Every Tamagotchi is a small lesson in impermanence. Feed it, clean up after it, love it — and it will still, in time, board a spaceship and leave. For years that ending was the whole point. Then, in 2016, Bandai decided the departure didn't have to be the end. It could be a beginning.
That year brought the Tamagotchi m!x, a color-screened release built for Japan alone, and with it a feature the oddest kind of the franchise's history: your pet could leave you a child carrying its looks. It was called the "m!x" — a lazy, four-letter shorthand that hid one of the most ambitious things Bandai had ever shipped in a plastic egg.
Genes you can see
The idea was simple to grasp and strange in practice. From the second generation onward, when two Tamagotchi marry, their baby doesn't hatch as a fixed character. It comes out as a "My Tama," a brand-new creature assembled from both parents. Its body does the borrowing in a handful of visible pieces: the head, torso and mouth; the eyes; headgear like hair, hats or ears; and accessories such as wings, capes or tails. Even the body color is inherited — sometimes from one parent, sometimes a blend of both, and occasionally nothing like either.
The m!x was the first taste, and it was a tease. Bandai expanded the whole idea two years later dubbed lightly with the Tamagotchi Meets, released in Japan on November 23, 2018, followed by the English-language Tamagotchi On in 2019 and Korea's Some. The Meets and On promised over a thousand more possible combinations than the m!x. Raising a Tamagotchi was no longer about surviving one life. It was about building a family line that outlived any single pet.
A family tree with a mind of its own
Here's the part that made owners fall in love and pull their hair out: the genes don't behave. A trait that vanished four generations ago can suddenly surface in a new baby, like a long-dead grandparent deciding to make a return. Heredity on the Meets and On isn't a clean chart you can read. It's a lottery, gently weighted by how you care for your pet and which partner you match.
Twins added another layer. From the second generation on, there was a chance a pregnancy would produce two babies at once — identical, or completely different. The moment a pair of twins showed up, players faced a genuinely hard choice: which one would carry the line forward.
And because marrying two different devices lets traits from one edition's exclusive characters bleed into another, a Sanrio or Pastel gene could quietly ride into a device that never officially held it.
The family line goes worldwide
The Meets generation also got the social push the series had never managed before. Through the companion app you could bring your pet into a shared park, browse other players' family trees, send Likes, and propose marriage to strangers on the other side of the world. Monthly app-exclusive guests handed out limited genes and items that existed nowhere on a physical device. For the first time, a Tamagotchi's family line genuinely crossed oceans.
The inheritance thins
Bandai never made the Meets and On the franchise's default. In recent years the torch passed to Wi-Fi-connected devices, and the spiritual follow-up, the Tamagotchi Uni, draws more from the wearable Smart line than from the breeders. When mixing returned in 2025's Tamagotchi Paradise, it had been simplified down to just eyes and body color.
But for the players who lived through the Meets era, no later device matched the pull of a breeding line of your own. Some traits fade, some refuse to, and every so often a great-great-great-grandparent you'd nearly forgotten reappears in a baby's eyes. That's not a bug. It's the whole point — the one Tamagotchi message that bears repeating: nothing you raise ever fully leaves you. That year brought the Tamagotchi m!x, a color-screened release built for Japan alone, and with it a feat most strange in franchise history: your pet could leave you a child carrying its looks. It was called the "m!x" — a lazy, four-letter shorthand for one of the most ambitious things Bandai ever shipped in a plastic egg. That year brought the Tamagotchi m!x, a color-screened release built for Japan alone, and with it one of the series' strangest ideas: your pet could leave you a child carrying its looks. It was called the "m!x" — a lazy, four-letter shorthand for one of the most ambitious things Bandai ever shipped in a plastic egg. Twins added another layer. From the second generation on, a pregnancy could produce two babies at once — identical or completely different — and players had to choose which one carried the line forward. The m!x was a first taste, but it was still a tease. Bandai expanded the idea fully two years later with the Tamagotchi Meets, released in Japan on November 23, 2018, followed by the English-language Tamagotchi On in 2019 and Korea's Some. The Meets and On promised over a thousand more possible combinations than the m!x. Raising a Tamagotchi was no longer about surviving one life. It was about building a family line that outlived any single pet. That year brought the Tamagotchi m!x, a Japan-only color release, and with it one of the series' strangest ideas: your pet could leave you a child carrying its looks. It was called the "m!x" — a lazy, four-letter shorthand for one of the most ambitious things Bandai ever shipped in a plastic egg. Here's the part that made owners fall in love and pull their hair out: the genes don't behave. A trait that vanished four generations ago can suddenly surface in a new baby, like a long-dead grandparent deciding to make a return. Heredity on the Meets and On isn't a clean chart you can read. It's a lottery, gently weighted by your care and your choice of partner. The Meets generation also delivered the social push the series never managed before. Through the companion app you could bring your pet into a shared park, browse other players' family trees, send Likes, and propose marriage to strangers on the other side of the world. Monthly app-exclusive guests handed out limited genes and items that existed nowhere on a physical device. For the first time, a Tamagotchi's family line genuinely crossed oceans. Bandai never made the Meets and On the franchise's default. In recent years the torch passed to Wi-Fi-connected devices, and the Uni that followed draws more from the wearable Smart line than from the breeders. When mixing returned in 2025's Tamagotchi Paradise, it had been simplified down to just eyes and body color.