Miis, Nintendo’s wonderfully weird customizable avatars, were introduced to the world in 2006 with the launch of the Wii. Made to be used so you can play as yourself in games like Wii Sports and Wii Play, Miis became such a global phenomenon that every Nintendo console since has come equipped with its own Mii creator, including 3DS, which spawned not one, but two spin-off series all about them. The turn-based RPG Miitopia (2017) was already remastered for Switch, and now, the cult-classic social sim Tomodachi Life (2014) is getting a full sequel for Switch and Switch 2. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream launches 16th April, but does the subtitle live up to its name, or is it better described as a nightmare? Allow Mii to explain.
Making a Mii now has a lot more customization options than you remember, and since many hours will be spent in the creation menu, a catchy tune, reminiscent of the classic Mii Channel theme, plays to keep your spirits high while you create. Although there are still some minor restrictions when it comes to the preset facial features, like not being able to adjust the size and shape of eyes individually, with the custom face paint feature, the only limit is your imagination. It takes a bit of getting used to navigating the menu with a controller, as there are enough drawing tools to classify face painting as its own piece of digital art software, so you might wanna invest in a Nintendo Switch stylus to take full advantage of the touchscreen. With a full color wheel, shapes, filters, stamps, and even text that can be placed anywhere on the face, not to mention the ability to literally draw pixel-by-pixel using the d-pad, it’s possible to make your Miis look like any friend, relative, celebrity, or fictional character your heart desires. Just keep in mind that if you draw your own eyes and/or mouth instead of using the preset ones, they won’t be able to properly emote, meaning no blinking or the appearance of talking, and Miis scarily sleeping with their eyes open.
Appearance is only the first step of the Mii creation process, as you’ll also pick their name, birthday, age, gender, and dating preferences, with Nintendo staying true to their promise of inclusivity by finally adding nonbinary and same-sex relationship options. Next, your Mii needs their very own voice, in which there are 10 preset types, or you can mess with the custom voice sliders, allowing you to change the speed, pitch, depth, tone, and delivery. In uncertain times where more media companies are starting to unfortunately embrace the use of generative AI, I’m very grateful Nintendo opted to continue using good ol’ fashioned text-to-speech voices for Miis, perfectly matching the uniquely silly personality and humor the series is known for.
Speaking of personality, just like people, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and all the Miis you create are given their own personality too. There are 16 possible personality types, determined by filling out a sliding scale of traits, including movement (slow/quick), speech (polite/honest), energy (flat/varied), thinking (serious/chill), and overall (normal/quirky). Based on your response for each, Miis will interact with each other differently, affecting their social life and potential relationships. The differences between personality types are not always obvious, as two Miis on the total opposite side of the spectrum are still able to get along under the right circumstances. While the exact variables are unknown, every detail about a Mii can be changed at any time, including their personality traits, allowing the player to experiment and edit their choices as they wish.
The gameplay mechanics of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream are introduced in a way as to not overwhelm the player, but without making you feel like you’re on a leash either. Tomodachi Life is different from most games, in the sense that it doesn’t have any real challenge or main objective, giving you the freedom to interact with your Miis how you want with what’s available until the next thing is unlocked. MiiNews (abbreviated as MNN just like us!) announces your island developments, with a random one of your Miis acting as the news anchor. At first, broadcasts alternate between giving you the ability to add another Mii, and a new type of shop being introduced to your island. However, it doesn’t take long until the chain is broken, as as soon after your 6th Mii is added, MiiNews is used for other developments and milestones (which we’ll leave for you to discover) and you can start making Miis whenever you want, but maybe not quite as many as you’d hope.
Up to 70 total Mii characters can live on your island at once, a pretty significant step down from the 3DS predecessor, which had a more generous limit of 100. Although slightly disappointing, the decreased maximum is still more than serviceable, as actually creating 70 Miis and managing all of their needs is more time consuming than you may think (I had already logged dozens of gameplay hours before reaching even half that amount). Still though, a future update to address this, perhaps as part of a theoretical Nintendo Switch 2 Edition that could also add a few other missing exclusive features like Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, would certainly be welcomed.
