There’s yet another new Tamagotchi model out there, with the latest version of the virtual pet line being the Tamagotchi Uni. Unlike others, which can have a keychain attached or hole for one, it comes with a watch band for wearing it all the time. While it isn’t great at being a watch, due to it not really displaying the time and being helpful in the way the Tamagotchi Smart was, it does make for a great virtual pet that’s always on hand.
As usual, raising a Tamagotchi Uni virtual pet is like caring for any other model. Your goal is to maintain the hunger and happiness levels. Your attentiveness determines which form it evolves into at each stage of its life. There are a handful of minigames you can play to boost its happiness and earn in-game money once it is out of the baby phase, which consist of a movement-based dancing game that is terrible and inaccurate, one in which you serve fast food, and a third seasonal minigame with objectives that change based on the four times of year. You earn icons for performing certain sorts of care to show milestones you hit. You can use in-game currency to buy them toys, cosmetic accessories, room options. You can also get a pet for a character by leaving an item outside. It’s all very easy to do, and since it does only need the three buttons for almost every actions, I found it super easy to accomplish while on my wrist.
The highlight this time around, beyond being in a watch form you can wear, is the Tamaverse. Instead of connecting to an app for online interactions or activities, it can connect to WiFi on its own. When you do, you can pay 2000G from in-game money you earned to go on a tour and get an item, marry them off to someone else’s Tamagotchi who may be there, or basically see a fashion show with Tama Fashion. There’s also a Tama Arena with a minigame as well. To be honest, I appreciated the way Tamagotchi On handled online elements more, with its dedicated app, but it generally works fine and I have gotten a character married off with the new mode and taken part in activities. It also means we’ve yet again lost some of the focus that comes from generations of family lines like with the Tamagotchi Mix and On iterations.
What I didn’t expect is for the Tamagotchi Uni to actually function pretty well as a watch. I have a Tamagotchi Smart from Japan, which I received as a gift. It’s fantastic, but the strap is a little tight and the touchscreen element can make it a little difficult to make certain selections. While you will see this model of the virtual pet in the toy aisle, I noticed the Tamagotchi Uni is much better at both fitting me and being used while on my wrist.
Mainly, the ease of use comes down to simplicity. Because it only relies on buttons again, you don’t need to repeatedly swipe or tap on a small screen if certain gestures aren’t recorded. It remains off until you press the center B button, which wakes it again. If there’s an immediate need, like medicine for a sick character, pressing any button when the character is in distress will administer the remedy. It’s also fairly easy to drop it off with an in-game baby sitter for free or choose the Tama Walk option from the arcade to have the character “walk” and get a boost of joy when you go on an actual walk.
However, I have encountered issues with the Tamagotchi Uni. One involves the Tamaverse. This is the one of the online elements where you can send your character into the Tamaverse to meet others. I noticed that even though I have the device set to auto update and updated it immediately open starting it up, I wouldn’t see any changes when I’d send a character “online.” However, I’m also disappointed in how the downloadable items via codes option works. You’re limited to eight at a time and can’t reclaim ones you had before. Not to mention these are 16-digit codes and that’s quite a lot to enter on a small device.
Basically, the Tamagotchi Uni is fun. It features some novel concepts that weren’t available in past incarnations of Tamagotchi virtual pet models, such as its watchband and WiFi compatibility. However, its online sometimes might not feel like it updates everything. Plus it does make it difficult to track generations and family lines over time. Still, it’s a fun novelty. Having it handy makes it easier to use on a regular basis. Plus I think it’s great for collectors keeping up with the series.
The Tamagotchi Uni is in stores worldwide.
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