Tamagotchi -- Engadget

Tamagotchi posts

Bandai rolls out new Tamagotchi Music Star designs, earplugs not included

by Laura June, posted Dec 17th 2008 at 8:32PM

Bandai's been busy in their genius labs brewing up some "high tech" amusement, and they have the newly announced Tamagotchi Music Stars to show for it. You've probably been dying to create a digital diva or virtuoso all your own, and now you can, with six different options such as Glam Rock, Techno Sound, and Rising Star to choose from. Your character gets to join a band, go through hours of practice, auditions and rehearsals before making it big. Sound exhausting? Well fame comes at a price, kid. No word yet on price or availability, but you can check out their site for lots of info and a few shots of the designs. Oh: and rock on.

Update: We just got word from the company that the Music Stars will retail for $14.99

Tamagotchi Connection V5: oh no, now the family's involved

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 1st 2008 at 11:14AM

Say it ain't so! As if keeping one Tamagotchi healthy wasn't tiresome enough, now Bandai is out to prove whether or not you could legitimately handle quadruplets. The Tamagotchi Connection V5 maintains the same ~~addictiveness~~ charm found in prior iterations, but also allows humans to focus on "raising multiple characters simultaneously." Supposedly, this will somehow enable kids (um, only kids?) to "experience family values," but we can't envision it doing much more than sucking away even more precious hours of our life. Ready to cave? If so, you can reportedly find these nationwide right now for $14.99, but the "refreshed" edition -- along with the Tamagotchi Pedometer, Tama-watchi, and redesigned Gotchi Gear lineup -- won't be landing until July.

Tamagotchi movie to prove whether kids really will watch anything

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 1st 2007 at 1:37PM

Sure, we all feared this day might come, and while we had certainly hoped that the ten-year anniversary would mark the close of a craze that should have never happened, it looks like Bandai is going to milk this thing one more time. Of course, we saw new life in Tamagotchi land earlier this year, but in a new movie set to debut this December, several of the Tamagotchi characters will be thrilling youngsters and annoying parents by "befriending a human girl who shows up at their virtual home on a star." The animated picture will be distributed by Toho Company, and while we're not certain if this flick will actually make it to US soil, let's hope for all of our sakes that it stays fairly contained.

Bandai at the International Toy Fair

by Paul Miller, posted Feb 9th 2007 at 10:06AM

While Mattel and VTech are doing their best to keep kids imaginative, or at least assimilate them into the gadget-filled world, Bandai's new creation lets kids "live the Tamagotchi life 24/7." Forget "edutainment" and prepare your child for life as a WoW gold farmer, heavy raider or professional ganker. The new Tamagotchi Connection V4 lets your child enjoy his or her virtual pet through every stage of virtual life, including going to school and choosing one of 15 careers -- and hopefully a few solid years in a retirement home telling anyone who will listen how when it was young, pixels were this high. The V4 will be followed by the V4.5 in the middle of the year, and both versions will let you take your pet online for more games to play and items to win, while offline you can communicate with your friends' Tamagotchis via IR.

Special Edition Tamagotchi celebrates 10 years of wasted time

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 22nd 2006 at 9:15PM

We're not afraid to admit it: at the height of the Tamagotchi craze we received a cheap imitation digital pet for Christmas and have never recovered emotionally from that pain of that day. Now that Tamagotchi is getting ready to celebrate 10 years of keeping small children from their homework, we feel the tears rushing back, but they are good tears -- tears of healing. Bandai is releasing a limited-run Special Edition of their addictive digital pet to celebrate this joyous occasion, and are producing 1000 each of three different-colored versions. They've tossed the thing into a snazzy Japanese-style box and are selling them in Japan for what we're sure will be prices just as confiscatory as the original.