Noa Noa! is a Tamagotchi-style virtual pet headed to the App Store

The 1990s was a simpler time, back when Apple was an underdog computer company and kids were obsessed with keychain virtual pets like Tamagotchis.

Jump forward to 2019, and things have certainly changed. Sure, Apple’s a whole lot bigger than it was, but virtual pets have come a long way, too. Instead of regular virtual pets, upcoming iOS game Noa Noa! is a virtual pet simulator, in which you control a Tamagotchi-like device inside the game. In other words, it’s a virtual virtual pet simulator. Got it?

Launching next month, Noa Noa! allows you to create a human avatar in the game, and then use them to find and raise virtual pets. It’s a, frankly, bonkers concept, but it just might be bonkers enough to work. Check out the trailer:

Beyond the app description in the App Store — which promises the chance to play with more than 30 “cute and bubbly digital creatures” in a range of landscapes — we don’t know all that much about Noa Noa! yet. But the concept certainly sounds interesting.

Anyone over the age of, say, 25 will remember the elation and trauma that accompanied Tamagotchis back in the day. Translating that experience promises a much-needed dose of nostalgia for millennials. While games like Pokémon Go have captured some of the fun of those titles, they’ve also added technologies like augmented reality which are a far cry from the pixelated fun of the original virtual pet experience.

Our only (tentative) concern? That the game’s freemium status could result in an in-app purchase overload, which most certainly wasn’t part of gaming in the heady days of the 1990s. We guess we’ll have to wait until February 13 to find out for sure. In the meantime, you can pre-order the title here, so that it will automatically download as soon as it’s available.

Via: TouchArcade