Toys / Tamagotchi

Digital Friends of the World.

Tamagotchi is a series of handheld toys created by Bandai. The handhelds are Virtual Pets that the player can play with; the pet starts out as a little baby and can grow into a variety of different adult types from there depending on how much the player takes care of it.

The first toys were sold in Japan on November 23, 1996. The company didn't expect much, and produced them in small numbers. But the toys became a big fad overnight. By the time they were producing enough to meet demand, the popularity had died down and Bandai ended up suffering financially. In 2004, they relaunched the toys with new infrared technology, allowing two Tamagotchi toys to communicate, letting them play games, exchange gifts, and even marry and produce children.

The relaunch has proven to be successful, spawning an entire franchise of Tamagotchi-related media. Despite remaining a Cash-Cow Franchise in Japan, its popularity internationally has fluctuated, never reaching the same notoriety from 1997.

The Digimon franchise was Bandai's effort to create a Spear Counterpart to Tamagotchi, in order to tap into the male market. It... succeeded, shall we say.

For other Tamagotchi media, including the Animated Adaptations, see the franchise page. Also see the character page.

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The Tamagotchi toys provide examples of the following tropes:

• Aborted Arc:
  • The US release of the Morino Tamagotchi (a vintage Tamagotchi product) called Tamagotchi Garden was cancelled after the fad ended.
  • A successor to the Music Star, called the Music Star: World Tour Edition, was meant to feature raising a Tamagotchi, forming a band, and then travelling around the world to become internationally famous. It was planned for a fall 2009 release, but never materialized.
• Age-Stereotypical Food: On most Tamagotchi releases in the color era, the baby stage has exclusive foods and snacks that no other stage gets to have. For instance, on the Mix, the foods for that stage are a bottle of milk and tamago boro, a type of cookie often given to babies in Japan.
• The Alcoholic:
  • Oyajitchi is obsessed with sake, which was replaced with coffee for international versions.
  • Also applies to Horoyotchi, who is fashioned after a gourd of sake, carries around a sakazuki glass, and has red cheeks and squinty eyes.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: The international artwork used in the 90s ditched the "Microsoft Paint" visual style used in the Japanese marketing and replaced it with a rougher "crayon-drawn" style. They were also more heavily derived from the look of the sprites, giving them an overall cruder appearance compared to the cuter Japanese art. The 2004 reboot ditched both styles, though the crayon-drawn style returned when the original models were reproduced in 2018, and served as inspiration for the 2022 rebranding.
• Animate Inanimate Object:
  • All of the buildings, trees, and most objects on the Tamagotchi Planet are alive, or have a face at the very least.
  • A lot of the Tamagotchis themselves also fall under this, such as Crackertchi (a party cracker), Yakantchi (a tea kettle), Mousetchi (a computer mouse), Belltchi (a bell), and Shelltchi (a clam shell).
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The Smart is the first toy with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. No more burning money on cycling out watch batteries! In addition, the Smart has the ability to automate itself should the player's battery run too low, with the device no longer notifying or penalizing you until the battery is sufficiently recharged.
  • Most Tamagotchi devices have pause and sound on/off functionality, allowing the pet to not be a nuisance at work or school. However, pausing disrupts the Tamagotchi's natural life cycle. Color-screen models rectified this by replacing pausing with a "Daycare" feature that will care of the user's pet for most of the day.
  • Care Mistakes can be reversed by playing minigames on the Connection and Plus series, so even if you make some, you can still get the good adults you want if you are able to win some minigames. On color models, alternate methods are used instead, though some of them still require a specific numbers on CMs.
  • The Uni has quite a few of them: First, items and food can be ordered in bulk, so if you want to buy all 3 of this item or food you don't have to keep pressing the button again and again and wait every time. Also, the Uni lets you scroll to the previous number or character when inputting by holding C while pressing A so you don't have to go through a whole list of characters if you miss the one you need.
• Anti Poop-Socking: Tamagotchis sleep at night (falling asleep as late as 11 P.M.), so there's no point on checking on the toy again until morning.
• Anyone Can Die: It's grim, but a Tamagotchi can die as a adult, teen, child, or even as a baby should the user neglect it enough. Though many of the modern toys and games instead have them run away or go off on a journey instead.
• Arboreal Abode: Kuchipatchi and his family reside in a house fashioned from a big tree. The building has a hot spring at the top, since Patchi Forest (where the house is located) is known for hot springs.
• Art Evolution:
  • In Japan, the artwork used to be cruder and had black outlines. Beginning in 2004, the artwork looked better, but had blue outlines and several older characters who originally had black body parts had said parts recolored to match the new blue.
