From the unlikely return of Gladiators to the resurgence of the layered blowout hairstyle beloved of Rachel from Friends, 90s nostalgia is in rude health. It was only a matter of time, then, until we witnessed the return of the era’s most baffling toy – the Tamagotchi.
Created by Akihiro Yokoi and Aki Maita in 1996, these keychain-sized gaming devices became an instant playground phenomenon, seeing millions of children neglect their real-life pets in favour of cleaning pixelated poop. Then, just as quickly as they arrived, these pocket playthings disappeared. While Nintendo channelled the Tamagotchi spirit into the hugely successful Nintendogs series, the rise of increasingly complex life sims, such as … well, The Sims, saw the pet and play genre die an untimely death – until now.
Resurrected in the form of augmented-reality-powered app Peridot from Pokémon Go creator Niantic, the San Franciscan tech firm is once again inviting the world to hatch and care for their own unique digital pet. From teaching it tricks and taking it with you on walks to playing breeder and creating the ultimate cutesy creature alongside other players, Peridot is 2023’s smartphone-ready twist on the 90s fad.
As I hatch my first Peridot – or ‘dot’ for short – I’m greeted by the burble of a yellow, distinctly squishy-looking creature. Panning the camera around my living room through the screen of my smartphone, I suddenly spot a floating creature blinking at me through curious, bulbous eyes. Unlike its optional functionality in Pokémon Go, Peridot only works via augmented reality, bringing your new pet enthusiastically bounding into your real-world surroundings as you take it for walks in the park, or teach it tricks in the kitchen. It’s an app that Niantic CEO John Hanke is betting the house on, telling me recently that he believes Peridot and the tech underpinning it represents the future of augmented reality.
Still, the future of tech can wait. The first port of call? Stroking this adorable little guy. Interactions with your Peridot are a cute and fairly intuitive mix of taps and pointed instructions, with players given a series of “experience point”-generating tasks to gently train and raise their new hatchling. From encouraging them to interact with different objects – including clever occlusion-based tech that automatically detects the kind of real-world terrain your creature is foraging in – there are little glimpses of magic sprinkled among the app’s content-light beta.
Despite the hugely complex tech powering Peridot, the actual gameplay within is surprisingly simple. In a surprising pivot from its Poke-packed cash cow, Peridot completely abandons Go’s competitive and adventure-based throughline, simply asking you to hang out with your new virtual pal instead.
This time around, Niantic’s focus isn’t on delivering a stat-crunching video game, but making kids guffaw with glee. “The best visual effects are the ones you don’t see,” says Ziah Fogel, Niantic’s director of product and former Pixar animator, as she explains the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make its polygonal pets truly understand their surroundings.
Yet in the beta at least, Peridot’s collision detection doesn’t fully live up to Niantic’s lofty promises. As I flick a tennis ball off into the distance, my cute creation bounds enthusiastically straight through a glass wall, pulling off a gravity-defying run straight off a balcony into thin air.
Still, suspension of disbelief aside, Ziah’s past has clearly been invaluable to Peridot’s future. After a brief stint at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, Ziah cut her teeth on animating beloved Pixar fare like Finding Nemo, Cars and Ratatouille. It’s the Disney studio’s focus on unforgettable characters that she hopes to take into Peridot, she tells me, and even in this pre-release stage, the creatures undoubtedly burst with life and character.
With gameplay depth being sidelined in favour of doubling down on AR character, the tech has to truly wow in order to sell the fantasy. It’s here that Peridot doesn’t. As I watch my unique creation hover curiously over a bowl of fruit, as cute as it is, it’s still a long way from making you truly believe that your Peridot is interacting with the world around you.
It begs the question of whether there’s enough of a gameplay incentive here to sustain player interest long-term. Where Pokémon Go’s RPG-lite elements made it the perfect catnip for misty-eyed millennials, here there’s no such battling or gym conquest hook to be found. Instead, Niantic is hoping that the allure of breeding the ultimate dot keeps older users playing. Once your Peridot has grown into a fully fledged adult, owners are able to showcase their prize pet and its desirable genetic traits at a local point of interest, opening you up for messages about potential breeding offers.
It’s a fun, Crufts-worthy twist on the pet sim, but only time will tell whether it’ll entice the masses. Without the allure of an already beloved IP– and the deep pockets of Pokémon-obsessive mid-thirtysomethings – it remains to be seen whether Peridot will be the hit Niantic needs it to be. While its Pikachu-starring pedometer is still paying the bills, the 2022 shuttering of its Harry Potter tie-in – and the muted response to its recent Pikmin and NBA apps – make the company dangerously close to being a one-hit wonder.
Gabe Brostow, Niantic’s chief research scientist and UCL lecturer, is keen to tell me that the tech underpinning Peridot is the real winner regardless of the app’s reception. Available to third-party developers via the company’s Lightship platform – the app marketed as the key to building the real-world metaverse – the AI powering the AR will undoubtedly be crucial to both Niantic and augmented reality’s future.
Despite my bizarre new buddy’s behaviour eliciting the occasional grin, my Peridot beta experience has been one of subtle tech evolution rather than industry-changing revolution. Yet just like the original Tamagotchi, 32-year-old cynics like myself aren’t exactly Peridot’s intended audience. Older players looking for a next-gen AR-led Pokémon Go will likely come away from Niantic’s latest disappointed, but for kids looking for something that captures Nintendogs’ much-missed mutt-petting magic, Peridot looks certain to deliver.
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