Neopets is kicking off its new period by returning to an outdated one: The corporate’s newly-independent management has introduced the creation of a buying and selling card sport referred to as Neopets Battledome, harkening again to the unique Neopets Buying and selling Card Recreation from the early 2000s. I by no means performed that one myself, however I wager there are a whole lot of 20- and 30-somethings on the market who expertise a sort of full-body time journey every time somebody reminds them of it.
In contrast to the unique Neopets TCG, which was made by Wizards of the Coast, the brand new card sport is being made by Higher Deck. That is the identical firm taking rival game-maker Ravensburger to courtroom over upcoming CCG Disney Lorcana, if the identify sounds acquainted.
Neopets Battledome is about to hit in 2024, simply in time for Neopets’ twenty fifth anniversary. It’s going to be a two-player TCG that includes “a singular cube fight system, revolutionary deck constructing methods, and over 20 Neopets to gather”. If the identify rings a bell, it is as a result of the Battledome was the place you’d ship your Neopets to combat and die in your identify within the browser sport.
The sport will characteristic “over 250 distinctive items of customized artwork” from a bunch of various artists and you will get a have a look at it in the event you occur to be attending this August’s Gen Con. In any other case, you are simply gonna have to attend till subsequent 12 months. On condition that I think about a whole lot of the individuals who might be enthusiastic about this have most likely been ready for it because the authentic was discontinued in 2006, I suppose yet another 12 months is not an excessive amount of to ask.
Neopets is a unusually potent idea for me. Like Myspace, Bebo, MSN Messenger, and Smarterchild (the unique and biggest AI), it looks as if some kind of totemic image of a now-buried period of the web. Seeing it in some way survive—and escape the embrace of its NFT-hawking former guardian firm—and nonetheless have the clout to place out precise, bodily merchandise in 2023 is weirdly touching. It won’t have that power which within the outdated days dominated browsers in all places, however Neopets nonetheless lives.