  • In the USA, the artwork looked even cruder than the original Japanese artwork, looking like it was colored in by a preschooler. In 2004, they later received the 2004 Japanese style, but later switched to the anime designs with the Tamagotchi Friends.
  • While the original black-and-white ultra-simple displays remain the most iconic versions of the Tamagotchi and are still produced to this day, newer models of the toy have full-color, 16-bit-esque sprites with vastly expanded functionalities, such as touch screens, microphones, and cameras.
• Back from the Dead: On the Keitai, Akai, Entama and Uratama toys, the user can summon the soul of a previously deceased Tamagotchi (if one had died before) to save their current Tamagotchi from death.
• Bank Robbery: The Entama/Uratama and V4/V4.5 feature a burglar who occasionally steals some of your Gotchi Points. He's brought up in the newspaper you receive at mail call, with one of two possible stories with him being that he's robbed Tamatown's bank.
• Benevolent Alien Invasion: The Tamagotchi invaded Earth by accident (fleeing their drunk planet and having their UFOs suffer engine problems and crash), but both humans and Tamagotchis ended up benefiting from the incident. The Tamagotchi deliberately returning to Earth later on is a more straight example of this.
• Big Eater: Kuchipatchi is the most notable breed characterized as this - others include PetitChocotchi and Kuishinbotchi.
• Bindle Stick: Nazotchi is always seen carrying one.
• Bowdlerise: In early Tamagotchi models, the death sequence is usually depicted as the Tamagotchi running away instead of a grave with a ghost. The Grim Gotchi also doesn't appear until On.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Some of the expensive items on the Connections models like UFO and throne can be this, since they are very expensive and only plays an animation when used. They're mainly bought as a proof that you are able to gather enough gotchi points.
• Break the Cutie: When you don't take care of your Tamagotchi (giving it medicine when sick, feeding it, making it happy, cleaning up the poop), and if you don't do something about it quick, it might die.
• Brother–Sister Incest: The Osutchi and Mesutchi had no restrictions on who they're allowed to marry, so the user could potentially marry the same two units over many generations with no consequence. Doubles as Twincest, as the two babies are identical and born at the same time. The modern releases (with the exception of the 4U) prevented this by ensuring both babies are the same sex.
• Can't Hold His Liquor:
  • The Tamagotchi Planet, which itself is a living Tamagotchi. It's roughly the same size as Earth, but one sip of of a regular-sized bottle of sake is enough to get it drunk.
  • On the Keitai and Akai toys in Japan, the player can give sake to teenage characters. One sip makes them immediately get dizzy and throw up.
• Cap: The Keitai and Version 2 toys, which introduced money to the toys, capped the money at 9999. The cap got higher for each succeeding version, with the Music Star's cap at 9~ billion. Meanwhile, prior to the release of the Tamagotchi On, generation and age numbers, meanwhile always capped at 99. This can cause problems on releases where evolutions are dependent on the generation being odd or even.
• Cartoon Bomb: Bakutchi is a black-colored, round bomb Tamagotchi with a fuse on the top of his head.
• Cat Ninja: Okugatatchi, the mother of the ninja Gozarutchi, is a ninja herself and has the pointy ears, whiskers, and tail of a cat.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Two Tamagotchis who have known each other since they were babies can then later get married and have kids when they're adults.
• Chocolate of Romance: On the Entama and Uratama toys, a chocolate heart can be purchased in February. Consuming it temporarily greatly accelerates the rate at which the Tamagotchi builds a relationship with another Tamagotchi.
• Confused Question Mark: Giving a Tamagotchi certain toys can invoke this.
• Controllable Helplessness: On the earlier 2000-era Japanese toys, if the Grim Gotchi appears and you're not prepared with the right item to send it away, you'll be stuck sitting and waiting for your Tamagotchi to die. In later models, this sequence has 4 Grim Gotchis instead.
• The Corruption:
  • Severely neglecting an Angel can result in it turning it into a Deviltchi.
  • On the Pac-Man Tamagotchi, letting ghosts stick around for too long causes glitches to appear. Leaving those for too long will overwhelm and kill your Tamagotchi.
• Creator Cameo: The Bandai logo can be obtained as a toy on the Music Star.
• Creature-Breeding Mechanic: Most of the post-2004 models feature infrared connection. If two adult Tamagotchis of opposite genders are connected, they can "marry" and lay eggs that will eventually replace them. This allows players to begin the Tamagotchi life cycle over again. The Osutchi and Mesutchi were only vintage release outside of video games that used this feature, performed with the metal prongs used on the Digimon virtual pets several months prior.
