Tamagotchi Plaza - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 1 of 4
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)

Back in the mid-to-late '90s, Tamagotchi virtual pets were a massive fad, with kids around the world eagerly raising and interacting with cutesy animals on their tiny pea-green screens. Though the fad inevitably died out, Tamagotchi continued to exist in various forms across the next couple of decades, including a handful of video games developed mostly for portable consoles.

Of these, the Corner Shop games on the DS and 3DS proved especially popular, and the new Tamagotchi Plaza acts as a sort of spiritual successor to them. Though it’s interesting and vaguely entertaining at first, Tamagotchi Plaza unfortunately reveals all too quickly that its limp collection of drab minigames has little value to offer the player.

Tamagotchi Plaza breaks the fourth wall and begins its plot with the player being abducted by Prince Tamahiko in his UFO and spirited away from Earth to Tamagotchi Planet. Despite a brief apology, you’re then thrust into the role of the chair for the Tamahiko Town development committee, which has been given the task of improving various aspects of the town to strengthen its bid to host the coveted Tamagotchi Fest. After appointing a vice-chair (who acts as your avatar), you then send them across town to work in the various shops and begin building everything up.

Tamagotchi Plaza - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 2 of 4
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)

As far as plot goes, this is about as paper-thin as it gets, but the narrative here does a great job of setting an effective, cosy atmosphere through the interactions with the various residents. Everyone is so kind and supportive, you're almost inclined to forget that you were abducted and forced into labouring for this strange consumerist society.

Gameplay in Tamagotchi Plaza centres around a collection of minigame shops where you conduct various services, such as dentistry or pool service, for the residents and collect money while being rated on your performance. Over time (and after enough highly-rated performances), you can invest the money earned into the plaza itself to improve its visual aesthetics or into the shops to expand their selection of activities. On paper, it sounds like a good enough deal, granting a diverse selection of minigames to play at your own pace and slowly develop mastery in.

Tamagotchi Plaza - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 3 of 4
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)

The problem with all of this is… well, the minigames just aren’t that good. As opposed to something like the forgotten gem Nintendo Land, which offered a series of brief but rich experiences, Tamagotchi Plaza's are largely dull and shallow affairs. For example, manning a shift at the ‘night pool’ involves you mixing drinks and giving towels to various pool patrons. When a request comes through, you simply select the correct drink ingredients from a small menu and give it to them.

Most minigames are similar in how they quickly show themselves to be mindless busywork—there’s no real sense of urgency or skill involved in doing whatever basic task. And though shop upgrades will help to make each respective minigame a little more complicated, you’re still ultimately grinding through mindless activities and being rewarded regardless of how poorly you perform. Even the Switch 2 exclusive shops, which utilise its Mouse Mode, fail to do much to make the pointer gimmick fun or interesting.

Adding insult to injury, the minigames are also sometimes just obtuse enough that it takes trial and error to even understand what you’re supposed to do. One shop tasks you with serving guests afternoon tea, but the menu of items to put together their order gives no indication or description of what makes its various items distinct, leading to frustrating sequences where you pick something that looks ‘sweet’ only for the guest to turn up their nose at it. Not all minigames are this annoying, but some basic directions upfront would be helpful to signal the objective.

Tamagotchi Plaza - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 4 of 4
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)

In its favour, Tamagotchi Plaza at least runs quite smoothly and looks great. The cutesy characters have a charming innocence to their designs, while the overall friendly, colourful, welcoming aesthetics of the plaza and various shops make navigating it a joy. Plus, fun little touches like a smartphone that you can use to explore texts with the locals and parse character profiles via the apps add a bit to the immersion. All of this runs at a consistent 60fps, rounding out the visual experience and making this look like a game that’s much better than it actually is.

Conclusion

Tamagotchi Plaza is a dull, vapid, and utterly unsatisfying minigame collection that rapidly overstays its welcome. Though charming and visually competent, the underlying gameplay is undercooked, unrewarding, and shallow with its ‘free mobile game’-like design.

There may be a valid case here for playing with very young children for some very light and simple entertainment, but even then, the price tag is comically high for the shallowness and quantity of content you’re getting. I’d suggest you steer clear; it’s worth neither your time nor your money.