Just shy of a year ago Niantic announced Peridot, a virtual pet style game that blended the augmented reality and social gaming aspects that they are known for with hits such as Pokemon Go. As I said at that time I always felt like smartphones were the perfect platform for virtual pet games, since just about everybody has a smartphone and they are almost always with us wherever we go. I love the idea of a virtual pet but I’m not going to be toting around a chunky keychain anytime soon, but I’ll definitely have my phone on me at all times, which means I’m more likely to actually care for a virtual pet. Surprisingly though there just hasn’t been that killer virtual pet app for smartphones in the 15-ish years they’ve been around. I’m not saying that Peridot will be that killer app, but I’m definitely willing to give it a shot. Here’s a brand new trailer.

The overall concept behind Peridot is that the titular creatures once inhabited our planet, but mysteriously went dormant for generations. They’ve recently reawakened and are now out to have a good time experiencing the greatly changed planet with their weird co-inhabitants the humans. As Niantic notes on the game’s blog, every Peridot is “100% genetically unique" and so while you’ll certainly be taking care of your own pets by feeding them, cleaning them, and keeping them happy, you’ll also be able to do some cross-breeding with other Peridot owners in order to create interesting and unique new offspring. As the blog post and above trailer also state, Peridot will be launching globally on May 9th, and you can currently pre-order on the iOS App Store or pre-register on the Google Play Store to earn yourself a special cosmetic party hat for your pet on launch. Free hat, people! You know what to do.