Last month, Nintendo released the newest entry in the Tomodachi Life series, titled “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” and released for the Switch 1. I really enjoyed the 3DS version, it scratched my brain in the right ways, and I was eager to try the new one. That soon turned to some disappointment when I realised that Mii sharing was no longer possible on this entry, but I still decided to try it anyways, just to see what it’s like.
And despite that restriction, it’s hooked me. Even though there’s some stuff missing in the game from the 3DS I do feel like it was a definitive upgrade for the series.
Random equals funny
Let’s be real, Tomodachi Life has always been just RNG: The Video Game. But how the game presented this randomness is a core part of what made the game fun, and LTD does a good job keeping this factor alive. Though I do think the RNG is a bit flawed at times in comparison to the 3DS version, it still provides some very funny moments.
To help feed the RNG part of the game, you can either define lingo to your Miis when they ask you a question or they’re interested in another Mii, or give them treasure you receive from random events in the game or that you create yourself. I’ve had Miis make friends by ranting about desktop Linux, including towards Tux (the penguin mascot of Linux), and my Miis have talked a lecture full about how Windows 11 makes them want to get drunk. Another bonkers notable example is when I saw Evangelion Unit 01 randomly develop a crush on Lumo, the mascot of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest that became viral for being ugly. My Miis are having fan meetings about people from Birmingham.
If there is something to criticise here, it feels like the game does repeat a lot sometimes, particularly with the cutscenes. I don’t know if it’s because there are less of them in this game, or because the randomness now has rarity taken into account. Nonetheless, the core gameplay is still miles ahead of the 3DS version.
Freedom
Tomodachi Life: LTD is much opener in comparison to the original, which had a set map, with set locations, with set activities and mini-games, with all your Miis in hotel apartments. You cannot change this.
In LTD, your island is now built by hand, and your Miis now live in individual houses that can expand to something like a villa (with up to about 7 or 8 Miis per complex). Furthermore, you are able to create the treasures, foods, buildings, wallpapers, and flooring yourself with the Treasure Studio. This meant I was able to give my Miis boxed copies of Windows 11, a Eurovision trophy, a big broadsheet newspaper, and drugs. The freedom extends to what your Miis can say - a good amount of dialogue in the game is basically an extension of the Quirky Questions game from the 3DS version that let you fill in predetermined sentences with your own input (like Mad Libs), as well as the questions you might get from Miitomo, Nintendo’s defunct attempt at social media.
However, like Miitomo and unlike the 3DS entry, the game does not implement a banned-words filter, meaning you can not only draw whatever you want, but give it its proper name without worries of censorship. Basically, your Tomodachi Life Miis can finally say shit, fuck, cunt, whatever. I’ve taken advantage of this by having one of my Australian Miis call everyone a cunt. It seemed like Nintendo knew why people - particularly older audiences - love these games, and threw them a giant bone. With the randomness that’s a core part of hte game, it does result in some pretty wild hilarity. I tried to get a Mii I made of Hagar the Horrible (titular character of the newspaper comic) to get along by talking about invading Paris, based on an animated advert for Skol beer. As I played the game more, I found out my Miis were just casually talking about invading Paris. I unintentionall made an island of attempted colonisers (so, basically Britain), so I countered it by defining “conquering Britain” in the island lingo.
The trade-off for this freedom is a good chunk of Miis gone - the game’s Mii limit has been reduced from 100 in the 3DS version to 70. It’s understandable, given that the island is customisable and many Miis can be on the screen at one time, but I can also get the disappointment expressed around that limit as well. Hopefully, they’ll work on a Switch 2 upgrade that bumps the limits up.
Your Miis can finally be gay, ace and non-binary
In 2014, Nintendo garnered controversy for not allowing homosexual relationships in the 3DS version of Tomodachi Life. Nintendo did not patch the game to allow this, but they did promise that in the next Tomodachi Life game, same-sex relationships would be possible.
Well, as you probably saw if you were on Bluesky the day of the Tomodachi Life direct, they stayed true to their promise! Miis can now have customisable dating preferences - they can choose between male and female, and they’ve even gone the extra mile by adding an option for Miis to be, and/or date those who are, non-binary, and allowing Miis to be aromantic by choosing no genders at all. I don’t know how that sorta thing is going in Japanese society as a Brit, but the fact Nintendo even went the extra mile at all, especially in a time when anti-LGBTQ fascism is on the rise in America, is great - even for a big-name corporation like them. Without going too parasocial (we all know what Nintendo’s like, same for their fans…), it feels like Nintendo does genuinely care about their audience.
