Virtual pets were all the rage in the ’90s, and it seemed like everyone had a little keychain-sized “pet" they’d carry around in their pockets and virtually care for. So it was no surprise when smartphones became all the rage around ten years ago and we all carried one of THOSE around in our pockets that virtual pets would find their way onto them in a modern fashion. What I’m saying is that there are A LOT of virtual pet games for smartphones, but how many games are there that let you play as a virtual person playing with a virtual pet? Zero! Or, I guess, one once Noa Noa! launches later this month. It has you playing as an employee of Noa Inc where your job is to hatch and raise digital pets called Noas. You literally play with virtual pets as a virtual person inside the game. It’s like Inception but for virtual pet games. Check out the trailer.

While finding and raising more than 30 virtual pets is the main draw of Noa Noa!, there’s also some weird stuff going on behind the scenes. Like, why does some big corporation need all of these virtual pets? What are they for? What nefarious plot are you unwittingly playing a huge part in? All this and more will be answered during the course of the game. While I’ve definitely played and enjoyed a number of virtual pet games on mobile over the years, there’s never really been one that I’ve stuck with for that long (except for you Godville (Free), 8 years and 6 months and counting) but Noa Noa! might actually have that certain something that’ll get me to stick around for a while. It’s being created by Tony Coculuzzi, who is the director of Wilder Games and was the lead developer of Cuphead and the lead programmer of Florence, and published by those rascals at Noodlecake Games. Noa Noa! is up for pre-order on the App Store right now and will be launching on February 14th for free.