Tamagotchi On gives other regions a chance at an updated experience

Something major has happened outside of Japan. Bandai has decided to take a chance on one of its high end models in other regions. The Tamagotchi Meets and Some model, which appeared in Japan and Korea in 2018, has come to North America as Tamagotchi On. This is, well, monumental for people in other regions. Past Tamagotchis have been the more basic models, with the 2014 and 2015 Tamagotchi Friends models being black and white variants with NFC and skill systems. However, we missed out on more involved full-color models, even the Tamagotchi iD L that was released in English. Tamagotchi On is an opportunity to experience a lot of new features, those some feel like first steps into the future.

A Tamagotchi On isn’t all that dissimilar from a Tamagotchi Mix, the model that allows you to create family lines by having your pet pair up with others in-game or belonging to other Tamagotchi Mix owners. It is a full-color system. There is NFC technology for connecting. Different models have different exclusive characters and locations in them. (The Fairy models allow you to get and see Fairy Land, Fairytchi and Unipegasatchi, while the Magic models have Korobatchi, Magic Land and Majoritchi.) You can visit different locations both in your town and far away. There are shops to get accessories, food, items and room designs. (Eating different food can turn your Tamagotchi different colors!) You can drop your Tamagotchi off in a hotel to “baby sit” while you attend class or work. It also moves at an increased pace, with the baby phase lasting a few hours, the child phase about a day, and the teen phase a day or so.

Now, all of those features alone would be worth someone grabbing a Tamagotchi On if they have always loved the virtual pets, but never experienced one of the more recent ones and their mixed genetics features. But, Tamagotchi On also has a number of other cool elements that aren’t present in past entries. One is the idea of twins. As your family line goes on, you have a chance of having two Tamagotchis at once. The two will be present for their entire lifespan. However, when it comes time for marriage, only the dominant twin in the pair gets married.

There are also pets. In Tamagotchi On, you can leave one of your characters’ toys outside of their house. When you do, a Tama Pet could come up. You then have the option of having that character act as their pet. It’s primarily a cosmetic amusement, though these pets can also eventually breed with other pets and have their own genetic line change throughout their family line.

But, the biggest change is a feature that feels like a precursor to things to come. Tamagotchi On devices are Bluetooth compatible. If you connect them to your smart device and use the app, you can send your current Tamagotchi to the app. This is a town with minigames to play, present and character distribution and the ability to meet new characters for your current Tamagotchi to marry. Think of it as an online feature similar to the Tamagotchi Connection TamaTown, albeit with fewer activities at the moment. Perhaps, eventually, we’ll see things like a food court, school or travel center open. At the moment, it feels a little rudimentary and like the in-app minigames, like the one where you collect falling items, isn’t as profitable as the in-Tamagotchi games.

Tamagotchi On is a chance to finally appreciate everything that more modern Tamagotchis have to offer. It has been nice getting things like the Gudetama Tamagotchi or the rereleases of older models. But countries like Japan and Korea have been getting these more advanced versions of the virtual pet with all new mechanics, and it is great that we all finally have a chance to see what developments have been made and get a model where we could play for months or years, raising our own evolving family lines.