Like I discussed in my previous post, everyone yearns for the era that they grew up in, to some extent. This is probably why television programs like vh1’s I Love the 70s and all of its sequels about other decades have been so successful. People want to talk about the things that made them smile as children and treat them as sort of historical artifacts. Well, now one can get hands-on with one of these artifacts. Tamagotchi, the Japanese-born virtual pet, is now an app for iPhone and Android.
The Tamagotchi was initially introduced in Japan in 1996 and became insanely popular in the United States in the late nineties. After a wane in popularity, a revamped edition was released in 2004 in the U.S., which was also very popular, but not as successful as the first generation. (I distinctly recall owning one and feeling great stress when I couldn’t keep it alive).
And now, Tamagotchi has been released as a free app for smartphones. I probably would have paid 99 cents for the app, but was ecstatic that it was free, and immediately downloaded it on release day on my Android. It works just like the original toy in the egg-shaped casing. You feed it, you play games with it (that you let it win), you clean up its poop. There’s also an option to play it in full screen or play it with an image of the original case. So we may enjoy having revamped technology, but there’s always some desire to go retro.