Digimon Up is coming this year for some portable Digimon-bonding fun

Buckle up, because I am about to fanboy all over the place. Bandai has announced a new upcoming Digimon game for mobiles, entitled Digimon Up. There is not much concrete news besides that it is coming this year, but that is enough to get me bouncing off the walls.

Gabumon will live in my phone!

Before I go shopping for a Gabumon-themed phone cover, let’s discuss what we are going to get. Digimon Up is a pixel art entry to the series, and will have you hatching a Digiegg and raising your new best friend. You will feed them, Digivolve them, and then send them into scraps like a good partner.  

Digimon Up bills itself as “A Digimon Journey that moves with your life”, which suggests walking might be a necessity. However, this is worth it. I would find a way to walk into Mordor for Gabumon. What interests me more personally is the Digivices and the cards that will be in-game.

If Bandai read this: make the cards swipable in battle

I highly doubt there will be a built-in card battler, which would step on the toes of Digimon Alysion. Although a return of the card game from Digimon World 3 would be welcome. Or a remaster, I love that entry. There are two things that come to mind here: the first is general collectibles, or it could take a leaf from Digimon Tamers. 

During that series of the anime, the tamers could swipe cards on their Digivices to give their partners a power-up during battle. It would be quite fun to be able to do that in Up, especially if the battles copy the gameplay of the original World or Next Order. During these, you basically just watch a fight. It would be cool if it were part auto-battler, and part swiping cards at critical moments. 

However it shakes out, I hope it fills the hole in my heart left from Digimon ReArise. Bring back Herissmon! There are no storefront pages yet, but Digimon Up is coming to mobile this year. I can hardly wait.