Bandai Wireless Brings Tamagotchi Phone to Life

Remember those annoying keychain pets that started kicking around in the mid-1990s. Remember how kids would have to remember to feed these virtual pets, clean up after them, and play with them, only to later neglect them and watch them die a slow, miserable death? Well, the Tamagotchi virtual pet is back, and this time, the pixelated creature is embedded in a prepaid mobile phone from Bandai Wireless.

As you can guess, this is clearly being marketed at children, but it’s also a good sell on parents, because they can actually provide their kids with a phone they might want… if they’re under 10. Brought to market through a joint effort between PlayPhone and Bandai America, the Tamagotchi phone is brightly colored and comes with custom wallpaper, but kids can translate the prepaid minutes that mommy and daddy paid for into “credits” to buy additional wallpapers, ringtones, and games. Parental controls are obviously in place as well.

No word on price.