• Critical Annoyance: The toys completely disable any interactions and constantly flash a warning symbol on their screen if they run low on battery power, and will continue doing this until the battery runs out or is replaced.
• Crossover:
  • Prominently with Aikatsu! and Sanrio. The Tamagotchi P's has several add-on that feature Aikatsu and Sanrio characters, while Aikatsu's Datacardass game features a Tamagotchi stage; and there's an entire m!x version dedicated to Sanrio characters.
  • The 1997 Mothra Tamagotchi, released as a tie-in to Rebirth of Mothra 2, allows the player to raise various kaiju such as Mothra and Godzilla.
  • There's also the toy Doraemontchi and the functionally-equivalent Doramitchi.
  • Tamagotchi Nano is a series of miniature devices that feature a number of prominent crossovers. These include Tokyo Disney Easter mascots Usatama and Usapiyo, Gudetama, Eevee, Pac-Man, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Hello Kitty, Fate/EXTRA, Twisted Wonderland, BT21 UNIVERSE, and Star Wars.
• Crystal Ball: Uranaitchi, the fortune-telling Tamagotchi has one.
• Descriptiveville: Several towns and villages on Tamagotchi Planet are named for what family of Tamagotchis one can find there. For example, Mame City is populated by the Mame family and Patchi Forest is populated by the Patchi family.
• Distaff Counterpart: As of the V5, many characters have a counterpart of the opposite sex (for example, Mametchi and Chantotchi).
• Demographic-Dissonant Crossover:
  • Since 2017, Bandai started releasing Tamagotchi virtual pets based on a number of anime and video game properties, some of which are in line with Tamagotchi's target demographic of kids (such as with Pac-Man). Others, like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, not so much.
  • Before the above crossovers, there was the Hanerutchi, based off the show Haneru no Tobira ~You knock on a jumping door!~. The show in question was well-known for a scene in which someone uses the taboo Japanese word "chinko", which means "penis", during a game.
• A Dog Named "Dog": There's a character that looks like a Tamagotchi...and his name is Tamagotchi.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: Because the critter your egg grows into is based on how you care for it, getting a specific creature can be a tricky task. The second-best characters on vintage releases are reputedly the hardest to get.
• Domino Mask: Masktchi wears a black domino mask.
• Dualvertisement: Around the time of the release for Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, a special Japan-exclusive Eevee version of Tamagotchi was released. Fittingly, the evolutions that the Eevee Tamagotchi can undergo are the same as from the series it hails from (Flareon, Vaporeon, Jolteon, etc.).
• Downloadable Content: Since the Keitai, certain releases includes this either through seperate apps or physical products
• Dub Name Change: The most bizarre change was for Flowertchi. She debuted on a Japanese toy and was recycled for the American V2, except they had already named a character on it "Flowertchi" (both were originally debug-exclusive characters on the Connection/Plus). So Flowertchi was renamed Korotchi, then Leaftchi, and finally Violetchi, which has stuck. Come the anime dub, it reverted back to Flowertchi, but a number of the English-release devices continue to use Violetchi.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: In the Tamagotchi M!x and On, when breeding it's possible to get a male Tamagotchi that inherits more parts from the mother than the father, and thus looks extremely feminine, and vice versa for female Tamagotchi.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In North American releases of the original 90's Tamagotchi toys, Mametchi was a blue-colored female rather than a yellow-colored male like in modern releases. The Japanese versions of the 90's releases avert this, as they made him a yellow-colored male right from the start. His name was also pronounced "muh-MEET-chee" instead of "muh-MEHT-chee", at least in Tamagotchi Video Adventures.
• Eating Contest: On the first few Connection versions, this was one of the games played when two Tamagotchis connected.
• Edible Collectible: From the Keitai (Japan) and Version 2 (worldwide) onward, different foods could be collected, many of which don't do anything special when consumed.
• Endless Game: The 2000 era toys can be played for as long as the player can keep the pet alive and make sure it marries and starts a new generation.
• Expansion Pack: The Tamagotchi P's in Japan feature USB-like items called a "pierce", which downloads new characters, items, destinations and backgrounds into the toy. The Tama-Go in the US had a similar thing with the "Gotchi Figures"; when plugged in, they added new games and items.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: Zig-zagged. There are plenty of Tamagotchis that don't wear any clothing at all, but also plenty that do wear clothes (the latter type is more common in the modern releases). One of the series mascots, Mametchi, wears a black cap but no shirt or pants, while his friends Memetchi and Kuchipatchi completely lack clothing; Lovelitchi, on the other hand, does wear a shirt.
• The Face of the Sun: Sunnytchi is a living Tamagotchi sun with a face that floats around the planet.
