As a grown-up, it’s hard to commit to a game like Tomodachi Life. Nintendo’s latest life-sim game for the 3DS is a hands-off, no-action experience that asks players to pop in and out of the game briefly and frequently. It hinges on weird skits and childish writing, and it wrests a lot of control away from players who might expect to sink time into exploration and tinkering with a slew of virtual characters.
Games like this can do quite well, of course. But Tomodachi Life's best qualities—quick-burst play, cutesy situations, touchscreen controls, camera integration, social-media tie-ins—are the stuff you’d be more likely to find in a cheap smartphone game, one that you can pull out of your pocket randomly to enjoy for a few minutes before getting on with your day.
Nintendo spent a ton of effort translating this odd game for an international audience—and thereby bucking our collective annoyance at the company’s case of sequelitis—which makes this title a welcome breath of fresh 3DS air (and an easy recommendation for tweens). But in spite of a slew of scripted content and an evident helping of Nintendo quality control, this game is not worth both the price and the requirement of lugging a 3DS around.
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Window dressing
Tomodachi Life drops players onto a sunny, tropical island (if you’re keeping score, Nintendo historians, this isn’t Wuhu Island from various Wii and 3DS games) that, for whatever reason, contains only one apartment complex, and an empty one at that. You’re asked to fill the first unit with your personal virtual likeness, either taken from your 3DS’ primary “Mii” character or created on the spot.
After fake-you moves into a small room, you can add up to 99 more occupants, and you’ll want to add at least ten Miis to unlock many of the island’s attractions. Once you’ve filled enough vacancies, the dollhouse comes to life, and your denizens will begin nagging you for food, clothes, entertainment, and more. You’ll accumulate cash and rare items by catering to their every whim, forming the game’s basic feedback loop: Resident wants something; you buy said item at a shop on the island (if you don’t have it already); resident responds by gaining “happiness” points (which unlock certain items) and giving you in-game cash.
That means you’ll spend most of the game glancing at the apartment’s windows, which give hints about which residents are in need of something, then tapping and assisting. Pretty quickly, their needs go beyond material items. Sometimes, they’ll invite you to play dinky mini-games: you can play a matching card game, tap the screen like mad to knock an opponent’s toy over, play a simplified JRPG, or guess what a super-zoomed photo is displaying. Other times, residents will seek your advice and start prodding you about becoming friends—or more than friends.
The rest of the island is made up of quirky moments that your Miis are inserted into, as if Nintendo wrote up a kid-friendly sketch comedy show while dropping acid. Instead of jokes and punchlines, your characters get into awkward situations, like PG-rated rap battles, Twin Peaks-style dream sequences, or standing around a barbecue and commenting frequently about the meat (all while speaking with synthesized voices that actually handle a giant range of English words quite well).
There’s a certain age range that this content seems written for, and we at Ars feel squarely aged out of it. More importantly, these zany activities rarely dole out cash or points; if you go to the beach or the lookout point and hang out with a Mii there, he or she won’t react giddily like a virtual pet. You’re just hanging out with Nintendo’s so-so writing at that point.
Exploiting your friends
Comparisons to Nintendo’s Animal Crossing series—another cutesy, written-for-kids life-sim with little in the way of endgame—crumble pretty quickly upon closer examination. Tomodachi relies almost entirely on the touchscreen for control, and you don’t control characters directly. In fact, you rarely get to customize or rearrange anything in the apartments or on the island, and there’s nothing in the way of Animal Crossing-esque discovery or exploration. Tap to warp to different spots on the island, then talk, shop, watch, and repeat.
You might expect to export your 3DS online friend list or Miiverse roster to fill out the apartment building, but for whatever reason, Tomodachi doesn’t support such automation. If you want to export characters online, you’ll have to create a QR code within the game, then send that code to your friends. Otherwise, you’ll have to meet your friends in person to wirelessly transfer your Miis, so unless you already have Miis loaded in your 3DS’ Mii Maker, you’ll have to build island residents from scratch.
The way the game plays, you’ll want to go to the trouble of making personalized residents. I used that QR code functionality to import a random person online, and I had a lot less patience for his neediness and requests than I did for people who resembled celebrities or my friends. In real life, I’d hang out with friends while tapping away in a brief session and mention whatever weird activities “they” had been up to, and we’d laugh while I held the 3DS up.
Oh, and we used the Y and X buttons to capture screenshots. That’s probably the coolest part of Tomodachi, by the way: the ability to take screenshots at any time and then upload them through Nintendo’s admittedly clunky social media sharing service. One friend rode another friend as a horse in a dream sequence—saved and sent. Same when actress Kristen Bell turned my good friend down for a date, or when my friends were backup dancers for my singing performance at a giant music hall.
