Tamagotchi on DS?

By Tom Bramwell Published 7 June, 2005

Release the hounds.

Bandai is to bring Tamagotchi to the Nintendo DS according to a posting on its Japanese website. It'll be out in September according to this page.

Tamagotchis, which you may remember from playgrounds in the mid-90s (if you were young then that is; we're not suggesting that you stalked children ten years ago), were little egg-shaped LCD virtual pet things that I never managed to work properly. [A sentiment you've been able to express quite often in your life, that. -Ed]

Bandai will doubtless be hoping that a DS version - updated graphics might be an idea, chaps - will give it a new "leash of life" in the decade everybody's trying not to refer to as "the noughties".

Mind you, in light of the virtual pet phenomenon that is Nintendogs, Bandai's releasing Tamagotchi on the DS seems a bit like bolting the kennel door after the hounds have already mauled your bank manager and stolen all your savings.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Huntcjna #1 7 years ago

    I think you should bump the zelda topic down the pecking order for this quality piece of information

  • MaskedDave #2 7 years ago

    In light of Nintendogs I guess it was inevitable that the original cyberpet (wow! I remembered the name!) turn up on the console.

    Where are all the god damn games though?!

    Metroid, Zelda, Mario - THESE are the titles that should be adorning the late night Channel 4 sponsorship commericals. They are targetting the right people at the right time, but with totally the wrong product! Do they really think the average Ricky Gervais viewer wants to spend their time drawing tiny pacmen?

  • Blerk #3 7 years ago

    I've still got an original Tamagotchi somewhere that the missus bought and used for all of ten minutes before she got bored. Are they worth anything these days? :-)

  • stormcr0wfleet #4 7 years ago

    when will nintendo leave the 90's in the past and start releasing serious adult games on there systems.. i can see the psp outselling the ds in the uk.. even when nintendo has been the market leader for.. well forever, and they released there console over a year before psp.. theres somthing wrong there!, and if nintendo dont sit down and ask themselfs what it is i can see them going the way of sega this next generation.

  • ralphwolfenstein #5 7 years ago

    "a bit like bolting the kennel door after the hounds have already mauled your bank manager and stolen all your savings"

    arf!

  • Eraser #6 7 years ago

    "when will nintendo leave the 90's in the past and start
    releasing serious adult games on there systems.. i can see
    the psp outselling the ds in the uk.. even when nintendo has
    been the market leader for.. well forever, and they released
    there console over a year before psp.. theres somthing wrong
    there!, and if nintendo dont sit down and ask themselfs what
    it is i can see them going the way of sega this next
    generation."

    Ignorance ahoy!

  • Derblington #7 7 years ago

    Stormcr0wfleet - Why would the PSP suddenly out-sell the DS here when it's not anywhere else?
    Edited by 1 at 07/06/05 @ 12:04

  • skybluesam86 #8 7 years ago

    stormcr0wfleet: Nintendo aren't even releasing this...

    Did you not even read the story?

    'Skip straight to the comments and get some Nintendo bashing in...'

  • Teeth #9 7 years ago

    His post is just complete hogwash from beginning to end.

  • smelly #10 7 years ago

    why do the zealots always come straight to the nintendo forums to start slaggin nintndo without actually reading the posts?

    "stormcr0wfleet".. Please go and ask your remedial english teacher the difference between "their" and "there".. But cheers for posting such an informative well thought out argument *sigh*.

  • spindizzy #11 7 years ago

    I think you're all being a *little* harsh on stormcr0wfleet... okay he's made some mistakes, but he does have a point. I grew up with Nintendo, I think they make amongst the best games around but why do so many have to have the same 'cartoony' style? Frankly I'm a bit bored of it now ... what I'd like to have is to have some of the classic nintendo gameplay, but just with different packaging. I don't see why they can't be a bit more flexible, and I don't see why every flipping game has to have the same old characters in.

    /grumble

  • skybluesam86 #12 7 years ago

    But this article has precisely zero connection to Nintendo as a developer. The only connection to them is as a platform holder.

    If he must gripe about Nintendo, he can do it in the right place, instead of bringing it somewhere that it's completely unnecessary.

  • Teeth #13 7 years ago

    Indeed, plus it demonstrates the oft-seen attitude of the adolescent looking for more 'adult' and 'realistic' games as they're feeling insecure about finally starting to grow up a bit. Hormones, I dunno...

  • smelly #14 7 years ago

    well im 35.. and I dont care about "grown up" games..

    In fact, quite frankly im bored sh*tless of fps and racing games on the other systems.. which is why i have a ds/cube.

  • MaskedDave #15 7 years ago

    I love Nintendo, but I think the only reason the DS is out selling the PSP is because at the minute its still in the early adopter stages. I can see many more 'regular' people plumping for the PSP.

    I would love Ninty to win, I know how good the DS is, but all the marketing is totally not aimed at the right audience. It's not about 'grown up' gaming. It's about looking cool, and frankly when I see the adverts for the DS I'm embaressed for them.

