You can train them, battle them and create the ultimate monster warrior, all from your pocket.
Originally released in Japan in 2017, 20 years after the original Digimon Digital Monsters, we get a near exact rerelease that captures everything that made the devices so hot and adds a few new features. Digimon quickly followed the 1996 release of Tamagotchi in Japan and a lot of the same principles apply; providing care, playing and feeding your pet. What set Digimon apart was the ability to link up two devices to battle it out. This feature also gives trainers a reason to care and invest their time trying to raise a powerful monster to battle with.
So what’s new?
The rereleases have a few new features that make these devices a bit more fun and accessible. Firstly you can raise two Digimon at once. Once your first monster reaches its third evolution, you can hatch a fresh egg.
The rereleases also include eggs from the first five versions of Digimon, giving you over a hundred evolutions. There’s also additional unlockable eggs you can earn by winning battles (50 and 100), connecting your device to different devices and training different Digimon (5 and 25).
With the addition of being able to train two Digimon, we also have access to tag team training and battles. This changes to mechanic of each, allowing you to use a more traditional way of training (by trying to shoot past the opponent blocking). Battles give you a chance to time the first bar, and button mash to raise the second.
In the battle feature, we have the option to either battle against other 20th anniversary devices, that allows you to use tag team mode as well as see the projectiles from your opponent. The other battle mode allows you to connect to non-20th anniversary devices and recreates the original battle screen from the early Digimon devices (where each projectile is a fireball).
From the battle menu, there’s also an option to swap Digimon, this allows you to send or receive monsters from another device.
The 20th Anniversary Digimon devices also have a quest mode. This allows you to fight your way through a roster of stronger and stronger Digimon either in single or tag team. This feature let’s you win battles without having to connect to seperate device.
You can also hibernate your device by removing the battery or using the plastic strip. When you restore battery power you can pick right where you left off with your saved Digimon.
Growing your monster
You start off with an egg. Once it hatches it’s up to you to train, feed and look after the monster to see how it grows. Look after it well and it’ll grow to be strong and powerful. If you neglect your monster it’ll evolve into weaker forms or possibly die.
Your monster can also become sick or injured after battles or if you don’t clean up their poop. These count as training mistakes. You can also receive training mistakes by not putting your Digimon to sleep in their box.
There’s also different evolutions depending on how often you train, if you overfeed and how many times your Digimon gets sick. You can see the evolutions charts here on Humulos. The chart also includes which Digimon evolve from which eggs and how to unlock the remaining eggs.
What made Digimon so special?
Digimon devices were everywhere. At school, in the playground and out in public, for a few months there it was easy to find someone to battle with but the magic faded quickly. I remember both my brothers had Digimon devices but for young kids, looking after a device that travels everywhere with you, the risk of losing or breaking them is high. My first one went swimming in a creek. Looking back, I love how social these devices are. They are meant to bring kids together, trade strategies and discover the entire evolution tree. Getting the best Digimon was easy, but trying to get the others required some real restraint.
The 20th Anniversary devices give you a lot more flexibility to raise your Digimon on your own, but I still recommend finding someone to raise your monster with. That’s when these devices really shine.