Tamagotchi Plaza review — Delivering joy and doing our best-tchi

Back in the day, we had these little gadgets clipped to our beltloops or backpack straps. Inside the gadget was a little creature who we had to feed and take care of and keep alive. Unfortunately, many Tamagotchis have been long forgotten by their caretakers, but you’ll be pleased to know that they’ve all found a new home in Tamahiko Town. Tamagotchi Plaza takes all of our abandoned friends and gives them a chance to capture our hearts once more.

Tamagotchi Plaza is a cozy Tamagotchi life simulator where you get to work alongside your friends in Tamahiko Town, taking care of your Tamagotchi customers in various roles and elevating the town’s social status. The goal is to raise Tamahiko Town through the ranks to be selected as the host of Tamagotchi Fest, the biggest celebration in all of Tamagotchi land! You accomplish this by getting positive ratings from your customers at the various shops in town, keeping the town center tidy, and making friends with the locals and visitors.

This cutesy town is flush with color, with a palette that takes advantage of a full rainbow of designs. Think Animal Crossing if it got blasted by pastel paints. All of the creatures in Tamagotchi Plaza are reminiscent of the many pets you’ve taken with you (and forgotten) along the way, unusually shaped caricatures that, while abnormal, fit the vibe of the game. One thing’s for sure, the aesthetic is fully Tamagotchi.

There are about a dozen different shops in Tamahiko Town, including a dentist’s office, eye glasses store, a fitness center, and even a rap battle venue. You visit the different shops and assist the shop owner with fulfilling customer requests, each shop having its own minigame required to complete the objective. Help Mametchi get stronger legs by running on the treadmill (because that’s definitely how it works), clean up Furawatchi’s teeth by filling cavities, and draw up a manga about Debatchi’s food shop. Between shifts at each shop, you can take a stroll around town to socialize, pick up trash, and upgrade features in the town center.

The minigames are fun and a little strange at times. When you’re attending to people’s teeth, you literally pull little creatures out of cavities. I had the same Tamagotchi come in 3 times in 10 minutes to have teeth replaced and cleaned up. For the most part, the minigames are easy to follow, although some work could be done to clear up some requests; some afternoon tea stops are too vague, and I don’t have all the Tamagotchi names memorized to make sure I’m depicting the correct one in the manga. The manga shop is where I struggled the most as I couldn’t keep their names in order, especially when I hadn’t even met the Tamagotchi in question. Google became my friend.

All minigames can be completed solo, however some allow for two players. Another player can assist with cleaning people’s teeth or you can even face them in the rap battles, however this is the extent of the co-op experience. It would have been better to omit this feature entirely as this just isn’t enough to satisfy anyone’s co-op desires.

Tamagotchi Plaza also makes an attempt at using the Nintendo Switch 2’s Joy-Con mouse feature at one of the shops. This is the only shop that I struggled tremendously with as the instructions for the controls didn’t explain very well how to actually perform the task. Whereas the galette shop had specific prompts, this other shop has no prompts, leaving it all entirely up to guesswork. Thankfully my not visiting that shop as much as the others has not prevented me from progressing the town’s ascension.

This is an easy drop-in/drop-out casual game. If you’re looking for something to do when you don’t have a whole lot of time or are just looking for a quick gaming fix, you can easily hop into Tamagotchi Plaza for 5-10 minutes, take care of a few customers, and hop back out. That being said, it’s also easy to sink hours into the game as well. It’s very easy to get caught up in the loop going between the different shops, which are literally situated in a circle facing the town center. After taking care of a bunch of customers, Prince Tamahiko himself will visit the shop to talk about upgrading the store, increasing the level of service you are able to provide.

I became addicted to this chase, eagerly awaiting the Prince’s arrival, speeding through each customer’s request until I finally saw him come through the door. Progress on the town’s bid to host the Tamagotchi Fest can be checked back at your absolutely enormous house (that was gifted to you upon your arrival). Picochutchi will update the town’s chances of being selected and also tell you which shop needs the most work so you can focus your attention there.

There’s no shortage of opportunities for creativity in Tamagotchi Plaza, so it was surprising to me when I often saw customer requests and even character dialog being reused. I’ve made the same polka-dot ribbon shirt at least 5 times, and the shop owners say the same thing to every single customer… every single time. I’ve also found that in some of the minigames, I could put in minimal effort and still achieve the highest rating.

Regardless of the game’s repetitive loop and shortfalls in creativity, Tamagotchi Plaza still pulled me back in with the cute art style, simplicity of gameplay, and the thrill of chasing those upgrades. I feel better knowing that my long lost Tamagotchis are living their best lives in an adorable little town with all their little Tamagotchi friends.

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