Tamagotchi 20th Anniversary Edition is out now. Some of us were pretty delighted by the model that's close to the original is for sale again. Tamago means an egg, and this is also a watch. Tamagotch. Also in Japanese "-tchi" is a friendly nickname suffix. Mr. Yamada will be Yamadatchi and Mr. Suzuki will be Suzukitchi if their childhood friends want to call them that way. Just like you call your friend James "Jimbo" or Miss Ferguson "Fergie". Mr. Obama can be called Obamatchi. Try with any names that end with vowel. Selena, Ariana, Ronaldo...
Tamagotchi 20th Anniversary Editions
So my friend's daughter Saffy tells me she loves the recent re-re-revival of Tamagotchi. She was born in 1993 and remembers I used to teach her how to look after this digital pet. She was too little to understand why her pet kept producing a delinquent and killing it so quick while mine was kept alive & healthy. Now Saffy's taking a revenge, totally hooked on it.
She's a newly recruited lawyer, busy with multiple clients week-in, week-out. How she finds time to feed, clean and entertain her 'Gotchi is a wonder. Mind you, I must have been in my early 30's, how on earth did I manage that during the office hours?
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Tamagotchi Mix variations (Right: Japanese import with Hello Kitty)
I guess it's just a simple toy game after all - all it wants is an attention. Comparing to the tweet/Insta addictions, Tamagotchi doesn't require much of a thinking. Probably that's why the popularity of the original was short-lived, though sensational. According to Japanese Wiki, Tamagotchi's popularity broke out worldwide during 1997, but then quickly died down.
Bandai had over-produced the stock and by March 1999 they had to scrap 2.5 million pieces of stock, making the deficit of 4.5 billion Yen (some USD 38-39 million) as a result.
Tamagotchi 4U variations
Tamagotchi 20th Anniversary Edition For Sale
The recent versions with colour screen such as "4U" and "Mix / M!x", although have some extra features, they're definitely targeted towards children - the body is in pastel colour and has somewhat kiddie-sophisticated design.
The anniversary version is black & white pixelated screen, and it's pretty funky. It's definitely the nostalgia factor that people are going for right now in Tamagotchi.
Hey Ray I remember Tamagotchi and I bought one myself but never really got into it. I prefer real pets to be honest. But as you say the 20th anniversary version looks funky but it’s a bit girly. I wouldn’t mind having one though.
Zak
Hi Zak, thanks for your comment. I must admit I only used my Tamagotchi once. Once it was fully grown I lost interest. To me it’s definitely a nostalgia – along with Gameboy which I threw away a few years ago when I was clearing my cupboard (what was I thinking?) also some arcade games like Space Invader. Some collectors exchange the original version from ’90s for premium prices. I wouldn’t pay a lot of money for the original but the 20th anniversary version replicate that for handy prices, I like that.