4/5 ★ – Kathychan1's review of Tomodachi Life.

Tomodachi Life is a wonderfully bizarre and silly life sim that presents you with the chaos that ensues when your friends, humanized versions of the animatronics from FNAF, and Julius Caesar all live in the same apartment complex. Tomodachi Life is a game that flew under my radar for far too long, even though I was an avid fan of the Miis in my childhood. Like many other kids, I spent hours creating different Miis of my family and friends. I carried my Nintendo everywhere to meet as many people as possible and progress in the Mii Plaza fantasy quests. Yet somehow, I never played Tomodachi Life until now: only to find out I’ve been missing out on one of the best Mii video games! Tomodachi Life feels like the next logical step for the Mii universe, letting the characters you created live together on an island. You start by creating a Mii that represents yourself. You can customize their appearance, adjust their voice, choose their personality traits, and of course, give them a name. There are no limits set for your character creation: you can make your friends, family, historical figures, fictional characters, or even nightmare-fuel abominations, if you feel like using the Mii Creator in a more… creative way. After that, your Mii, and all the others you create later, will move into an apartment complex on your island. This is where most of your interaction with them will take place. Your Miis will frequently have requests that you, as the player, are supposed to fulfill. After all, you’re essentially the god of this world and the lookalike of the very first Mii, and your creations aren’t exactly independent. Problems and requests are shown through different icons: black scribbles indicate a basic need (like wanting food), an orange person icon signals a social task (like wanting to make friends), a green person icon indicating they want to play a game with you (for example quizzes or memory) and the most coveted by many players, the heart icon, signals a romantic action (such as asking someone out). Completing these tasks earns you money and increases your Mii’s happiness level. Reaching a new level rewards you with various items and features, making it worthwhile to level up your Miis. Besides the simple reward of seeing your creations happy and satisfied, of course. These interactions happen mostly through the touchscreen using the stylus. The controls feel mostly smooth, though they have some typical DS stylus jank, fortunately the gameplay is never too challenging to make the controls feel unbearable. The apartment isn’t the only place you can visit on your island. There are also shops where you can buy new clothes, food, or rooms for your Miis, as well as locations where they can hang out or participate in events. The highlight of the map, besides the apartment, is the News Tower, which broadcasts morning and evening news. These segments always involve your Miis and feature bizarre, silly occurrences that range from completely mundane to hilariously world-altering. This is a perfect example of where Tomodachi Life’s greatest strength lies: its off-the-wall humor. The game excels at throwing your Miis into absurd scenarios, sometimes with each other, sometimes involving randomly chosen food items or other mundane objects. Another great example of this weirdness is the infamous dreams your Miis can have, which are some of the most bizarre yet eerily accurate depictions of dreams I’ve ever seen in any media. This quirkiness expands to the life of your Miis as well. As you keep playing, your Miis’ lives will start to intertwine, they’ll form friendships, have fights, fall in love and even become parents. Only in Tomodachi Life will Angela Merkel and Satoru Gojo call you at 6 a.m. asking for help to calm their screaming child. Tomodachi Life, similar to Animal Crossing, is a game that rewards daily check-ins. It doesn’t require you to play for long stretches of time, after buying the daily new items, interacting with your Miis’ problems, and checking the news, you’re often done in about an hour. In my book, that’s a plus rather than a minus, as it keeps the interactions and humor punchy and fresh. As charming as this DS life sim is, you can definitely feel the age of Tomodachi Life nowadays. The limited customization options for hairstyles, facial features, and more really show their age. And the complete lack of LGBTQ+ relationships is a major omission, something I hope the next installment will expand upon. Some more personal (and arguably minor) issues include the clothing selection, which is obviously stuck in the 2000s: my personal fashion nightmare. If you play Tomodachi Life, prepare to stomach some “classics,” like shirts layered over long sleeves and an assault of flowery patterns. Another downside is the lack of variety in Mii interactions. Especially the games your Miis want to play grow repetitive pretty quickly, and the longer I played, the more I found myself skipping them. The game tries to mix things up by introducing new challenges, like the silhouette guessing game, where you try to identify two overlapping objects, which is at its best when all options are different plated foods and so all have the exact same silhouette. In the end, it’s the stories told through your Miis’ interactions and events that make your island and its inhabitants feel so endearing. The bizarre and quirky world they live and act in is what makes Tomodachi Life stand out as a life sim. But beware! If you play this game, before long, you’ll become one of those annoying people who can’t stop telling their friends about the crazy things their Miis did this week.