The Reputation the Nintendo corporation has had over the past few years has been really rocky, with them releasing a few good titles while being greedier than ever. But on Apr 16, 2026, Nintendo revisited one of their wackiest titles with a full on sequel, bringing Nintendo far more in the limelight than they have been in awhile; Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is described as a social simulation game where you get to have any character/person/whatever you want a new life on an island of your creation. Me and my sister split up our money to bought the game for the shockingly cheap price (for Nintendo’s standard 80$-90$) of 60$. We bought it a week ago from when I am writing this and so far, I haven’t had more fun playing an AAA game since Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Tomodachi Life’s premise sounds simple and overdone, but I can’t think of any game that truly feels and exiperences like it; A good way to put the fun out of the game is how you are “experiencing” rather than “playing” the game. The game has two focuses, setting up/interacting your residents and town, and watching all the pieces of the puzzle you made come together in multiple wacky scenes sprinkled throughout your time playing the game.
You create a Mii, give them personality traits, a silly voice, and blamo! A new resident in your town! They can be your brother, your sister, your mother, your best friend, Shrek, or even Jack Black! The Mii Maker in this game is fantastic, you can recreate anyones face in under 5 minutes, even without the overtly customizable makeup tool! Unlike the first two games in the Tomodachi Life series, You have the option to let the game know who are related and who are partners. It’s also a first in the series to include LGBTQ+ options by letting you pick Nonbinary in the gender select, and whole menus dedicated to both sexual orientation and pronouns.
This games customization is the opposite of limiting, sure it can be limited but it’s creation tools don’t feel too restricted. The game lets you make food, objects, lingo, scenery and more for your island and residents, It’s shocking how encouraging a simulation game is for creation when it’s not even the main point of the game. I added my cats in and made them cat food to eat, all after the residents are obsessing the cats as celebrities because the game let me give the island lingo. It’s really funny and charming, and just generally human to see wacky verisons of friends and family interact with each other and have conversations about anything you want. This game also doesn’t censor anything, it truly doesn’t try to stop you.
After I made my grandfather, I made him a siamese cat that looked like cat he had for years before passing away two years ago. When I found out I could change the exterior of my residents houses, the first thing I did was turn the house for the Mii verison of me into a door, thats just there… I love it. This game rocks and It really does feel worth the price.
