Ally McBeal, anyone?
Being a child of the 90's, I had to give it a spin and see if it was still as compelling as notsalgia would have me believe.
The game was unchanged, right down the default game view, framed within the 3 buttoned egg shaped key chain bauble that used to dangle from every backpack in middle school. And it was a small revelation to realize that here was the very core game mechanic that formed the basis of Zynga's money printing empire, virtual crop maintainence.
But what really piqued my interest -- and ultimately my ire -- was NamcoBandai's insidious exploitation of push messaging. I have never been so annoyed so quickly as I have with Tamagotchi L.I.F.E. You cannot go 5 minutes without that needy little bugger "crying out" for you, pestering you to return to the game and "play" some more. I deleted the app less than 2 hours after downloading.
Enough already...
Lesson to game designers: resource management games are a lucrative genre, and can be fun in the hands of skilled game designers (Thank you, Nimblebit). But beware the push / prompt. Use it judiciously, or forever lose a customer and earn an enemy.
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