• Face Plant: On the Version 1, failing at the "Jump" game will make the Tamagotchi trip over a hurdle. Many of the adult characters on other Connection releases also face plant as they walk across the screen in their idle animations.
• Famous-Named Foreigner: Bill is modeled after American foreigner stereotypes, and is named after Bill Clinton, US president at the time the Tamagotchi toys launched.
• Fat Slob: Debutchi (on the Mesutchi and Osutchi toys) drools in its sleep.
• Fattening the Victim: There's nothing stopping the player from overfeeding their Tamagotchi until their weight reaches 99, though some of the toys have consequences.
  • On the Mesutchi and Osutchi, doing this will turn the Tamagotchi into Debutchi, and if the weight's not shed off in 24 hours, it dies.
  • On the Tama-Go, the characters will visibly fatten up and become lethargic. Giving them medicine makes them crap out a massive pile of poo and lose 10 points off their weight.
• Fireworks of Love: As your Tamagotchis are about to mate, they kiss before the screen switches to a display of fireworks in a night sky, then switches again to the new Tamagotchi babies.
• Flatline: Part of the death sequences of most vintage releases. The heart rates gradually slow down before the flatline occurs, so it's not as bad as most examples in media where the change is instantaneous.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: A commercial for Tamagotchi Angel takes place here with two girl angels.^note Although one of them might be a girl devil...
• Forced Tutorial:
  • The Baby Stage is meant to be a tutorial of how to care for your Tamagotchi. It becomes this when later installments introduce the daycare feature, but prevent you from using them until you reach childhood, forcing you to take care of the baby and meet their demands.
  • The Pix Party will force you to swipe left to go to the training room to unlock it when a pet is raised to adulthood, no matter which generation you're on. Fortunately, the unlocking of training room will not force you to play the minigame immidiately in case you need to take care of your Tamagotchi.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Oyajitchi's sake addiction is replaced with coffee for US toys.
• Funnel-Mouthed Cephalopod: The predator octopus on the Tamagotchi Ocean has a funnel-shaped mouth.
• G-Rated Sex: When two Tamagotchis are about to mate, they kiss and then the screen turns black. Fireworks will appear on the screen, and when the light comes on again, the babies appear.
• Gadget Watch: The Smart is a Tamagotchi as a smartwatch.
• Game Over:
  • The death screen serves as the Tamagotchi's game over screen. On certain modern releases, certain progress like items and amounts of money are kept when restarting the game by pressing A and C to get a new egg.
  • In the Pac-Man Tamagotchi, either touching a ghost in the maze game or touching 3 in the direction game will show part of the Pac-Man maze with "GAME OVER" flashing in the ghost box.
• Genius Loci:
  • The Tamagotchi Planet and its sun are Tamagotchi themselves.
  • Land formations and buildings are also living Tamagotchi, and are part of the broader group called Gaiatchi, which includes all living things on the Tamagotchi planet.
• The Good King: The Gotchi King.
• Gotta Catch Them All:
  • The 2010-era toys keep records of the different Tamagotchi you raise, and some give rewards for raising a certain number of different characters.
  • The L.i.f.e. and Classic apps reward you with new shell and background designs for raising numbers of characters and their color variations.
• The Grim Reaper: The Grim Gotchi, which appears when the Tamagotchi is about to die^note Starting with the Keitai Kaitsuu Tamagotchi Plus in Japan, and internationally starting with Tamagotchi On. It looks like a small, black ghost with horns.
• Guilt-Based Gaming: If you don't tend to your Tamagotchi, it will die. On later versions, extra animations appear if the Tamagotchi is left alone for too long (sulking in the corner, begging for food, etc.).
• Haunted House: One is in the park in the Tamagotchi & Earth EXPO. On the Plus Color, a theme park with a haunted house can be visited.
• Human Aliens: Most Tamagotchis avert this by being Humanoid Aliens at most. However, Rolatchi, who is a Tamagotchi version of the Japanese model Rola, actually does look exactly like a human.
• Idle Animation: They move back and forth across the screen, whether by walking, hopping, dancing, or flying. In later generations, their animation ties to their mood.
• Improbably High I.Q.: Mametchi and Mimitchi are characterized as having IQs of 250 and 200, respectively. While they are shown in multiple media to be genuinely of above-average intelligence and capable of creating devices humans have yet to, it may be justified as their IQ is measured among other Tamagotchis, not humans.
• Insectoid Aliens: The Mushitchi (a subspecies of bug Tamagotchi) resemble many conventional Earth bugs. There are a number of normal Tamagotchi who resemble insects as well.
