Bandai re-released the original Tamagotchi for its 20th anniversary

Bandai's subsidiary changed toy gaming in 1996 with the Tamagotchi, an egg-shaped handheld digital pet that owners had to feed and care for or watch die. It became a cult item and sold in huge numbers.

For the 20th anniversary in 2017, Bandai re-released the original device in its original format, featuring six of the original characters and its familiar low-resolution graphics. It went on sale in Japan for ¥1,920, about $17 or £13.

The 2017 version was about half the original size, with a square rather than rectangular screen and some of the helpful status icons removed. It still came on a keychain, and the challenge of keeping the pet alive remained.

More than 76 million Tamagotchis had been sold worldwide, and the re-release stirred heavy nostalgia on social media. Bandai had tried to reboot the property before, including a Tamagotchi Friends range in 2013, but the pure anniversary reissue was the most direct return to the product that made it famous.

Bandai re-released six original Tamagotchi characters in Japan at ¥1,920, feeding a 76-million-unit global legacy and a wave of nostalgia.

The 1996 original was a genuine cultural phenomenon and collector item.

Bandai went back to the original format rather than inventing a new concept.

A low ¥1,920 price point made the reissue an easy nostalgia purchase.

The brand had sold more than 76 million devices globally.

Anniversary timing aligned with strong social-media nostalgia.

A nostalgic product can be relaunched by going back to the original, not a fancier version; the anniversary re-release sold on memory at a low price point.

The anniversary reissue reintroduced the Tamagotchi to a generation that remembered it and to new buyers, with the device selling initially in Japan at a low price. It followed earlier revival attempts and led to continued refreshes of the line. The move showed that for a nostalgia brand, authenticity to the original could matter more than novelty.