Digimon's 20th Anniversary Celebration: Digimon Virtual Pet Remake Is Slated for Release Next Year

In celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary, Bandai Namco will be releasing the original Digimon Virtual Pet Toy. The Digimon Toys are slated for release next year.

Earlier this year, Bandai Namco announced a mysterious countdown in Digimon's official website. Turns out that the countdown is about Digimon's 20th anniversary, which will be celebrated next year. Because of the anniversary celebration, Bandai Namco will be releasing the remakes of the original Digimon Virtual Pet Toy.

The Digimon toy is a virtual pet toy, similar with the Tamagotchi. Its keychain-like size is suitable for portability. These LCD toys will feature familiar Digimon where fans can play and take care of them. People can raise these monsters, similar with the Tamagotchi. It also "digi-volves" into their next level when taken care of properly. Players can also compete with each other in a tag battle with other players.

Changes have been made for the remake of these Digimon Virtual Pet Toys. In the remakes, the growth time for the Digimon to evolve to their next level has been sped up. Because of this change in the growth time of the Digimon, they could easily reach their Ultimate level in a week's time. Aside from the growth time, Players can also gather and collect different types of Digimon and store them in an album where they can see them. This will provide players with information about which Digimon are they still missing. Also, Bandai will create an online feature known as the Digimon Web, where players can battle each other online wherever they are.

The Digimon Virtual Pet Toy will be sold for 3,500 Yen (around $30 each) in Japan next year. On January 6, 2017, Bandai Namco will be open for pre-orders for the Digivice. This is nostalgic for those who grew up with Digimon to see the original Digivices work in this technology era. Similarly, this will provide an experience to those who didn't manage to have one back then or to those who wants to experience what's it like to own a virtual pet.

Back on June 26, 1997, Bandai released the Digivice for the first time. Because of its popularity, it gained a lot of attention that resulted in the creation of the Digimon anime series. In 2015, Digimon celebrated its 15th anniversary and Bandai released the original Digivices from Digimon Adventure. Similar to its original version, it will host the original Digimon owned by the Chosen Children from the series. It also featured new Digimons like Omnimon and Jesmon. For 2016, Digimon's third installment, Digimon Tamers also celebrated its 15th anniversary. Like its predecessor, Bandai also released a remake of the D-Ark, the Digivice used by the Chosen Children in Digimon Tamers.