Ars has recently reported on Nintendo’s choice not to support same-sex romance in the game, along with the company’s official response—namely, that such a thing would be too difficult to patch into the game at this point. While such a change does seem pretty steep to pull off with final, retail code, after playing the game for a while, I’m shocked that Nintendo never considered the issue during the design process.
Send A Traveler Tomodachi Life Free
The game wants so badly for players to empathize with the apartment’s residents, particularly in crafting their personalities (quirky, reserved, polite, etc.) during character creation, and it also makes sure to accelerate the romance process when a new character is marked as a “spouse” in relation to the game’s “primary” Mii. Tomodachi Life also awards happiness points for relationships, marriages, and having children, and it smothers characters in unhappy rain clouds when their strides fail.
In short, this isn’t optional, easy-to-ignore content. If you’re gay, Tomodachi will reinforce feelings of exclusion regularly. And if you find that criticism irrelevant, consider how much of the game hinges on you investing personally into its content. When bizarre dreams happen, or Miis gather for a Frisbee match, or residents rip into karaoke songs, you don’t accrue money or points or any other “useful” stuff. Instead, you attach those moments to the real people the Miis have been modeled on.
Tomodachi is most successful, most amusing, and most striking when it exploits your friendships and relationships—when you feel compelled to capture and share a screenshot of your brother and your childhood friend throwing trash at each other while fighting over a teddy bear. It would be a brilliant social smartphone game to pull up in incredibly brief, few-times-a-day sessions, a feeling reinforced by the fact that the game uses no traditional buttons.
It would also be an easy port, at least on a technical level, but Nintendo will need to overcome its aversion to smartphones before Tomodachi Life reaches its ideal platform.
The good
- Goofy situations tend to be hilarious when real-life friends are involved
- Screenshot tool works wonderfully with social media sharing options
The bad
- Tween-targeted writing makes many of the skits and situations not stand up on their own
- Wimpy mini-game selection
- No opportunities for exploration on tiny island
The ugly
Tomodachi Life How To Send A Traveler To Camp
- Neither of the 3DS' friend-list options work for importing friends
Verdict: Try it if you're a tween (or a tween-at-heart). Otherwise, avoid it.
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- When a couple breaks up, one can trigger the flashback of the wonderful times one of the Miis had with their sweetheart, with heartwrenching music in the background, ending with the Mii sitting on the beach, staring into the sunset alone. There can also be extended versions of the breakup memories, if the Mii's sweetheart gets stolen by another Mii. One starts off with the couple splashing each other on the beach, to the couple playing tennis together, to the Mii telling a joke no one was listening to, to the Mii playing tennis alone, and finally giving up, then sitting on the beach alone.
- It's possible for a Mii who already has a sweetheart to accept going out with another Mii, leaving their former sweetheart completely despondent. This even produces the same flashbacks as when Miis break up due to other circumstances. To make matters worse, this eerie song plays in the apartment of the one who initiates the breakup or the one who was cheated on.
- Occasionally, if you give a Mii a disposable camera and ask them to take an islander's photo, they will shoot a photo of two sweethearts sitting near the window in the Café◊. The ex of one of the sweethearts will look in from outside the window, looking absolutely miserable.
- Sometimes, a Mii who went through a divorce might want to rekindle their relationship, and get back together. This is especially painful if their former partner is in another relationship.
- When a couple's child grows up, you're given the option to have them live on the island or send them out to explore the world. If you choose the latter, they will never become a permanent resident of the island. They will only return to the island for short visits before leaving again. This can make viewing the child's baby album during the credits all the more poignant.
- It is possible for a traveler Mii to get StreetPassed to another player's 3DS, only for the traveler to never migrate again, much less back to your island, for any number of reasons (e.g., traveling to an island whose owner then deletes their save data, turns off StreetPass (which deletes any present Travelers), allows a traveler to be overwritten by another traveler in the queue line before the port (since there's no limit to the amount of Miis you can receive from others, which caps at 50 (10 on the port itself and 40 in a queue line), or loses the SD Card containing their Tomodachi Life StreetPass data). One post on GameFAQsput it this way:note It's me.... I'm alone.... I don't know what happened. I was so happy with you guys and I know you couldn't keep me around forever... I don't know where I am.... There's nothing around me.... I'm so cold..... hungry.... I don't know if I'll make it... But before I go, I want you to know that I love you and I don't blame you for letting me go.... Mom.... Dad... I hope we'll meet again one day....
