Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

The game has a fantastic premise and offers legitimate moments of joy, but it feels like it could be so much more with additional content added to the mix. More hairstyles. More facial hair options. More conversation templates for our lingo to be slotted into. The ability to encourage a Mii to confess their love or propose, rather than just waiting for them to figure it out. More “toys” for them to play with. Just… more. As it stands, I don’t think Living the Dream will have as much longevity for me as something like Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Pokemon Pokopia (two other life simulation games on Nintendo Switch), but I’m still enjoying checking on my Miis multiple times per day, at least for now.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is an enjoyable simulator of managing society from the advantage of an overlord who can play with the characters as if they were dolls, but never fully control the unhinged nature of human interaction. The dialogue and events are full of silly whims and this funny mood gives form to its comfortable experience. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that much of what it offers depends on how much the player dedicates to it and the repetition may boggle it down.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the kind of strange Nintendo experiment that can even push fans of Japanese eccentricity out of their comfort zone, leaving them wondering what they’re actually playing. The creative tools offer plenty of freedom, and players looking to shape their own experience will likely spend most of their time there - only to end up with something they can barely share with anyone else. As a solo experience, it can be mildly entertaining, but only for the patient.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream offers a fun, creative and personal experience. Building your own little world and witnessing the absurd yet equally entertaining events your characters experience is truly a unique feeling. However, it is unacceptable for a game that is supposed to be so social to isolate its players to such an extent. Living the Dream generally succeeds in providing players with a fantastic playground, yet it barely allows you to share that space with others.

Tomodachi Life expects nothing more from us than that we peck at it like a small box of nuggets. It is the side dish you order at a fast-food joint when you still have a bit of a craving after the burger. Unfortunately, you realize far too late that the employee forgot to include said burger in the order (you know exactly what I’m talking about). You will, therefore, have to make do with this little appetizer. The additions introduced in the 3DS installment are welcome; the customization is fabulous, and the Mii editor stands as a classic in its own right. However, Tomodachi Life: A Dream Life is no masterpiece of the life-simulation genre. That said, it is probably the funniest entry in the genre. If you are looking for a title to sink hundreds of hours into, you might find the island to be rather deserted. But if you need to see your boss dressed in an egg costume every now and then just to take your mind off your overdue emails, then the experience is well worth checking out.

Tomodachi Life does offer a dreamlike life, but for now it will mainly appeal to those who enjoy meticulously customizing every detail of their characters and have someone nearby to share their creations with. The base package is hilarious, yet somewhat lacking, and it runs out of steam fairly quickly. As a result, it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone, although there are plenty of interesting possibilities should future updates expand the experience. Still, if cozy vibes and pure nonsense are your thing, the Mii will welcome you to their island with open arms. In their own peculiar way.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the strangest thing you’ll play from Nintendo, bringing with it laughs and creativity in abundance. But even with improvements over the 3DS game, it follows a familiar structure that isn’t always enthralling or hilarious. Tomodachi fans will certainly be living the dream with this new entry, but I’m not desperate to keep coming back to my island. A little more variety would’ve been welcome, but the customisation, and the thought of my cat being best friends with DMC’s Dante, will have me peep in every so often for a little pick-me-up.

t may fall short if you’re looking for a deep city builder or life sim, but as a piece of absurdist Dada comedy I absolutely love Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Every day I look forward to booting it up, making a Mii or two, seeing what unlikely friendships are forming, and watching ludicrous vignettes play out. I’ll boot up Stardew Valley or Pokopia if I’m looking for something mechanically deeper, but I know I can count on a good laugh whenever I check in on Kayfabe Island.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a deeply funny and equally personal civilization simulator fueled by your creativity, but ridiculous sharing restrictions put a dark cloud over its otherwise delightful paradise.

Everyone will approach Tomodachi Life differently, and that is what makes it such a unique experiment. However, if you don’t have the time or creativity to imagine and engineer unique dynamics between tens of Miis, Living the Dream’s removal of the social features cannot serve as a safety net as it did with the 3DS release. And sadly, outside of the daily dose of comedy, there isn’t much more to buoy this release.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is cosy and full of creative joy for anyone willing to take the time to build a Mii community with personality. I would argue that it requires a fair bit of imagination on your part as a player to get the full value out of the experience. By that, I don't just mean a desire to create visually, but also an overarching concept of who your characters are and what their relationships with the other residents should look like. Essentially, build your own story and see what happens. For me, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is primarily a great tool for creative thinking, whilst it's then up to us as players to decide what we want to create.

There are myriad ways to customize the Miis and shape their lives through a variety of humorous situations. However, the game moves at a very slow pace, which proves to be its biggest drawback, as players are often left simply waiting for something to happen.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream's gameplay isn't meaty enough, and it's disappointing that there are some features missing that were present in the 3DS version, like the Concert Hall. But the game is undeniably bursting with charm and is a decent distraction for a little while. Playing it in short bursts is the ideal experience, and while I don't feel the same kind of pull to never stop playing like I do with more well-rounded cozy games, I still plan on checking in on my Miis from time to time. $60 is too steep of an asking price for what's on offer, though.

This 15-minute daily sitcom is wonderfully charming and often makes you laugh. But like a swing that you have to occasionally push, it’s only fun as long as you’re willing to put something into it. Occasional repetition and Nintendo’s sharing restrictions are annoying.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream reveals a little too clearly that it offers a predetermined template into which Miis are simply slotted. It simply needs more variety and a more specific engagement with the characters. Nevertheless, the template itself still allows for the creation of a colorful world—one whose fate you will want to continue following.

Living the Dream is a social simulation experience in which you take on the role of a godlike figure to create Miis and guide them through their lives. Your imagination and patience will be key to defining how interesting it is in the long run.

As part of its gameplay loop, Living the Dream incorporates real-time elements, with shops refreshing daily. That does make you want to keep coming back to see what new items you’ll unlock. And checking in on the Miis is pretty entertaining at first, too. But as I mentioned, many of the requests and cutscenes start to repeat, which unfortunately made this game grow a bit stale for me far sooner than I would’ve liked. I enjoyed Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream very much for the first several hours I played it, but after the novelty wore off, I found myself wishing for a bit more.