you can get.

You can get fortunes, which give you one to three stars in three different areas: Gotchi Points, Love, and Skills. Three stars is a good fortune, and will give positive results in that category. Your Tamagotchi can earn more Gotchi Points or skill points after games, or become friendly with the Tamagotchis it connects with more quickly.

The next type of mail you can receive are letters. It shows a little animation based on what you got in the letter, if you got presents or points from the king, got a random gift, or were visited by a thief who steals your points.

Tamagotchi V4.5

The Tamagotchi Connection V4.5 was released after the V4 as an updated form of that version. It was based on the V4 as well as the Japanese UraTama.

The status screen has an area for displaying how many skill points your character has gotten.

You can receive mail, which replaced the light icon. There are three types of mail you can get.

You can get fortunes, which give you one to three stars in three different areas: Gotchi Points, Love, and Skills. Three stars is a good fortune, and will give positive results in that category. Your Tamagotchi can earn more Gotchi Points or skill points after games, or become friendly with the Tamagotchis it connects with more quickly.

The next type of mail you can receive are letters. It shows a little animation based on what you got in the letter, if you got presents or points from the king, got a random gift, or were visited by a thief who steals your points.

The last kind of mail you can get is probably the most important. This last category is for when your Tamagotchi reaches important milestones, which allow it to go to preschool, school, and finally to work. It will get this mail when it reaches certain ages.

There are five different non-work mini-games you can play.

Gudetama Tamagotchi

I've finally gotten to play with my Gudetama Tamagotchi, and I can say I'm having a lot of fun! I really like seeing Bandai doing these Sanrio collaborations.
 

 First off, it's super-cute. It's smaller than I thought it would be, about as tall and wide as a Mini, but the back side is fuller and rounder.

It seems to be based off of the Tamagotchi Nano, so the Gudetama Tamagotchi has a few more features than a Mini.

Gudetama Tamagotchi - December 27, 2017

The Gudetama Tamagotchi is set to come out in about a month, on December 27th. I've had mine preordered for a while now, and I'm really excited. It looks like it's styled after the Nano Tamagotchi, which is pretty cool, since I've never had a Nano before. Sanrio-Tamagotchi crossovers have already been done in the past with the Sanrio Pierce for the P's and the two Sanrio-themed M!xes, but this is the first fully Gudetama-themed one, as far as I know. This version just makes a lot of sense to me, seeing as how he's already a cute little egg. I can't wait to get to play with this one, and see all the cute different egg-styled transformations he'll get.

To get a closer look a this cool Tamagotchi now, check out this link!

Tamagotchi Mini - Tamagotchi Chibi 2017

This is a re-release of the original Tamagotchi Mini and Tamagotchi Chibi that first came out in 2005. This version was released to celebrate Tamagotchi's 20th Anniversary.

These feature the shells from the original 1996 release of the Tamagotchi, coming in blue-with-yellow/red-with blue clock-face designs, plain white, orange with a Tamagotchi label, blue with pink numbers, and a clear blue.

It's a lot like the original release of the Mini and Chibi. It's been really simplified from other versions. It's good for playing with if you don't have a lot of time for looking after it.

Wildgotchi - iOS and Android

Another virtual pet app.

It's serviceable enough... It's nothing stunning, but it works well enough.

You can feed it different foods, play games with it, clean it up, turn out its lights for it to sleep, give it medicine if it gets sick; the standard stuff. It can also grow depending on how well you take care of it.

There's just something that feels missing from it. It seems to be trying to copy the style of the original Tamagotchi, but has the same sort of problem that the Tamagotchi Game Boy version had. The charm of that kind of came from the fact that it was always on and always with you. It didn't have amazing animation or a ton of features, but it didn't have to.

This, on the other hand... I dunno. It feels like it's setting the bar a lot lower than it could actually be at. There are ways to get back to that nostalgic feeling without stripping away everything else in the process. I feel like games like Pakka Pets Village were able to combine nostalgic design and fun features a lot better. And there's also the official Tamagotchi app if you want to get back to the basics, which also managed to be cuter and more colorful than this managed to be.