- Even the music is sad when a traveler comes to stay in your campground normally and makes you choked up.
- Telling a Mii who confesses to you that they have feelings for another Mii to not pursue a relationship. Once this happens, a sad rainy cloud will loom over their head, complete with sad music. If you tap on their thought bubble, they will say this:'I guess I'm just not good enough...'
- When a Mii apologizes to a Mii that they had a fight with, and the apology fails. And yes, this can result in friendships getting broken unless they change their mind at the last second:Mii A: 'I'm sorry about what happened.'
[Beat]
Mii B: 'I'm still not over it.'
[Sad violin fanfare] - When there's an aggressive fight between two Miis, and a third fails to help them make up. This is especially the case if they're dating or married, as at this point, a break up/divorce is imminent. The Mii who intervened will look on very disappointed that their plan failed. This is also the case the third Mii was the best friend of one of the fighters, and is upset that they will never make up with the opposite Mii who is now no longer a friend.
- When one party of a fighting couple wants to make up, but fails. Horrifying bells are heard as they hang their head in shame, not to mention the more affected partner being shrouded in the standard Sadness cloud along with watching the Sweetheart/Spouse bubble empty itself. Both Miis will show up in each other's Relationships page as 'Ex-Sweetheart/Spouse', to remind you that they aren't going to be getting back any time soon. And the music that plays after a divorce...
- What makes this sadder is the fact no other Miis, even the children of the Miis wanting to divorce, will step in to give advice, or at least encourage them to give another chance.
- The game does not want you to erase your data. The Mii that serves as your look-alike will appear on the top screen, running in slo-mo as if to stop you. They have dialogue for each of the times you say yes. This further emphasized by inputting the name of your island in order to finally complete the process:2. Are you sure about this?4. Nooo! Why? I hope we can meet again someday!note / You may have deleted everything, but we still had lots of nice memories!note
- A Mii's desperate cries of 'I need to eat something! ANYTHING!' can trigger this feeling for those are afraid of starvation, or just worried that they're neglecting that Mii.
- When a Mii gets rejected:[with an echo effect] 'I'm sorry...'
- When a Mii's crush doesn't even bother to show up to meet them.note
- Whenever a Mii that wants to play a game with you has a frown on their face. Any other similar instance is more heartwarming, especially if the Mii that wants to play is smiling.
- A pity party can be thrown at the Café for a Mii who's depressed over a rejection or break-up and has several friends remaining. The three friends will make awkward small talk in an attempt to cheer the sad Mii up, but in between each conversation, they all look over at the despondent Mii, who is completely silent and does nothing but stare sadly at their food. The cycle continues endlessly with them trying and failing to lighten the mood.
- Seeing a confessing Mii lose to a love rival really hurts. Sure you can deny the crush a relationship from the rival, but seeing the confessor run away defeated really stings.
- It is possible to receive a traveler from an island that has been deleted.
- In the European version at least, one of the default things your Mii can tell you is 'Why bother having dreams if they're not gonna come true?'. No, they don't say it when they just were broken up with, failed to make up, etc.; they only say this with their default face. The Dissonant Serenity (unless they are a Perpetual Frowner) makes this worse and can imply certain things about the Mii's past before moving to the island.
- A slow, sadder orchestral version of the 'in love' music is heard when you visit a Mii who is missing their former lover.
- Failing at proposals. Represented by three hearts between the Miis, every miss equals one heart loss; losing all three hearts will cause the sweetheart to leave, and the proposing Mii will reluctantly agree. This gets even worse if this happens at the train station, where sometimes the failure will result in the sweetheart leaving on the train, as the Mii waves while looking very disappointed.
- Occasionally, a Mii may ask you if another Mii likes them. If you tell them to go for it and their feelings aren't reciprocated, the Mii will say this:Mii:It's not like I even like [them] that much anyway...
- If a Mii's feelings for their crush isn't reciprocated, the Mii may attempt to confess their feelings again. There's a chance the crush will still not accept their feelings, either saying they're not interested, they will send a friend to tell the Mii that they're not interested, or they won't show up to meet the Mii at all. If this happens, the Mii will become even sadder than before:
- Miis that have their relationships not working can be given the choice to move on. When doing so, they politely tell their partner they should go back to being just friends,note and the partner will be completely heartbroken and hangs its head as the Mii walks out.
- Most dreams are weird or humorous, but occasionally a Mii will dream that they are in their apartment, saying they haven't seen you in 50 years, their hair grey from age. It's an unexpectedly sad dream.
- If a married couple breaks up after they have had children, it's pretty sad to watch the family albums of the divorced couples, especially after you've sent their kid off traveling.