Tamagotchi Plaza review: Cute, nostalgic presentation, but uninspired gameplay (Switch 2)

When I first saw Tamagotchi Plaza, I was unabashedly excited; a Tamagotchi game where I don’t have to carry one of those little screaming digital devices with me? A dream come true, that. As a child of the 80s and 90s, I had a Tamagotchi in high school, when they were really blowing up. I was so thrilled to have the limited gold one. Even as an adult, I have a pair of the Kamen Rider Tamagotchi, though I have not been able to bring myself to open them.

The creatures are cute, the visuals are bright and colorful, but unfortunately, that’s about where my joy with Tamagotchi Plaza ends on the Nintendo Switch 2. It's got loads of charm, plenty of familiar Tamagotchis, and decent value for the price point, but it won't be for everyone.

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Tamagotchi Plaza plays well on the Nintendo Switch 2, but that’s about it

Now, I understand that I’m not in the target demographic for Tamagotchi Plaza. This is a kids game, marketed at kids. However, I don’t really know many kids who would be excited about mindless minigames, over and over again. When I realized this wasn’t going to be a Pet Raising Simulator, my next hope was that it would be a cozy game, like Stardew Valley, or something of its ilk.

All hail the latest Tamagotchi - Ragatchi! (Image via Bandai Namco)

That way, you could work together with the various creatures, and grow your town, and see results in it. Make digital friends, work together, and celebrate each other’s successes. Unfortunately, there’s not really much of that either in Bandai Namco’s latest title about screaming virtual creatures.

In the story for Tamagotchi plaza, the player controls a child who is taken away from Earth, to Tamagotchi Planet. Now this I can see kids being excited about. Who, as a kid, didn't dream of being whisked away to one of their favorite fictional settings?

Here, they basically do chores at various shops in town to make money and help get ready for a big festival. The actual goal is to convince the Tamagotchi King to have the big festival in Tamahiko Town. You grind reputation and money by doing mini-games, and that’s pretty much it. Through this, you can upgrade shops, and the town itself, but it can feel like a very time-consuming task.

The Tamagotchi you pick doesn't truthfully matter that much, but they're all super cute (Image via Bandai Namco)

You’ll pick one of the Tamagotchi to initially work alongside, but you can leave whenever you want, and go elsewhere. There are several different shop types, each with their own mini-game. It took me a try or two to figure out exactly what I was meant to do, because they aren’t explained well in Tamagotchi Plaza. However, one positive is that there are more mini-games than in the original Switch version, and they do have okay mouse controls.

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There isn’t a whole lot to see or do in Tamahiko Town

Now, I get it; if this game were about raising and caring for Tamagotchi, they’d probably sell less of the actual devices. You could just have one on your Switch or Switch 2, and take care of those. But just mindlessly doing mini-games, with almost no goal in sight? It’s a miserable experience. At least in Mario Party, you have an overarching goal of ruining all of your friendships as quickly as possible.

The mini-games, at very are definitely charming, and neat, once you figure them out (Image via Bandai Namco)

What happens if you succeed in a mini-game in Tamagotchi Plaza? You receive some money. What about if you fail? You receive the same amount of money. Eventually, enough success means you can start upgrading said shop, but is it going to be worth the effort? Absolutely not.

This process feels tedious, because it's not really clear how many successes you need to start the upgrade process, and then you need to wait for the prince to show up, make him happy, and then finally, have enough coins to actually perform the upgrade. Though I will say it is hilarious to see the grumpy little Tamagotchi, even as you make the same amount of cash either way.

Other than upgrading shops in Tamahiko Town, there’s really not a whole lot to the game, in general. That’s one of the major problems: the mini-games get really repetitive really fast and progress doesn't feel good. I imagine some kids will love it, but as a fan in my youth, this isn’t it.

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The best part of Tamagotchi Plaza is the visual design

If nothing else, the world of Tamahiko Town is incredibly cute (Image via Bandai Namco)

While the gameplay of Tamagotchi Plaza is shallow and uninspired, I cannot say the same about the visual presentation. All 100 or so Tamagotchi look amazing, and the game has brilliant, bright visuals that fit the aesthetic of the franchise perfectly. It loads smoothly on the Nintendo Switch 2, and the various chirps and grunts of the creatures are also spot on.

This was my favorite part of the game; just walking around the little Tamahiko Town, and taking it in. Swapping to some of the other Tamagotchis and just walking around was kind of nice, quite frankly. If there’s anywhere this game definitely nailed it, it was the look.

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Final thoughts

Each mini-game has its own charm, but they don't have a lot of replay value (Image via Bandai Namco)

I wanted very badly to like Tamagotchi Plaza, I genuinely did. I was very excited going in, looking forward to making friends, completing the odd mini-game, and perhaps building a village, or something. That was not what I received, not at all. I would have had more tempered expectations if I had played some of the older Tamagotchi games, perhaps.

The premise isn’t even terrible. It just gets incredibly repetitive and tedious. I liked all of the jobs, except perhaps the Optometrist, but no matter how much I liked a mini-game at first, it dwindled after doing them a dozen or so times.

It’s a simple, cute game, and if you aren’t looking for anything complex then there’s something to like in the game. Everything in the game works, and works well. The only real complaint about the gameplay itself is that the mini-games could have used better explanations. I was expecting Hello Kitty Island Adventure or something to that effect, but that’s definitely what I received. This game is okay, but I think only the most hardcore fans are really going to enjoy it.

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Tamagotchi Plaza

Bandai Namco's latest Tamagotchi game is okay; it doesn't offer anything truly game-changing, but it's an okay title for fans of mini-games (Image via Bandai Namco & Sportskeeda)

• Platforms: Switch, Switch 2
• Reviewed on: Switch 2
• Release Date: June 27, 2025
• Developer: Hyde, Inc
• Publisher: Bandai Namco