EdiMon

As the virtualisation of our lives continues apace, the only taboo appears to be extending it to intimate relations: at least outside of the Japanese obsession with fembots. Virtual pets seem a completely logical compromise to the constraints of space and flying fur, however.

Still, there's been a shift in recent years, with the abstract form of the Tamagotchi moving completely from blocky pixels into the much cuter balls of fun you find in Nintendogs and the dozens of copyhounds it's spawned. Indeed, there's a remarkable lack of Tamagotchi-labelled games on the App Store at present.

Good news, then, for upcoming Asian operator Humble Gaming and its friendly EdiMon character.

In his neutral form, the little purple fella (or he could be a little lady) looks a bit like a Tellytubby with a wobbly antenna sticking out the top of its head.

The point is to play with EdiMon and cause it to evolve into new forms. This occurs via three mini-games, although as is becoming the way of the App Store, more are planned as updates.

For the time being, your options are weight-lifting, mediation and a guessing game.

The weight lifting is the most obvious. EdiMon stands in the centre of the screen, dumb bells in hand. Around him flash coloured circles, and you have to tap on two of the same colour before they vanish. Get into the groove and EdiMon starts working out. Mess up and he sticks out his tongue in a frustration.

Each of the mini-games comes in five difficulty levels, although in the case of weight-lifting none is particularly taxing. More significant is what's occurring behind the scenes.

You have to rack up high score after high score to build up EdiMon's strength. Every time you do badly his strength level declines. If you work hard enough, you'll get him to change into a muscular, blobby white version of himself.

It's frustrating that you don't get any feedback about your progression, however. It's all driven by invisible stats, but you are advised of how to get your EdiMon into his three forms.

These occur as you play the other two mini-games. The meditation one takes a bit of getting used to as you have to hold your iPhone or iPod touch horizontal and tilt in the opposite direction to which the mediating EdiMon starts leaning. To make your task harder, birds, flies and leaves fall towards him and you have to flick them away with your finger to keep him Zen-like.

The guessing game is the most fun of the bunch. It has EdiMon surrounded by various items such as fruit, plants, fast food and er... lipsticks (maybe he is a she after all?) while a distorted version of one of these appears in his thought bubble. You have to tap the right one before the time's up.

Depending on how successful and diligent you are in these various tasks, your EdiMon might evolve into the intelligent big-brained yellow version, while your final goal is the balanced squared-headed blue form.

It takes about an hour to get either to the white or yellow forms and the same again for the blue. You'll have to spread this over a much longer period, though, as the mini-games aren't really deep enough for you to want to attempt them in a single sitting.

Still, this being a Tamagotchi-type game, you do have to keep EdiMon clean as he'll start to attract flies if you don't. You maintain his hygiene by giving him a good rub down in the shower until he's all nice and shiny.

This emotional wellbeing provides another cosmetic element to the game as the backgrounds, which are typically beautiful Eastern-style art, can shift into angry red themes. EdiMon can take on a different mood, too, with our favourite being a sort of devil version.

We should point out this isn't a evolved form, but rather an angry version of which form you've currently got. (Although it did get us thinking that we would have liked the option to create a bad version of EdiMon.)

All in all, EdiMon is an interesting take on the Tamagotchi theme, even if it doesn't quite pin it down. More mini-games, more evolved forms or a less goal focused gameplay - indeed more of all three - would have been a great improvement.

Still, if the concept tweaks your fancy, there's a Lite version and a cut down version with the mini-games but not the evolution (somewhat confusingly labelled EdiMon+) available for your perusal.

Otherwise, we'll expect to see more of EdiMon in future. Even if his activities don't yet stretch our iPhone gaming muscles, he's definitely an endearing chap (or chapess).