• Item Crafting:
  • The Entama and Uratama have a cooking system. Ingredients can be purchased on the E-Tamago site or the toy's shop, and can be combined to create new foods.
  • The Pix and Pix Party also have a cooking system. The ingredient is the color captured by the built-in camera.
  • The Uni lets you collect materials from going out and craft items with them.
• Kill the Cutie: When you don't take care of your Tamagotchi.
• Killed Off for Real: Your Tamagotchi when it dies. Interestingly, this trope and Kill the Cutie were subverted by the later release of the Tamagotchi Angel. Your care would determine whether they ascend to the higher heavens, or become Devilgotchi.
• Kissing Cousins: Could happen if you're attentive enough. It requires a long explanation, but try to keep up. If you have two Tamagotchis mate with each other, the mother will give birth to two babies, one of which goes to live with the father. Both will always be of the same sex (probably to avoid any squicky possibilities once possible with the Osutchi/Mesutchi). Later, you will raise the babies and eventually they will grow up and have their own kids. If their babies are a boy and a girl, respectively, they can mate.
• Little Green Man in a Can: They live inside their plastic digital egg, as they can't survive Earth's atmosphere in some media, primarily the vintage age ones.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • The left/right game has a coin flip decision as to which direction your Tamagotchi will face.
  • Obtaining Lucky Unchi-Kun on the Tamagotchi Angel is pure luck - it is decided if an Obaketchi 2 can evolve into it the very moment it is born. Unless of course, you get Sabotenshi/Kitsutenshi's rare farewell screen or you completely ignored your angel for a solid week from birth to uhh... Pooifying. Not even neglect. You have to completely ignore the poor little guy and press no buttons throughout its entire life.
  • The Fruit Fall game on the Pix may be impossible to win if the fruits spawn keep missing what the Tamagotchi asks.
• The Man in the Moon: Tamagotchi Planet's moon has visible eyes and a mouth.
• Market-Based Title: The Tamagotchi Meets, as it is known in Japan, was released in the West as the Tamagotchi On. The Korean version goes by the name Tamagotchi Some (in Korea, the term "some" is used as a euphemism for an ambiguous romantic relationship between two people; it's a shortened form of "something", which is used to ask if a given couple are romantically affiliated with each other).
• Mating Dance: The Mesutchi and Osutchi dance around when they connect to marry and reproduce.
• Meido: Maidtchi is, as implied by the name, a maid who works to keep her house nice and tidy.
• Mirror Match: A non-violent example; it's possible to connect two toys that have the same character, and have them compete with each other in a minigame.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Many releases are basically additions to the previous version's base. The 4U+ is the most prominent example, being a straight-up upgrade to the 4U.
• Mood Whiplash: One minute, you're playing with your Tamagotchi, the next minute, you get to watch it die. This is especially bad on the first Game Boy game, as a perfectly healthy Tamagotchi that has never been neglected may suddenly die.
• Must Have Caffeine: Oyajitchi (in the US).
• Mythology Gag: The Bugs or Glitches caused by ghosts in the Pac-Man Tamagotchi are a reference to the Map 256 Glitch of the original Pac-Man, which caused half of the map to be replaced by gibberish. In Pac-Man, it was referred to as a Kill Screen because there weren't enough dots to eat to win and the only thing to do was let the ghosts kill the player. Here, it's a screen that will literally kill your Tamagotchi.
• Never Say "Die":
  • In most English toys, the Tamagotchi is referred to either as "returning to its home planet" or "running away", and the gravestone and ghost from the Japanese version is replaced with a UFO and stars (or a letter reading "Goodbye"). The sequence leading up to the screen, however, was left completely unchanged (a slowing heart rate with a skull), making it clear that the pet was dying.
  • This was averted on the original Connection models; the Tamagotchi is outright stated to die, turning into an egg with wings. However, it was played straight again on the English Version 5 models, where they get angry and fly away in a UFO instead. This was done again on the Tamatown Tama-Go and the Friends models along with the color versions from the iD to the 4U, where they run away instead of dying.
  • This was averted with the 2017 rerelease of the Tamagotchi Mini and the 2019 Tamagotchi On, both which keep the original death screen (a grave and a ghost), and the instruction manuals plainly mention death.
  • The Pac-Man Tamagotchi can die if not fed or if Game Bugs are left unattended for too long. Otherwise, running away happens if nothing actually kills the Tamagotchi but it's unhappy for too long. They won't die of old age, though, since their age is never shown in-game and instead leave to go on a journey.
  • The Hello Kitty Tamagotchi can also die. Instead of showing a grave, it will show a sad Hello Kitty.
  • The Evatchi also averts this, and when it dies, the screen shows a cross-shaped explosion.
