The Japanese company Bandai, which produces games, has announced that on July 28th it will release for the first time in the United States a color version of the Tamagotchi, called “Tamagotchi ON” and released in Japan last November. If you are a “millennial”, that is all those born between 1981 and 1996, you probably do not need explanations: Tamagotchi in the nineties was very popular among children and adolescents all over the world. For everyone else, Tamagotchi is a handheld game created by Bandai that first came out in 1996 in Japan and in 1997 in the rest of the world, whose main activity is to take care of an alien pet throughout its life cycle. life.
The first version of the Tamagotchi was a small egg-shaped device, with a black and white screen with the classic “pixel effect” of those years and three buttons, which were used to interact with the pet and take care of it, since the pet alien had to be fed, cleaned, had to play with it and could even die: in short, it had all the characteristics of a real pet. The name “Tamagotchi” is a combination of the Japanese word for egg (tamago) and the English word watch, to watch.
The parent company practically never stopped producing Tamagotchi after the first release, creating what is called the media franchise, that is a brand used for products from the different sectors of entertainment and entertainment. To give some examples, over the years video games have been released for various consoles (one for PlayStation only for the Japanese market and others for Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS also sold abroad), an animated series translated into English and three films. The flagship product, however, remained the portable Tamagotchi of which dozens of different versions came out, many of which only for the Japanese market to which the longevity of the Tamagotchi is owed: in fact, in the world, the mass market soon stopped being interested. to the alien pet, due to the release of new toys. The interest in Tamagotchi outside Japan remained alive only among nostalgics and fans: Bandai's latest attempt to expand overseas again took place in 2017, for the twentieth anniversary, when it marketed a version practically identical to the first one released.
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The Tamagotchi ON, the one that will be released in July in the United States, is in color and has a bluetooth and infrared connection to connect with other Tamagotchi and with your smartphone: there is also an app dedicated to the game, with which you can explore further functions, earn points and special items. On the Bandai website we read that the Tamagotchi ON is made to play with it while on the go but also to empower children and teach them to take care of a pet: the audience Bandai wants to address includes both enthusiasts who have not never stopped playing both new consumers.
After the commemorative version of 2017, Bandai this time would like to take full advantage of the widespread nostalgia of the nineties: the first to try to meet this request was Nintendo with its new-old Super NES Mini, then Sony also came and produced a version. commemorative of his first PlayStation, with the most famous games already installed. It is a trend that goes beyond video games, just look at what is and what will be in cinemas: Aladdin and The Lion King (both Disney remakes of cartoons released in the 90s), Pokémon: Detective Pikachu ( first film with real actors about Pokémon, which became famous in the late 1990s) and Sonic – The Movie (based on the SEGA video game character Sonic, which first appeared in 1991).
The pre-order for Tamagotchi ON is already available on Amazon in the US: it costs about 60 dollars (just over 50 euros). Bandai's intentions for the European and Italian markets are not yet known.
