MANILA, Philippines - There’s always that one friend who enjoys the company of animals without having the need to bring one home, or at least will fight the urge to do so. While we applaud these heartless human beings (just kidding) for having self-control, we also understand where they are coming from — there are a lot of reasons why people don’t have pets. It can be anything from being allergic to having commitment issues to not wanting to be responsible for the life of another living thing. On rare occasions, they just simply don’t want one and that’s perfectly fine. But that doesn’t mean they have to miss out on all the fun.
In an alternate virtual universe, you could own pets without having to deal with real world consequences like feeding them, cleaning up their poop, their tendency to die or running out of real money. Virtual pets are perfect for those who are on the fence about owning real animals; but pet lovers also can’t get enough of these games.
Virtual pets may come and go, but the need for a companion always remains. Here’s a list of our favorite virtual pet games from past to present.
Tamagotchi
Being able to walk around with the only toy not banned in kindergarten surely came with a price — and an expensive one at that. Back then, attached to every backpack was a keychain: inside was the Tamagotchi, a small egg-shaped toy that gave birth to a little alien that needed to be taken care of. The game was easy; feed, wash, play and repeat until your alien grows up healthy. But let’s admit it, no one ever really knew what it was like to successfully raise an alien. When you had an entire playground with friends and toys to play with after class, who had time to feed a baby alien? But ‘90s kids need not worry though because ICYMI: the ‘90s are back and the Tamagotchi is ready to serve millennial nostalgia. Though it’s probably surrounded by its own virtual poop and/or is probably dead by now, maybe it’s not too late for you to reset that old Tamagochi and raise it properly this time?
Neko Atsume
While most virtual pets exist to bring us joy minus the real-life duties, some games can get pretty complicated and demanding. (Yes, we’re looking at you, Pokémon!) It’s no wonder then that mobile gaming app Neko Astume became so popular in a span of just a year. You simply open the game to restock on food and add more toys to collect cat visits, to see the cats play, and to take pictures. You’re not even responsible for taking “care” of the cats; you can, however, spoil as many of them as you want. Who’s the crazy cat lady now, huh?
Neopets
Neopets was our initiation to adulthood or parenthood, whichever came first. Lesson 1: Hustle for the ones you love. Nice things never come cheap and as a Neoparent (yes, I just made that term up), it is your obligation to pimp your Neopet, or at least not let it get sick or hungry. It taught us the value of money — or in this case Neopoints, earned through afterschool play sessions and the magic/curse that is the Stock Market. It also taught us that pets generally make everyone happy and in some virtual reality settings, your Neopets can even have little pets of their own. (Spoiler: They’re called Petpets.)
Pokémon
The colors red, green, blue and yellow used to be ordinary colors until, of course, we were introduced to the world of Pokémon. What started out as a role-playing video game (RPG) for Nintendo’s Game Boy console eventually turned out to be a multimedia franchise that continues to grow with our generation, even celebrating its 20th anniversary earlier this year. Some say it’s the nostalgia that comes with all the birthday money we spent on collecting each brand-new Pokémon back then that makes it hard to let go; for others, it’s simply the challenging gameplay. But until they run out of ideas for new characters and colors to use as titles, Pokémons are here to stay.
Sims 2: Pets
What good is being able to create a virtual community of people if you can’t have virtual pets for them to live the dream with? Thankfully, the Sims 2: Pets expansion pack allows you to fully customize dogs and cats to join you and your Sims in your virtual fantasy. You can choose everything from the kinds of breed you want to mix together to their paw structure down to their personality type. True to the nature of the game, this is probably the closest thing we have to understanding our pets’ minds. Each pet comes with its own mood meter and God knows how much we need those IRL.
Boku to Wanko
Cats may have taken their throne as the ruler of the World Wide Web (see: memes, vines, gifs) but in the game of virtual pets, dog-kind won’t back down just yet. After the global success of Neko Atsume, another app developer came up with a game that allows for the same experience but with dogs instead. Aside from substituting bones for fish as the tokens given by the pets on every visit, everything else — from the illustration style to the gameplay — is similar to Neko Atsume. A little too similar, actually. If the dogs are copying the cats then does that mean the cats are the new “it” pets?
Pet Society
Before there were long political arguments and trashy viral videos on Facebook, there was a time when interactive games ruled our notifications. We had everything from Farmville to Building Tycoon to the classic Pet Society. Much like any other virtual pet game, the goal of Pet Society is to simply take care of our pets through feeding, grooming and playing. The best part about it is that it was already connected to our Facebook profiles so we could easily invite, gift or visit the pets of our friends. Now, if only arranging play dates IRL was this easy…
Shibo Dog
As if we needed more reasons to love the dog breed Shiba Inu, here comes another mobile app that takes everyone’s Doge meme obsession to the next level. Shibo Dog allows you to look after the Internet-viral dog breed by means of feeding, washing, kawaii accessorizing, and healing potions. Here a Shiba Inu is caricatured as a tame lovable puppy in need of a lot of attention even though, IRL, this dog is actually fast, clever and has a high prey drive. But that’s okay, we still love them and the game anyway. It’s literally having a Shiba Inu in your pocket, which can definitely come in handy in times of stress or extreme traffic along EDSA.