  • Similarly, Demon Slayer Tamagotchi can die if neglected, with their death screen showing Demon Slayer Corps soldiers performing clean-up duty. They can die if their injuries from Demon attacks are not treated, or if they sustain too many injuries.
  • The Doraemontchi, TamaOtch and most other Tamagotchi Nano models also play this straight. They either go on a journey or run away. Justified since most of the characters come from franchises that don't feature these characters dying anyways.
• Ninja: Gozarutchi, his family members and most breeds originating from Gozaru Village all dress and act like ninjas.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bill is a Waddling Head version of former U.S. president Bill Clinton, complete with his love for playing the saxophone.
• No Mouth: Gozarutchi and Knighttchi both have their mouths obscured, the former by his ninja hood and the latter by his knight helmet.
• No Smoking: Several characters have been seen smoking, which have been censored later on. Helmetchi (Morino Tamagotchi) is missing his cigarette in Tap & Hatch. Memetchi's father, Memepapatchi, had his cigar replaced with a cup of coffee.
• No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture: Initially played straight, as Tamagotchi life was much simpler before meeting humans. Completely averted after visiting Earth, as much of the planet changed to resemble Earth, including a massive influx of pop culture, and several breeds came into existence as a result of mimicking the planet's cultures.
• Office Romance: On the Music Star, the Tamagotchi may fall in love with and marry one of their bandmates.
• One Game for the Price of Two: The Osutchi and Mesutchi came in male and female units, and had to be connected in order to breed. Aside from a few limited edition packs, they were originally sold separately, and players were encouraged to seek out people who owned the unit opposite theirs. Averted in the Osutchi and Mesutchi’s Spiritual Successor, the TamagoChu, which were only sold as a set.
  • Heavily used in the Tamagotchi On/Meets era, with characters and items being split up between seven different versions, four of which are Japan-exclusive.
• One-Hour Work Week: The Entama/Uratama and V4/V4.5 all have the Tamagotchi growing up and getting a job, but the Tamagotchi can only go when you tell them to. Furthermore, they'll only be there a few minutes, and on the English toys, the job is a minigame and the daily pay depends on how often this minigame is played.
• One-Steve Limit: Nope. Granted, the sheer amount of characters throughout the franchise made this inevitable.
  • There are two Tamagotchis named Masktchi, a Waddling Head one from the original 1996 virtual pet and a more humanoid one that debuted later. The former is usually referred to in modern materials as "Maskutchi".
  • Cosmotchi from the Tamagotchi P's isn't the only Tamagotchi with that name. Way back in 1997, Tamagotchi Video Adventures featured a different Cosmotchi as a main character.
  • Before the introduction of the more popular Kuromametchi in 2006, there was actually another Kuromametchi who appeared in the 1998 Licensed Game Hoshi de Hakken! Tamagotchi. The Hoshi de Hakken! Kuromametchi looks a bit like Mickey Mouse due to his black suit with mouse-like ears.
• One-Word Title: Tamagotchi is only one word.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Ningyotchi from the Tamagotchi Ocean is a simple mermaid with no ability to shapeshift into a human. She does long for a handsome prince, though.
• Paparazzi: Paparatchi and Scooptchi, two Tamagotchis that always carry around cameras and try getting the latest scoop on celebrities. The V5 Tamatown site even shows them trying to hop the fence of the Gotchi King's castle just for a photo op, ruining a parade.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • On most models, for each new generation, the parent from the previous one simply leaves, with no explanation - from the Plus Color onward, the parent doesn't even stick around for more than a couple of minutes.
  • Subverted with some of the Connection and Plus models; it's revealed that the parent is moving in to Tamatown and is entrusting the care of their child to you. On some models, the child can call or even visit them.
  • Averted for the Version 5 series, where the parents do stick around.
  • Subverted with the M!x and On series; while the parents do move out of the house, they give their child a map to come visit their new home, and you can even have them babysit if you're busy during the day. They also stick around during the baby stage, shown feeding, playing with, toilet training, and bathing the newborn, and only leave after the baby evolves.
• Patchwork Kids: The main gimmick of the m!x and On: marrying two characters will produce a child with a mix of their genetics. Marrying a variety of different characters across generations can produce completely unique-looking characters.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy:
  • The Osutchi (boy) Mesutchi (girl) toys initially came in pink and blue, respectively. While more colors were released, for all shells, the Osutchi has a blue background print, while Mesutchi has pink.
  • On the Connection and Plus models, the baby's gender could be told immediately based on whether they were dark (boy) or light (girl) in color. In the color-screen models, babies are typically either blue or pink, though this can vary by model.
