I won’t pretend to understand you, the Engadget reader. It’s kind of silly to try to guess what will make your tender little hearts flutter. But I’m pretty sure a Tamagotchi on a guitar pedal is right up your alley. Ground Control Audio showed up NAMM 2024 with UwU virtual pet buffer pedal.
Now buffer pedals are the least exciting piece of gear you can buy for your pedal board. Probably less than a tuner. However, a buffer can dramatically improve your tone, especially if you have a large board or long cables. Basically all it does is take the incoming signal and give it a bit of a boost so you don’t lose precious high end to soak up the tone. Like I said, not exciting.
What UwU does is no different, only it has a Tamagotchi-style virtual pet and a few mini-games. As you play, your new pedalboard friend dances and earns experience points. As the little cat-like creature gains experience, it evolves through more than 30 levels with unique animations. As for what will happen after he crosses the 30-level threshold, the company has yet to decide. But there’s still time to decide, as the pedal won’t start shipping until March.
If just having a new little virtual friend on your board isn’t enough whimsy for you, UwU also has three mini-games. There’s Long Cat (a snake clone), Fishy Blox (vaguely Tetris-like), and Neko Invader. . The tiny monochrome OLED and tiny buttons aren’t exactly ideal for gaming (and no bending over a pedalboard, I might add), but it’s inspired by old-school mobile gaming.
If you’re sitting there wondering, “why?” Well, first of all, why not? Second, obviously to keep you playing. Finding the time and drive to play or practice guitar can be difficult. It’s a demanding work day, especially if you’re a teenager juggling extracurriculars or a busy dad of two like me. UwU gives you more reasons to play than you just need to know. Taking a few minutes to play each day will keep your cute little UwU happy and healthy. Frankly, if I had owned one of these when I was younger and stubbornly believed I didn’t need to know music theory or technique, I might have been a more accomplished guitarist.
Of course it wouldn’t matter if UwU was a bad buffer. But it has 18v headroom and doesn’t color your tone at all. It’s even very small, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a place for it even on the most crowded pedalboards.
The UwU virtual pet buffer is now available for pre-order directly from Ground Control Audio 139 dollars.
