The world was a very different place in the late 90s. Jeans were ludicrously baggy and worn well below the waist, Limp Bizkit was considered music, and children were having meltdowns over the death of their virtual pets.
The Tamagotchi craze swept the classrooms of Australia in the late 90s and early 2000s. The little oval-shaped devices were carried around by young people who were overly dedicated to raising the small digital creatures confined to tiny pixelated screens.
Tamagotchi — meaning ‘egg watch’ in Japanese — didn’t have the kind of longevity that other icons of the era like Pokemon or Super Mario had, but they did leave a lasting imprint on digital culture and the lives of those who felt responsible for their virtual alien blobs. Even today, the Tamagotchi Effect is recognised as psychological attachment to machines or software.
Two decades after Tamagotchi craze, the company has returned with two brand-new R2-D2 editions. It’s a heady mix of nostalgia, with the non-linguistic hero of the Star Wars universe being captured in a ludicrously retro fashion for the next generation.
Virtual pet owners will be able to care for and play with their virtual droid and protect it from being stolen by mischievous Jawas. The R2-D2 Tamagotchi comes with two games and seven more that can be unlocked through proper care of R2.
Much like the original iterations of the simulated pets, the new Tamagotchi requires you to keep R2 charged and clean — however you won’t have to clean up droid poop. You can play a tiny version of the Star Wars classic, holo-chess, and BB-8, C-3PO, and Boba Fett make cameos in some of the games.
While Tamagotchi parent company Bandai is still creating new devices like the Tamagotchi Pix and the Tamagotchi smartwatch, they’ve yet to tap into the same hype as their first iteration. Perhaps that could change with their latest release.
The R2-D2 Tamagotchi comes in both blue and white versions and is scheduled for release on November 11. Preorders will be available from Amazon at midnight August 3 (when the link should work) and are thought to be around $30-35 for the Aussie market.
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