Aavegotchi Review: Tamagotchi but with Ghosts [Halloween Special]

The virtual pet genre became a pioneer in the crypto gaming industry but generated too many similar projects.
Aavegotchi took its inspiration from Tamagotchi rather than Pokémon and mixed it with interesting visuals as well as peculiar mechanics.

Virtual pet games became one of the most popular genres in the crypto gaming industry. The evolution is quite obvious: as NFTs are the main pivot in blockchain games, Pokémon’s motto “catch them all” is one of the first things that comes to mind when connecting these two factors.

Moreover, the popularity of CryptoKitties and CryptoPunks fostered the addition of gamifying features into the already well-working collecting formula. Thus, we got Axie Infinity, which put blockchain gaming on high rotation.

On the other hand, virtual pet games overflooded the market. Just a few of the projects that come to mind are Axies, Binamon, My DeFi Pet, Ethermon, and a bunch of smaller ones featuring the same concept and mechanics. The multitude of options makes it hard to decide what to play. It has been scientifically proven that people tend to choose nothing when they have too many choices. Overchoice is the real issue in any market.

Thus, it is a wise decision for developers to have one unique and vivid feature that might distinguish the project from others. In this review, we’ll look at what Aavegotchi has to offer.

Aavegotchi: More Cute than Spooky

The project grabs attention by its visual style. Pixelated ghosts are not the common appearance of such games. The inspiration was taken from the protocol the game is run on. Interestingly enough, the visuals themselves have more of a hint on retrowave than horror. This was definitely a good move because the project has to be relevant during the entire year, not only during Halloween.

However, if we look a little closer, we’ll find out more peculiarities about the game itself. Obviously from the name, the project is rooted in classic Tamagotchi. Although you shouldn’t feed your creatures, you can pet them and purchase unique wearables.

An interesting hallmark is that gaming NFTs of ghosts are available in both 2D and 3D, so you can easily switch the dimensions of its habitancy.

For example, the Aavegotchi ecosystem allows the community to create mini-games. Some of them, like Reverse Pacman, Sushi Vader, and Snaake are 2D games. On the other hand, Aadventure is a 3D strategy in the style of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. And the same NFT ghosts are available for playing in both dimensions.

Developers promised to implement their original games as well as the Aavegotchi metaverse as soon as possible. The devs are pursuing the idea to create Gotchiverse with a variety of geographic landmarks. It’s the place for socializing, quest search, yield farming and harvesting, and collecting Gotchus Alchemica, the local in-game resources, based on ERC20 protocol. Their names are funny though: FOMO, KEK, ALPHA, and FUD. The main three zones will be the Citadel, the Grid, and the Beyond.

Another peculiarity is that the community’s mini-games or dApps will work as NPCs. For example, it can be a character giving you quests as well as something more sophisticated. Thus, the community can create the world they would like to spend time in, not dictated by the developers.

And the last question is where to get the first ghost NFT, as Gotchis are not listed on OpenSea or any smaller NFT market. Officially, there are Aavegotchi Maall and Baazaar, the second-hand shop. In addition, you can buy a ghost from your friend. As it’s an NFT, you can do whatever you want with them.

GHST is the cryptocurrency of the ecosystem, which runs on the Aave protocol. Moreover, if you don’t want to pay high gas fees, Aavegotchi provides an option to bridge from Polygon to Ethereum and back.

So, you can buy either a ghost or a portal. Players who choose the portal option can perform the portal summoning ritual. After opening the portal, you’ll be able to choose 1 of 10 Gotchis. Used portals can be kept for reselling or mini-games.

On The Flipside

One portal costs approximately 100 GHST, which is around $200 at the token’s current price. This is definitely the game with a high investment entry level. Scholarships are not yet available, unfortunately. On the other hand, in order to start playing Axie Infinity, the initial investment is $1.5K.