The Digimon anime, games, and cards were all born from the blooping virtual pet. I didn’t know it then, but Digimon was created as a “boy’s” Tamagotchi that was the birth of it all. My sister had one too, and we’d battle each other all the time. You took care of a monster (that could grow into one of many cool, stronger monsters) that fought other people’s monsters! Ingenious. The Digimon virtual pet* was my absolute favorite. That’s not what it’s all about, Home Goods Store! It’s about feeding, caring, raising, and watching as they evolve. Even my child-self was put off by the false claims that were printed on the packaging. The dog stayed a dog, the rabbit stayed a rabbit.

They never grew into new forms, but did age and die after a while. You selected a typical pet to “raise”, but all you did was play minigames. There was the Dinkie Dino and that weird egg-shaped one that my mom wrote my name on (and then I got mad and rubbed nail polish remover on it until the permanent marker was eaten off), and the crappy blue one that came from a home goods store. I never had a Tamagotchi, but I had a whole bunch of gadgets in the same family. My childhood was speckled with virtual pet key chains. Since Digimon World Re:Digitize is celebrating the series’ 15th anniversary and has very strong ties to the first Digimon World on PS1, this breaks my little monster-loving heart. The North American and European branches of Namco Bandai appear depressingly uninterested in Digimon. And not to be a Negative Nancy, but it probably won’t be seen outside of it. It’s scheduled for release on PSP on July 19th in Japan. I am in physical pain whenever I see updates on Digimon World Re:Digitize.

Digimon world re digitize english error