  • On the M!x and On's first generations, teen characters' body colors are either blue or pink depending on their gender.
• Portmantitle: A bilingual one, interestingly enough. The title Tamagotchi is a combination of the Japanese word "tamago", meaning "egg", and the English word "watch", which is rendered as watchi (ウォッチ) when written.
  • It can also read as a portmanteau of "tamago" and "tomodachi", meaning "friends".
• Potty Emergency:
  • Introduced from the Game boy games, the Tamagotchi will appear squirming on the screen just before they poo. If the user selects the toilet icon in time, they'll use the toilet and gain a Happy heart.
  • On My Tamagotchi Forever, your Tamagotchi will send you a warning saying "I have to go to the toilet. Quick!" when its toilet meter is low. If you ignore this message after two hours, the Tamagotchi will poop on the floor (though sometimes the accident will occur beforehand).
  • A similar Japanese game, Discovered on LINE! Tamagotchi also uses this feature, with your Tamagotchi sending you a message via LINE that it has to go to the bathroom with a unique phrase, ranging from phrases shared among characters like "I'm gonna have an accident!" (which just so happens to be the most common one) and "I want to use the bathroom now" to character-specific ones like Violetchi's "It's not gonna smell like flowers soon...".
• Potty Failure: In later releases this will happen if you fail to select the toilet icon in time. In earlier releases, the Tamagotchi will always poop.
• Power Creep: Older toy models can still link and play with newer toy models that are able to communicate with each other. However, since the newer toys are generally not compatible with the older toys due to newer mechanics, this is reflected by the newer toys always beating the older ones in Player Versus Player.
• The Professor: Papamametchi and his colleagues. On the Earth, Professor Banzo, who developed the Tamagotchi device.
• Raising Sim: It's a simulation of raising a pet.
• Real-Person Cameo:
  • The band GLAY appears on a limited edition version of the Tamagotchi Plus.
  • The two Hanerutchi releases feature characters based on the hosts of Japanese variety show Haneru no Tobira ~You knock on a jumping door!~.
  • The band Exile appears on a special version of the Tamagotchi Plus Color.
  • Rolatchi is based on the actress of the same name.
  • Okazarutchi, the first Meets app marriage partner, is based on comedian Takashi Okamura from the owari duo Ninety-nine. Likewise, Yabetchi is based on Takashi's partner, Hiroyuki Yabe.
• Regional Speciality: For the Keitai and Akai toys, food from different regions of Japan could be collected.
• Rejected Marriage Proposal: If you choose to propose to one of the Tamagotchis you meet with Tamagotchi On, there's a 50/50 chance this will happen. Generally they're more willing to reject if their friendship level isn't high enough.
• Rhythm Game: The V4/V4.5 and Music Star feature these.
• Retraux: Bandai raffled away special "25th Anniversary" versions of the Smart prior to its release. In addition to being patterned monochrome (unlike the standard or NiziU editions), it comes with a unique TamaSma Card that adds the "classic" versions of certain characters in all their black and white glory, despite the Smart being a full-color model.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The original releases may say that neglect can cause a Tamagotchi to grow up to become ugly, but at worst the characters are Ugly Cute. Nonetheless, most Tamagotchi are no more than two feet in height and are usually very friendly creatures.
• Rule of Three: The V5 and V5 Celebrity allow you to raise up to three pets at once.
• The Runaway: On later English versions of the Tamagotchi starting with the Music Star, instead of dying, the Tamagotchi would get fed up with your mistreatment and run away from home. This eventually became the case for the Japanese versions as well, though the original death sequence returned with the M!X. A fully-grown Tamagotchi would get fed up and try to run away, and catching it before it goes gives you a chance to win their love back.
• Santa Claus: Initially, the Tamagotchi Planet didn't celebrate Christmas. But Tamagotchis returning from Earth had picked up on Earth traditions, including Christmas, and wanted to celebrate it. A mayor of a snowy northern village, realizing there was no Santa Tamagotchi, decides to take on the role and evolves into Santaclautchi permanently.
• Series Mascot: Mametchi, Mimitchi, Kuchipatchi, and Oyajitchi have all served this role.
• Shout-Out:
  • A Hello Kitty doll is possible to obtain on the Keitai Tamagotchi.
  • The Tamagotchi Meets Fantasy Version features versions of Yumemitchi and Kiraritchi named Yumemi Alice and Kirari Hatter respectively, both based on characters in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
  • Mariotchi is Mario as a Tamagotchi. There's also Waruotokotchi, who is based on Wario.