    Is nobody else feeling a little hard done by all the talk of 'appealing to the people who don't currently play games'. I want games for myself as well! I'm so glad that the new Zelda is so near or I would really be about to loose faith in the company.
    Edited by 1 at 07/06/05 @ 14:56

  • smelly #16 7 years ago

    Handheld gaming should be about quick pick up and play games that you can play on the bog.

    If i want heavy big games.. I'll play them on my tv cheers.

    Nintendogs, warioware, and even a tamagotchi are perfect for handheld gaming.

  • cubbymoore #17 7 years ago

    Ahh, the wonderful toy that gave kids insomnia, back at last!

  • smelliot #18 7 years ago

    Hurry the hell up and release Nintendogs over here you Nintendo idiots.

  • ProfessorLesser #19 7 years ago

    Seeing as it's being discussed here, regardless of thread topic....

    Yeah, I think Nintendo are starting to actually take the wrong direction. They are over-emphasising that they don't like long, time-consuming games and want people who don't like games to start playing. How many times have they said they're looking at things for the Revolution that aren't technically games?

    Like EyeToy, then, which was just that... a toy. I want long, epic, powerful games that drive at your soul and twist your metaphysical knobs a good 1080 degrees. I don't want the 10 minute long perfect-your-score of Yoshi's Touch and Go BOLLOCKS!

    I am very, very loathe to say, as the hardcorest of hardcore Nintendo fans... but I think what defines a hardcore Nintendo fan is changing now. Hardcore nintendo fan means 'blind, tabloid games journo-reading idiot.' I refer to NGC magazine in particular, which has seriously gone down the drain.

    Nintendo say they want to make games for everyone. They seem to have forgotten that they actually could do this just by making Halo better than Bungie could, or GTA better than Rockstar. They don't need the quirk, they have their fans. They are forgetting them.

    They need to learn that the water is warmer around the Wise Man.

  • AOFanboi #20 7 years ago

    ProfessorLesser: Ignoring the fact that EyeToy wasn't Nintendo but Sony, it has spawned a quite large amount of titles that use the little Logitech USB thingy.

    It would seem from your comment that you loathe innovation and think developers should make new version of successful formulas. Well, some of us actually like new ideas from time to time.

  • ProfessorLesser #21 7 years ago

    I'm all for innovation but not at the cost of lifespan and depth. Nintendo is leaning too much towards the mini-game/curio genre for my liking. And, er, I know Eyetoy was a Sony peripheral, and, er, I don't care what it's spawned, because the EyeToy is fun for 5 minutes.

    There's nothing wrong with a winning formula, and nothing wrong with new ideas. Perhaps mentioning GTA and Halo was a mistake... you seem to have missed my point.

  • OldWormsFan #22 7 years ago

    The DS has one already, it's called Nintendogs.

  • RealFolkBlues #23 7 years ago

    Good times, good times. This is a great choice for a DS title. If they really beefed it up to match the DS's considerable increase in power over the original, then that would be one badass app. Maybe not a killer one, but still a solid addition to the present library.


    As to those saying Ninty should play less to the casual gamer; as much as I may dislike the influx of casual gamers and the resulting popularization of the industry (and thus the bastardization that may result,) from a business standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Us hardcore gamers will be behind them through thick and thin, especially us Big N fanboys. Just a little bit of innovation and quality will be necessary to keep the majority of those in the know to continue pursuing the hobby they have pursued their entire life. If anything, Nintendo really should have tried this approach beforehand.

  • Teeth #24 7 years ago

    Personally speaking, there's loads more coming out in the future on the DS that I'd get than there is on the PSP. Loads. Granted, many are franchises, but that's also true of the release radar on PSP. There are plenty of new titles (Another Code for example) that I'm pretty excited about on DS too.

    Nintendo themselves will always make:
    * long Zelda games
    * other franchise games from their character library

    But I think that the way they're talking now, they're much more accurately poised for developers to aim their innovative games at than, for example, Sony are. EyeToy is part of a Sony "lifestyle" drive where they make loads of similar non-gamey products. They've got whole departments doing that. Personally I think that means that the products will end up having had too much marketing influence and not enough fun influence. I'm willing to be proven wrong down the line, though, as EyeToy Play 2 was clearly super.

    However, EyeToy is not a portable game, and the PSP is a portable machine. I agree with the people that are saying that the DS is a "pick up and play" platform where you play for short bursts, though of course you can play for much longer if you like. Personally I do a bit of both on my DS. The PSP seems a little less that way designed, and so I would expect to see less innovation and less short-burst gameplay appearing on it, and that's what I'm seeing. That's fine in both cases, it just means the market is slightly different.

    I think the DS will still see its fair share of long, epic games, but those games will almost certainly be RPGs in some way or another, at least in part due to the DS's reduced capabilities alongside the PSP.