Look, we know that everything slightly unusual that we write for the entirety of April is going to sound like a weird, horribly late April Fool's Joke, but this one's not a joke. However, it's also not a certainty. It's a weird in-between of "did I read that right?" and "wait, seriously?"
Yes, you read that right: the browser-based pet-raising game Neopets might be coming to the Nintendo Switch. In an interview with Washington Post about Flash games, the little nugget of information that is about to light a fire in the heart of every millennial just slipped out from the Neopets team, and then - get this - they refused to share further details.
Come on, Neopets! You can't tease us like that! Is it a straight port of the original? Can we transfer our original pets? Or is it an open-world MMORPG about raising adorable dragons and contributing to gigantic omelettes?
Neopets did launch a mobile version of the game last year, which is seemingly still in its beta phase. It's likely that a Switch version would use a similar base, but, for now, all we know is that the Neopets team is thinking of bringing it to Switch. No clue as to when, how, or even if it'll happen.
Would you play a Switch version of Neopets, or are you happy to let it stay in the 2000s along with MySpace, Limewire, and frosted eyeshadow? Let us know in the comments.
[source washingtonpost.com]
Comments 47
PLEASE! This interests me specifically.
Do you think it will be a game about raising pets or some kind of expanded mini games involving neopets like the platformers or puzzles?
I'd rather see Club Penguin come back.... The proper version
Not interested until we see a Club Penguin port for Switch.
NINJA APPROVED
This was 'a game'? I only ever saw snippets of the website but it looked like a series of mini-games.
Jesus
Neopets isn't a name I've heard in like 11 years
I was way more of a Club Penguin guy but damn
I was more into Club Penguin to be honest. Neopets is a total throwback though.
There were some club penguin games on the wii and ds, if disney revived it who knows what could happen
Wow I haven’t been on Neopets in ages!
I suddenly feel really old. 👀
Neopets hasn’t seen significant updates in like 10 years. There’s no way they’re putting the necessary resources into making it work on Switch!
There was a really interesting article on Neopets’ economy a few years ago, and how it was essentially ruined by inflation from the money being constantly spawned out of thin air. The article really gave me the sense that the people who ran Neopets really sort of lucked into something that worked for a brief time, without ever really understanding it.
It's kinda ironic that these things are called "NeoPets" as most people nowadays seem think of them as a relic of the early 2000s.
This is interesting and all but I’ve never played it, I was more of a Poptropica guy
Ouf, I remember last time Neopets was on Nintendo consoles, with Capcom's help even. The less said the better.
May God have mercy on us all.
What's next Runescape?
I’d be interested in signing back into my account, but it was hacked in a data leak years ago and subsequently erased. Not sure I’d like to start everything all over again in this day and age.
Well. There's a bit of nostalgia I did not expect. I don't have high hopes, but I am curious.
Ok but it would be really hype if they were to make a Darkest Faerie HD remake on switch
I wasn't expecting that
Hoo boy, so here's a Neopets veteran's take on this news...the site has like...a LOT of major things that need to be fixed after Flash died. Those things need dealt with WAY more than making console games again, despite the overall polish of their past endeavors, which...likely won't be repeated, since Jumpstart fired everyone who originally worked on the site upon buying the site. That's right, absolutely everyone. It's a miracle the site isn't dead, but JS seriously needs to hire more people for the site before promoting it to hell and back like they used to.
How adorable; reading all the now 20-somethings talk about Neopets/Club Penguin nostalgia in the comments, lol.
Ctrl F
"Sciento"
Nothing found.
Huh.
I'd rather have Oregon Trail & Impossible Quiz
If they're bringing over the original, can they bring over the PS2 game while they're at it? Its always been one of those games that I looked at and thought "Huh, that looks somewhat interesting, I might play that at some point" and then never got around to playing, so a port of that would be nice.
@alexybubble
That game is called The Darkest Faerie and it’s really fun! The PS2 graphics give it a lot of charm but an HD remake would be really neat too.
So it's a mobile game? Hard pass for all of those.