  • Hanerutchi 2 is based on the comedy show Haneru No Tobira and includes several parody characters from the show's sketches, including Piotchi, Itanantchi, Asobuchi, and more.
• Simulation Game: A simulation of taking care of a pet, to be specific.
• Single-Biome Planet: The levels in Tamagotchi 'Round the World are several different planets, each hosting their own unique biome.
• Smelly Feet Gag: Tarakotchi is characterized as being infamous for having stinky feet.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome:
  • Chamametchi, Kikitchi, and several other teen characters were popular enough with the target demographic that Bandai bumped them up to adults, so that the kids could play with the character longer. Though now this means Chamametchi, who is a very young girl who always has her panties showing, can marry and have children.
  • Possibly subverted with Kiramotchi of Tamagotchi Friends, as she already starts out as an adult despite being a very young girl herself.
• Solid Gold Poop: The Angel Tamagotchis produce this. Lucky Unchi-kun and Super Unchi-kun are living variations.
• Species Title: A Virtual Pet allowing the owner to raise cute aliens.
• Stellar Name: One character the player can get on some Tamagotchi devices is named Hoshitchi. "Hoshi" is Japanese for "star"; befitting of the name, the character resembles a shooting star.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Gozarutchi's character artwork depicts him holding a shuriken/ninja star.
• Stop Motion: A Korean commercial for the Tamagotchi On depicts Mametchi, Lovelitchi, and a m!xed child of theirs in this animation style.
• Sugar Bowl: The Tamagotchi Planet.
• Tagline: "Digital Friends of the World", which has been used since 2004 and appears on the boot screen of every color-screen model.
• Take Me to Your Leader: Zuccitchi says this as a joke in the intro to the CD-ROM adaption. He never gets to say it to a human though.
• Technicolor Science: Professor Flask, the teacher of Tamagotchi School's science class, has a big beaker of green liquid on his head and two more smaller beakers of red and blue liquid for hands.
• Temporary Online Content: Many of the modern toys involve connecting with an online website or, in some Japanese cases, an arcade machine or cell phone game in order to obtain certain items. Without them, the unlocks on the toy are no longer available.
  • The most jarring example is the Music Star toy. In order to earn the special items to get the toy's secret characters, the player needs to visit the Tamatown website, earn points, buy the items, and transfer it to their toy. The website was taken down in February 2013, making them impossible to get.
  • Thankfully averted with the Japanese Entama and Uratama toys. While they did have the online website, logging in and out of it required a 14-digit number to be entered, generated by the toy. The patterns used to generate the login and logout codes was cracked, and now a freeware program known as Enwarehouse is readily available online.
  • Averted again with the Family line of pets (Version 5, V5 Celebrity). While it does have web connectivity, each item has its own unique item number, and a list of the codes has been made available online.
  • The 4U has certain characters that could only be unlocked via events in Japan involving a special NFC touchpoint. This is required to unlock Miraitchi and Cululutchi, for example.
• Thief Bag: On the Entama, Uratama, and Versions 4 and 4.5, the player's Tamagotchi can be robbed of Tama Points by a burglar whose sprite and official artwork depicts him carrying a big bag with him.
• Ultimate Job Security: On the Entama, Uratama, and the Music Star, the Tamagotchi can never lose their career once they obtain it. Subverted on the V4 and V4.5, when the Tamagotchi automatically loses their job and retires if they reach the senior stage.
• Undying Loyalty: In the earlier versions, the Tamagotchi would stay with you, no matter how badly you treat it, until it dies. In the later versions (Music Star, Tama-Go, Tamagotchi Friends), the Tamagotchi will get fed up with you and run away.
• Video Game Caring Potential: This is one of the game's main selling points. Of course, you can go the other direction and do horrible things.
• Virtual Pet: The hand-held virtual pet that set off one of a thousand fads in the mid-to-late '90s. They were often banned from schools for being distracting. This didn't stop a lot of kids from setting them on silent and checking on them between classes. It also had a number of video game adaptations, the first of which was on the Game Boy in 1997. They could also be "paused" by going into the menu and choosing the option to set the time, then leaving it run in that manner.
• Waddling Head: Too many to count, but Oyajichi from the Japanese and Bill from the internation versions of the original stand out. However, artwork and later versions of Bill show he has a body that's obscured by his enormous bonce.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside:
  • Each day that passes is one year on the Tamagotchi.
  • Averted with the Santaclautchi, which measures the days, and is the only Tamagotchi to do so.
• You Are Grounded!: When your Tamagotchi misbehaves, you need to ground them via the "Time Out" option in the discipline menu. They also sometimes refuse to eat or play in the 4U, and grounding them won't prevent them from doing this, but somehow increases their happiness.

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