I’ve never played a game where anthropomorphic trees would ask for a character to poop. Then, I played Tamagotchi: ”Round the World. Suddenly, I was cast into a world filled with Tamagotchi droppings. I wish I were kidding.

When you think of Tamagotchi, you likely think of those little electronic, virtual pets that were huge back in the 90′s, but have found only middling success recently. Tamagotchi: ‘Round the World isn’t like that. You can see by playing that it certainly draws inspiration from the original Tamagotchi toys, but the iPod game has more in common with the Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop games…

Tamagotchis still have a fanbase, after all these years. And that fanbase is going to be extremely pleased with Tamagotchi: ‘Round the World from Namco Bandai. It is the very first Tamagotchi game for the iPod, and has players picking a partner Tamagotchi (Mametchi, Memetchi, Kuchipachi or Violetchi) to help them save three planets by interacting with the planet’s Gaiatchi (environmental aspects). It costs $4.99, is for 3G and 4G nanos, iPod classics and 5G iPods and is a 33.7mb download.

There are two basic goals in Tamagotchi: ‘Round the World – make the planets happy and make your Tamagotchi friend happy. You make the planet happy by playing six mini-games with different Gaiatchi on the planet, and you make your Tamagotchi happy by playing three different games with it. You can also complete a virtual stampbook and listen to your own music while playing the game. It also looks incredibly colorful and cute…