Some days I sit down with a cup of tea, my dog Bilbo by my feet, and am not fully prepared for the fact that I’m about to time-travel back to being seven years old again. I mean, with all of the N64 articles I write, you would think that would be a given by now, but there are some articles that catch me completely unaware. And before you know it, I’m swapping energy bills for panda pops and Tazzos all over again.
Today marks a truly incredible day for 90s kids the world over. Well, I say 90s kids as though the Tamagotchi was a 90s phenomenon; while these little pocket critters first came to the UK in 1997 and released in Japan back in 1996, they have sold well over 91 million units in their lifetime and have seen a recent resurgence. I know a girl who takes hers to work in a piercing shop clipped to her dungarees so that she can check it in between customers.
For those of you unsure what I’m talking about, let me give you a little bit of context. A Tamagotchi is a little digital character that lives inside an egg, usually on a keyring. Users could feed them, play with them, and then cry while they inevitably died while you went to your mate’s house over the weekend, only to reset them and start all over again. They’ve been massive my entire life, but not as big as the breakthrough revelation you’re about to read.
An Eggcellent Mothtery (That’ll Make Sense In A Second)
Get ready to have your mind blown – a user on the Tamagotchi Collectors Discord named rhubarb_pie has figured out how to unlock secret characters on Tamagotchi devices, something that has been hidden since a specific device dropped onto Japanese shelves a year after the series started. The year – December 1997, over 26 years ago!
The device: the Mothra Tamagotchi (told you that title would make sense in a second). For those not into Godzilla or the wider GCU (Godzilla Cinematic Universe), Mothra is a massive Moth from the movies, specifically ‘Rebirth of Mothra II’ in this case as that’s the movie the Tamagotchi was made alongside. And ever since the Mothra Tamagotchi appeared on the scene, collectors have wondered whether Moll and Lora could also be unlocked.
Moll and Lora? They’re two of Mothra’s priestesses, sisters who serve Mothra and her son Mothra Leo (remember that bit for the next section) and try to defend the planet and fight against their older sister, Belvera. And now, the mystery surrounding the device has been solved, and you can unlock Moll and Lora and the Mothra Tamagotchi! According to 404 Media, rhubarb_pie has taken the dumped ROM files for the Mothra Tamagotchi and, after studying the code, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is 100% possible to raise Moll and Lora on the device.
This is massive news, as previously it was only thought to have been possible to see the sisters when they healed Mothra and kept through some sort of battery glitch. That was the line of the official Tamagotchi Wiki, at any rate, and it’s no real surprise that people assumed this was a glitch when you consider how difficult it is to actually get Moll and Lora to appear as raisable characters.
How to Get Moll and Lora
Remember I mentioned Mothra Leo, Mothra’s son? Well, rhubarb_pie explains that players need to fulfill a series of very specific stipulations while raising a character called “Mothra Leo”, keeping its weight between 70 and 79 and making no mistakes with their care in the process. “After approximately 80 waking hours, an internal flag is set that allows Moll & Lora to evolve, and allows Mother Leo to lay an egg when it dies.” The whole process took rhubarb_pie 3 weeks from start to finish – that’s some serious dedication!
Now, I know what you’re thinking; this all sounds like the kind of schoolyard rumour mill that led to me collecting five Diglets so that I could trade them in to get a Dugtrio at my local toystore, or that rumour about those slimy aliens making babies. Still, it’s 100% true, and while long-winded, is incredibly worth it if you have a Mothma Tamagotchi at home.
That’s not the only thing that rhubarb_pie has unearthed as well. It’s also possible to play as the character sprite of deceased Mothma, aka Mothma grave, when the Tamagotchi character dies. “The condition for this character is that you have to meet the conditions for Moll and Lora five times in a row,” explains rhubarb_pie. “The fifth time, instead of evolving into Moll and Lora, Mothra Leo will evolve into [the moving grave].
I think we’re all thinking the same thing now; how many other Tamagotchi secret character sprites are out there waiting to be discovered, and have Bandai been secretly waiting for someone to find these hidden treasures for 26 years? Today definitely marks an exciting chapter in Tamagotchi history, and we’re looking forward to finding out more of what rhubarb_pie comes up with from their ROM studies and Tamagotchi tinkering!