Of course, I had to take advantage of it and make it so my Mii is married to Legoshi. I am not sorry. I also had two friends who are partners in real life to date, but after one of them got jealous because the other was talking to a Hazbin Hotel character, they broke up (I blame VivziePop for this). I wouldn’t be as salty if it wasn’t for the fact the game seemed like it was trying hard to keep them apart - took me three weeks to get them together… Anyway, I’ve also had Tux the Linux penguin married to Bringus, of Bringus Studios fame. Legoshi was there to sing, of course.
Lack of Mii sharing isn’t that big a deal
One thing that Nintendo made clear was that Miis could no longer be shared. The base theory is that the Miis can be put in situations that wouldn’t jive well out of context, especially when Miis of real-life people is not only possible, but accepted by Nintendo who mentions celebrities as an example of a Mii you can create when you boot the game for the first time. tl;dr: loads of Obama Miis.
I can admit that yeah, I was disappointed with the lack of Mii sharing. I am absolutely not an artist and I also have major issues with perfectionism. But it quickly went away the moment I went, pushed myself and made a Mii of Legoshi from Beastars, using online references from other players, and my Nendoroid at one point. After that, I was like “holy shit, that’s my Legoshi. I drew that.” and since then I’ve added face-painted Miis for two of my friends, Husk and Vox - both from Hazbin Hotel, Wander from Wander Over Yonder, the Boss and Friend from Just Shapes and Beats, Mr. Energizer (old mascot for the battery brand), and Evangelion’s Unit 01.
Are they perfect? lol, no. But they’re mine and that is adding to the longevity of the game in my opinion. Even when using a reference, the fact you are making and drawing your own content for the game just adds to its charm. And for that reason, in my opinion Nintendo is doing what the anti-AI movement has been ultimately failing to do from their social media tactics. This movement functions on social media with aggression and harassing random people unaware of the ethical issues masquerading as activism, rather than directing that aggression to the companies that have made it. Even the encouragement to draw from those part of this movement feels backhanded and coming from spite and anger, rather than any actual genuine desire to make a new generation of human artists in the age of AI slop. The game, on the other hand, doesn’t judge you whatsoever. The lack of Mii sharing encourages hand-making of the Miis and treasures. It embraces imperfection. Admittedly, I do still struggle with perfectionism and even motivation - I have ADHD and depression, innit - but honestly, the moment I see my Evangelion Unit 01 Mii walking around, I’m there like “why the hell did I even worry in the first place?”. And yeah sure, those with a modded console or emulator may be able to directly transfer images to the game, but in my opinion this ruins the charm and might cause people to get bored of the game quicker.
To add to this, the game has tips not only on gameplay, but also about creating the Miis and items in the game. One tip was a direct response to perfectionism: if a Mii is not coming along like you’d hoped, try exaggerating some features. If I had to guess what Nintendo was thinking, it’s probably that people were easily forgetting that Miis are intended to be caricatures rather than one-to-one remakes.
Not all is perfect
I’ve been seeing some people take issues with decisions made for this game. I’ve already touched on the 70 Mii limit and sharing restrictions, however there are elements that are missing from the 3DS game.
Quirky Questions is completely gone, but at the same time I can dismiss this, since LTD is basically a giant Quirky Questions. One particular part of the game where in houses containing more than one Mii, a meeting will be called to see who is most like a certain (type of) person in your lingo - this is literally an automated Quirky Questions. A lot of people used the Concert Hall which basically let you fill your own lyrics into pre-made songs. I never personally got the appeal beyond seeing other people write their own lyrics, so I consider it dead weight and don’t really care that it’s missing here. I’m also not sure for that one fortunetelling feature of the game either - it was a neat curiosity but nothing more.
Personally, however, I would love to see the return of the Observation Tower as a building the Miis can enter and meet up in, and Judgement Bay which had you draw on the sand to determine what Miis prefer. I would also like the ability to sell everything else other than treasures - something they never did in the 3DS game either. It would allow for more risk-taking when building the island for example, and solves issues such as one person being stuck with 91 disposable diapers unless they wipe the game or create + delete 91 Miis (which’ll incur a fee each and every time), because their child thought it’d be funny.
Conclusion
The setbacks were not enough for me to not enjoy Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. I’ve enjoyed it, a lot. While some things did disappoint me, I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my money as a result of buying this game. I’ll admit did have some burnout that led to me not playing it as much - but I think the “pick up once in a while” approach is intentional on Nintendo’s part, rather than having people burn through it. Despite the missing features, it’s been very fun to not just see the weird shit that’s going on in my island, that I built myself, but also make the Miis and draw them. The restrictions helped me pace the game a bit more for me, rather than just rush into it.
Besides the lack of Judgement Bay and the observation tower, I don’t feel like I miss the 3DS version playing this - it does feel like a substantial upgrade to the 3DS version and taking good advantage of the leap in processing on the Switch 1.
Hopefully, as said before, a Switch 2 upgrade bumps up the Mii limit, but other than that, this is worth it if you loved the 3DS version.