Star Wars fans all know the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker–and all see the way that things might have been, the flashpoints along the road that pushed him onto the path of the dark side. What if he’d met the right person, felt the a different way about something? Was he always destined to be Darth Vader regardless? Well, Bandai’s latest digital pet is not equipped to answer such existential questions about a fictional character, but that isn’t going to stop it from being cute, dammit.
To celebrate Lucasfilm’s new “Power the Force” merch campaign, io9 has your first look at Bandai’s latest Star Wars tamagotchi, joining the previous R2-D2 and Grogu devices with none other than Darth Vader himself. Starting out as Anakin, it’s up to you as the caretaker of this little sprite-based Jedi to see just how you can influence his transformation into Darth Vader. You can feed him, train him through lightsaber drills or duels, or have him encounter a whole host of characters from the movies (hopefully not Watto, after last week’s news) to ultimately shape how the chosen one falls to darkness, with 10 potential Vaders he can grow into.
Bandai Star Wars Darth Vader Tamagotchi
As well as raising your own little Sith, the Vader tamagotchi also plays sprite renditions of 12 iconic scenes from the Star Wars movies, and also comes with a quintet of minigames to while the time away with: as well as the aforementioned lightsaber training, there’s a Star Wars letter hunt, a take on the infamous Death Star trench run, and showdowns with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke himself. If that wasn’t enough, the Vader-themed tamagotchi even comes with a special silicone case for storage, shaped like Vader’s own masked visage A tiny Vader, inside which is a tinier, egg-shaped Vader, inside which is an even tinier Vader!
Bandai’s Darth Vader tamagotchi will cost $30, and is set to release this March–you can head on over to Amazon to pre-order one yourself.
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