SINGAPORE, Sept 18 — Ask the children of this generation about Neopets and Tamagotchi, and you would probably get a blank stare.

However, these virtual pet games, all the rage nearly two decades ago, have been given a modern lease of life — in the form of an app.

On March 15, a Tamagotchi mobile application, called My Tamagotchi Forever, was released.

In July, it was also reported in the United States that a Neopets mobile app, known as Neopets Letters and Legends, is slated for a year-end release. Another app featuring the games from the Neopets is also in the works, according to media reports.

While these games are hoping to win over a new generation of players, the die-hard adult Neopets and Tamagotchi fans told TODAY they are not bowled over by the new reincarnations of their one-time childhood favourites.

App version ‘not progressive’

For the uninitiated, Neopets, founded in 1999 in the United States, is a virtual pet website, where users can own — and raise — virtual pets, as well as purchase items on the site with Neopoints, the currency used in the game.

Meanwhile, Tamagotchi is a handheld digital pet created in Japan in 1996. The "alien” pets begin life as eggs, that hatch into small animals. Like Neopets, players would care for these virtual pets by feeding and cleaning them.

Tamagotchi collector Lydia Teo, 35, started seriously collecting the game sets in 2014, after coming across a Carousell listing for a "coloured” Tamagotchi — unusual since the games she played with previously were all monochrome.

Ms Teo, who has 200 sets of the game, told TODAY her initial reaction to the app was that it was cute.

But within a week, the civil servant made a beeline back to the hand-held devices she had been playing with since she was 10.

"It is cute, but after a while, it gets a bit repetitive,” said Ms Teo, who rediscovered the game after more than 20 years.

Agreeing, fellow Tamagotchi collector Chloe Tan, 27, added: "All along Tamagotchis have been palm-sized pocket pets. I prefer pressing tactile buttons than swiping here and there on a screen.”

Ms Teo added that the Tamagotchi app lacked the variety of play that the physical game had.

While the Neopets mobile app has not even been launched yet, long-time Neopets player Chia De Wang has already judged that the new app feels "non-progressive” in nature.

According to media reports, Neopets Letters and Legends will feature Scrabble-style gameplay, where players form words on boards to unlock special bonuses that would deal damage to their opponents.

Mr Chia, 31, said the lack of the ability to earn Neopoints — the currency used in the game — as well as the lack of connectivity from the website to the app, were reasons he would steer clear from the game.

"Initially, us veteran (players) thought that (the app) would help bring more people to the game, but it turns out to be a non-progressive app,” said the research engineer, who started playing the game when he was 14. He noted that it was "a giant shift from it being a strategic game” to one that had a more superficial focus.

Mr Jonathan Lee, 27, told TODAY that he might try the game out of curiosity, but doubted he would play for long.

The marketing specialist, who has been a Neopets player for more than 10 years, added that had the company restaged its mobile app to have mechanics similar to how the website is played, it might spur a lot more old players to try, and entice newer players.

Die-hard fans

So why are some adults such die-hard fans of these retro games from the 1990s and early 2000s?

More often than not, a mention of their names would evoke a quizzical glance, and the question: "Why are you still playing with this?”

Mr Lee said that as an avid gamer, Neopets "offered something a bit more casual”, with easy "daily activities” to complete.

"I came back because it felt nostalgic, and I feel as you grow up, you want to play games that don’t need such a huge commitment,” he said.

Mr Chia, who returned to the game after a three-year hiatus in 2009, said he has learnt new things.

Though "battling” Neopets in the Battledome, a feature in the game where Neopets are pitted against other Neopets, was the feature that got him hooked in the first place, he is now into the trading and selling of items.

"Becoming a merchant” in the game was an interesting experience, he told TODAY, because "you see your assets growing in the virtual world and (you are) learning basic economics”. — TODAY