My Tamagotchi Forever app is bringing the iconic virtual pet to your phone on 15 March

If there’s one thing that’ll make you feel your age it’s hearing that Tamagotchis have been around for more than 20 years.

To mark the occasion, manufacturer Bandai Namco is bringing the iconic virtual pet back to life in app form with the aptly named ‘My Tamagotchi Forever’, available to download on iOS and Android from 15 March.

It’s not the first Tamagotchi game (there have been plenty for Nintendo consoles over the years), nor is it the first Tamagotchi smartphone game (Tamagotchi Classic is already available from the Google Play Store and iOS App Store. However, it is the first free Tamagotchi smartphone game – albeit with “some game items available for purchase”.

And judging from the Google Play Store listing, which lets you pre-register your interest, it is a serious departure from the Tamagotchis of old in terms of graphics and gameplay. For starters, the pixelated monochrome creatures have been replaced by much more colourful varieties that live in a nauseatingly vibrant world, sleep in real beds and even have baths. And now, as well as feeding your Tamagotchi and clearing up after it, you can explore Tamatown, meet other Tamagotchis, customise outfits, and when all other options have been exhausted, tickle it.

It’s like The Sims meets Tamagotchi.

If, like me, this doesn’t appeal you can pick up a 20th Anniversary Assortment Tamagotchi from Argos which is smaller but otherwise every bit the same as the original.