Most millennial's will remember the Tamagotchi, the needy virtual pet made of bits and bytes enclosed in a plastic shell. Mostly it nagged owners every hour or so about being hungry, nevertheless, the toy was a hit – but it didn't do much for anyone other than a lot of incessantly loud beeping.
However now there's Wokamon - a fitness-encouraging pedometer app that melds the idea behind virtual pets with something that actually aims to get the user moving. Made by Noodum, Wokamon offers a range of bizarre virtual creatures that need your care but can only be fed by syncing up to fitness wearables like Jawbone's UP or Fitbit and achieving certain goals.
A boon for both exercise newbies and lazy sadists, your Wokomon will first get depressed, and then die, if you're not fit enough to keep it sustained. Although the app generally keeps things light, it's also a fairly unique approach to gamifying exercise, a trend that's been embodied by games like the Walk, where a story can only be unlocked by keeping active.