If they do put a NeoPets game on Switch, I hope it's better than their past efforts at entering the non-Flash gaming realm. I remember their attempt at a Puzzle Quest-like on Wii had some really weird graphical issues and really bad loading times for a game that wasn't exactly pushing the Wii's limits.
I wish I gave Neopets one last visit before Flash was discontinued.
Wow Neopets, completely forgot about them, was obsessed as it was the only site that has games which wasn't blocked by our school firewall back in 2002
Neopets?! Club Penguins?! What about Virtual Pets and March of the Penguins?! 😜
Club penguin sounds like something you do when you are hungry
Blimey, I remember playing this at school... and running about trying to find computers that IT hadn't blocked it on yet.
I most certainly would play I’ve been waiting forever for this 😭🥺
I haven't played Neopets in forever, nor have I played Subeta, which had long replaced Neopets for me. However, if Neopets were to come to the Switch, I would gladly play it again.
@Noid the scientology stuff was a bit too much to get into in a short news piece 😅
Please bring back Neopets I absolutely loved It. I loved how open it was, choosing what game to play to earn coins and spend them on items like food for the pets. So cute!
Hype this up so they make it! Millennials need this 😭
Petadatchi needs to release quick because it’s gonna get lost in the flurry of chill games that keep appearing on switch
@EmmatheBest As also a Neopets Veteran, I would agree with your statements. While it is VERY disappointing how JumpStart isn't handling the site, I feel like most of the blame stems with Viacom and how, for the most part, were slow to change the site, forcing the catch up we now see. While the current TNT (The Neopets Team) isn't as fleshed or big as it was in Neopets' heyday, at least we can see that they are trying their best to get as many people back into it. The problem is, by doing so, they are missing their demographic of the Kids that play Roblox and Fortnite nowadays. Not saying they should copy those two, but with this news, this could be one way they could get new, younger members. It would be a dream come true for us old folk of a full Neopia unchained from both the Internet and the desktop/laptop. The problem is; does the Jumpstart TNT has the money and resources to do so? Will Neopets itself stay around for long? It's currently Year 23 on the site, but will we see Year 26 or Year 31? We're seeing more and more formally large websites shut down. Unlike ToonTown or Club Penguin, it's nearly unpossible to make a "Rewritten" version of Neopets. I'll end with this; it was once planned for Neopets to die from various causes but it was scrapped early on. Will we see this happen to ALL Neopets in the near future? I weep for all 285+ Million pets if that day happens.
@KateGray Scientology?! Now I need to google this! 🤣
I was obsessed by this way back in its early days. I’m sure my kids were babies so it must have been at least 15+ years ago 😨
I was a dab hand at the stocks and a legend in the battle arena 💁♀️
@NatiaAdamo next month: Neopets Battle Royale, coming soon.
@CairiB search for Fredrik Knudsen on Youtube. He made a very good documentary about it.
But I would absolutely love Neopets for Switch. Oh, make it happen.
As another Neopets Veteran I don’t know how this would work.
Neopets has been pretty “dead” for a while and for me and a lot of others, the biggest pull was the social side. Boards on the AC in particular used to go so fast, especially the front page where if no-one was commenting on your board you’d have to bump every other minute to even stay on the front page - now, your post will be up there for days if not weeks.
The last time I logged on a few years ago, I did it only to get SuAP and haven’t really gone on since. The game got me through a very difficult abusive childhood with lots of “friends”, and I still think of that time and those experiences very fondly so I would be interested to see what, if anything, comes of this but I do doubt it. As far as I know from my limited eye on things, they’re not even regularly producing new avs or content.
@Celandines I hear you on the social element. It was a massive part of why I played as a young mum in on my own a lot.
I’m glad it gave you some comfort when how’s life was hard like that. ❤️
@Ulanda I will do, thanks.
Every couple of years I remember Neopets and think about rejoining but I lost my password and I don't really want to set up a new account. (I mean it's bad enough that I've left my neopets to starve, but replace them on top of that?)
I remember being completely invested in my own shop selling items back when I first played it.
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