So what exactly do the Mii characters do after you create them? Live lives of their own; wandering the island, gathering and interacting with other Miis, socializing at the Tomoria restaurant, and reaching out to you with different coloured thought bubbles, indicating a genre of thought, when they want to ask you something specific. Each Mii comes equipped with their own personality report that shows their loves, likes, dislikes, loathes, and relationships, and it’s your job to increase their happiness level by discovering those things; feeding them, dressing them, giving them gifts, and introducing them to one another by picking one of them up with your cursor, Mii Channel style, and dragging them over to someone else to watch them interact. During their conversations, they’ll use custom lingo you’ve taught them, completely uncensored (which is likely the reason for the game having no online connectivity), filling in the sentence blanks in a similar manner to Mad Libs. This often results in comedic interactions and scenarios that could lead to acquaintances, friendships, roommates, relationships (between 18+ Miis), marriages, or even the birth of another Mii that combines the attributes of its parents (the possibility of babies can be disabled in the settings). How this goes can be unpredictable, but you can also pre-establish relationships between Miis during character creation, making them partners or related in some way (so that they won’t romance each other) from the get-go.
When a Mii is made happy by one of your gestures, you’re rewarded with two different types of currency: standard money and warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies are used at the Wishing Fountain, leveling up your island to unlock additional goods and “little quirks” for your Miis. When Miis are made happy enough, they’ll level up themselves, where you can then either choose to give them a special item to play with, adding it to their inventory and leading to new interactions, or you can give them a little quirk, helping them turn into their true selves by changing personality attributes, like the way they walk or the way they greet.
Money allows you to purchase a variety of stuff, including food from the Fresh Kingdom food mart and clothes from the Where & Wear shop (many clothing items are seemingly inspired by, or at the very least perfect for, many fictional characters from across media), both of which rotate their inventory daily in real time. However, once a food/clothing item is obtained once, more of the same can be bought infinitely going forward. Another way to spend your money is at T&C Reno home supply to decorate each one of your Miis homes, with room designs being sold as sets. There is a large variety of rooms available here, some of which with multiple color options, but if none of them are a good enough match for your Mii, custom wallpaper and flooring can be created from the Palette House workshop using the same robust creation menu used for face painting. Not only that, the entire exterior of a Miis home can also be created by painting onto a 3D shape template. The Palette House workshop is a very powerful tool, and once fully unlocked, allows you to create virtually anything, including food, clothing, treasures, and even pets for your Miis, as well as objects and landscaping for your island.
With a fully customizable island, your Miis aren’t the only thing that needs to be managed. As your Mii population grows and more buildings start to appear, opening up the Island Builder displays a grid view over your island with a centered cursor so you can freely position houses, custom objects, shops, and decoration items bought from the Quik Build amenities shop. With landscaping, you can also change the shape of your island, pave roads, form a river, and make various paths that lead to anywhere. Those willing to put in the creative brain power can truly make their island look exactly as they want, and it’s easy to lose track of time messing with the seemingly endless customization possibilities.
Occasionally, a Mii will ask you to play one of many possible minigames with them, such as Bowling, tasking you with rolling a bowling ball three times to knock over all the Miis positioned like pins, or Shadow Quiz, where a Mii will show you silhouetted items and you have to select between multiple choice options to guess what they are. If you win one of these minigames, you’ll be given a random treasure that can be gifted to another Mii as a belonging or sold at the Rite Price pawn shop for some extra cash. If you lose, you’ll be given a consolation prize of either toilet paper or a box of tissues, which can also be used in the same way as regular treasures, but are obviously not as valuable. Keep in mind that Miis only have 12 inventory slots for treasures and goods, and once you exceed that amount, you’ll have to choose an item to drop. Winning minigames is the main method of earning treasures (there are a lot to collect) but you can also get them by entering a Miis dream while they’re sleeping, showing weird, funny, and random dream-like scenarios that once over, result in a manifested item from said dream.
There is so much to discover in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream that it’s impossible to discuss everything the game has to offer, but it would be a disservice not to at least mention Foto-Tomo, a photo booth that allows you to take pictures with your Miis, choosing their facial expression and positioning them in front of either an image backdrop or a specific location on your island. Even though a photo mode is common with Nintendo games now, this one specifically makes me nostalgic for Miitomo, the discontinued mobile app that was inspired by this unique series.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream encourages imagination by giving you all the tools you need to create your own island, and its Mii citizens, at your own pace. Still managing to offer a sense of progression without any real objective, leveling up is done simply by experimenting with the many different ways of keeping your Miis happy; giving them food, items, clothes, and quirks and watching conversations between them unfold in humorously wacky scenarios using the unfiltered lingo you’ve taught them. Although you’ll end up having to skip many repeated interactions, and some of the personality differences between Miis can be subtle, the amount of customization is incredible for creative types who are looking to live out their most outlandish crossover dreams.
8/10
A copy of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream for review purposes was provided by Nintendo UK.