Today, I decided to take a deep dive into the world of Digimon feature phone games. When talking about Feature Phones, I am referring specifically to Japanese flip phones that were distributed and used in the ’00s before smartphones. The games I’m discussing below were released around 2006-2007 (other games will be mentioned at the end).
I’m going to lay out the various mobile Digimon integrations with the caveats that 1. I am not incredibly familiar with the franchise outside of Vital Bracelets, and 2. I have never seen how these games function, nor have I spoken to anyone who has ever used these games. I am working from reasonable conjecture based on a variety of primary sources.
Bandai Collection (Site)
Digimon games and media were distributed on Bandai Networks’ mobile site Bandai Collection. The Bandai Collection site itself distributed games from a variety of franchises, so the Digimon media was actually hosted in a subsection of the site called Digimon Corner (it’s unclear whether this was an official title for the section or a de facto name).
The Digimon Corner had three main categories: DigiWindow, Digimon Cardass, and Other.
DigiWindow
The DigiWindow was laptop-styled digital toy that integrated with various Digimon products, such as the Digivice iC Toy. Mobile integration was a Japan-only exclusive, and DigiWindow related games were distributed in the DigiWindow Corner (デジウィンドウコーナー) of the Bandai Collection site (which may have been within the Digimon Corner but I have not confirmed this).
The DigiWindow Corner hosted Flash mini-games for mobile devices. Completing these games would reveal a code that could be redeemed for exclusive Digimon on the DigiWindow. All games were in the Digimon Savers series. One example of these games is Digimon Savers: Lalamon Air Ride. According to Bandai’s original press release, at least six different Flash games were scheduled to be released. Screenshots for these can be found on Wikimon.
In addition to Flash games, Bandai Networks released one application that could communicate with the DigiWindow, Digimon Pocket Wars. Digimon could be transferred both ways between mobile device and DigiWindow using infrared (which was a standard feature in Japanese mobile phones at that time). According to Digimon.net, this game was actually a side-scrolling shooter.
Digimon Cardass
The Digimon Cardass section of the Bandai Collection mainly focused on providing information on cards, as well as deck-building and game strategies. It is unclear whether the cards or the arcade machine had interoperability with mobile devices.
Others
The two main offerings in the Others section are recreations of the Digital monster Ver. 1 – Ver. 5 devices, and an original game called Digimon Pocket Dungeon. This game does not appear to interact with any outside Digimon devices the same way that Digimon Pocket Wars does.
Summary
While there is still a lot unknown about the Digimon mobile games, it’s possible to infer what they would have been like based on press releases of the time, as well as the general interoperability features offered by Japanese feature phones. Digimon mobile games took advantage of basic passcodes and infrared data sharing. These integrations enabled players to unlock unique Digimon that were not available through other means.
Now I should clarify – these are not the only Digimon mobile games released. Other Digimon handhelds were also converted to mobile apps, such as the Digimon Pendulum. More impressively, Digimon Life was location-based game released in 2010 for feature phones. Various Digimon would appear based on location, time, season, and weather. Essentially, the game worked like Pokemon Go six years before Pokemon Go was released. You could also scan QR codes from real life toys to add new Digimon to your collection. I will be contributing more to Keitai Wiki as I find new information on these other games.
You might be wondering, it be possible for these games and their data to be preserved? It could be possible to encounter a downloaded version of one of the mobile applications such as Digimon Pocket Dungeon, but this would take an incredible stroke of luck. Unfortunately, the Flash games are likely gone forever, as Flash games were hosted directly on mobile websites, and these mobile sites are not inside the Wayback Machine because they could only be accessed through mobile phones (user agents that weren’t from feature phones would be rejected instantly). At least we have a few screenshots though.
Sources
- Digimon.net’s Mobile page (archive)
- Original DigiWindow press release by Bandai Networks
- DigiWindow Manual (JP) on Internet Archive