Pokémon Tamagotchi

I was carrying around a Tamagotchi in the 90s, and my whole sense of competence hinged on keeping the pixels inside alive. Mine died in its own shit. Not metaphorically. Literally. You’d forget to feed it for a day and come back to a dead screen, that immediate gut-punch of knowing you’d failed at something genuinely simple. The worst part was that it felt true to life.

Tamagotchi and Pokémon. Tamagotchi and Pokémon. Tamagotchi and Pokémon. Say it a few times and you realize it’s the most obvious idea that somehow nobody thought of until now. Two things that were always supposed to be one thing.

According to some leak from a Japanese magazine, it’s actually happening. Bandai and Pokémon are working on a Tamagotchi crossover where you raise Pikachu, or Charmander, or Squirtle, or Bulbasaur in that little egg. Feed it, keep it alive, watch what it becomes. The leak doesn’t say when it’s coming out or what happens after you inevitably let it die.

I’m already preparing my excuses. Why I’m carrying a plastic egg on my keychain at work. Why I’m going to love it more than I should. Why this, somehow, feels like the thing I’ve been waiting for.