Item: Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
Rating: 9
Author: Sam

Man… Tomodachi Life is Nintendo’s weirdest franchise, but there’s something about it that I just find so absorbing. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is essentially a sandbox of pure, unfiltered nonsense, and I mean that in the best way possible. If you were worried that this long-awaited sequel would lose the bizarre charm of the original, you can breathe a sigh of relief, because this is an experience that thrives on absurdity, casting you as the caretaker of a completely unpredictable but thoroughly entertaining island community.

Check out some screenshots down below:

The core of the experience remains beautifully simple: you populate a barren island with up to 70 Miis, with these residents able to be anyone you like. You can fill your town with your best friends, family members, famous historical figures, pop stars, video game characters, sports stars, or just completely made-up monstrosities… the world is your oyster (and you can look on Reddit if you want to find some cool ideas). It’s worth noting that the customisation has seen a massive and very welcome upgrade when compared to previous entries too, giving players way more freedom to design weird and wonderful characters.

Even better, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream has finally modernised the social dynamics. The game is wonderfully inclusive, allowing you to create non-binary characters and completely customise their romantic preferences, whilst you can also assign real-life relationship tags to your Miis, which is a massive relief… especially for those who’re putting real-life family members into the game. It is a smart and thoughtful addition that makes building your island a much more relaxed experience, all whilst giving players that extra degree of customisability to really make their island and its residents feel like their own.

But it isn’t just the people you get to customise. The new Island Editor is incredibly intuitive, letting you terraform the land, lay down paths, and shift buildings around with a level of precision that gives players so much freedom. On top of that, there is an absurdly deep creation suite where you can design up to 900 custom items – whether you want to draw bespoke outfits, interior design elements, or re-create real-life fast food (something which I saw on social media this weekend), the tools are right there waiting for you. As someone who spent hours customising textures in Animal Crossing, it’s a brilliant addition that really allows players to bring their own little flavour to the world.

“Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream provides a wonderfully goofy foundation, but what you get out of it depends entirely on how much creativity you pour into it.”

So, if you’ve never played a Tomodachi Life game before, you’re probably wondering… what do you actually do with all this? Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is very much a passive, slow-burn experience, and not something you will sit and play for six hours straight, but instead, something you drop into a couple of times a day to see what your residents are up to. You look out for different coloured bubbles above their heads, which let you know if they need a specific type of food, relationship advice, or medical attention, whilst sometimes, they just want to drag you into weird little minigames.

Taking care of these needs boosts their happiness and earns you ‘warm fuzzies’ – toss these magical orbs into the island’s Wishing Fountain, and you will level up your settlement, unlocking new facilities, items (called Prezzies), and personality quirks to assign to your Miis. It is a satisfying, low-pressure gameplay loop that simply rewards you for hanging out and being a benevolent island deity, with Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream allowing players to put as much investment into the experience as they want to.

What keeps the daily routine feeling fresh, at least for a good while, is the sheer unpredictability of the island’s events. Every day brings a new broadcast from the Mii News Station, giving you and your residents something fresh to deal with that typically veers into the absurd. Furthermore, you can actively influence the madness through social engineering, and by typing in custom responses, you essentially create gossip that will spread across the island. Plus, the overall gameplay is incredibly forgiving: if life gets busy and you don’t check in for a few days, your islanders won’t pack up and leave, but instead wait for your return patiently. It’s low stakes, but with the world itself so endearing, it’s hard to stay away for too long.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Where the game truly shines is in its absurdity. The robotic, slightly janky text-to-speech voices return, and they are as funny as ever – especially when you start introducing wacky topics for them to talk about. And for your inner, immature child? You can teach your residents custom catchphrases, and because the game’s censorship is shockingly relaxed this time around, you can have your residents swearing like sailors if that happens to be your kind of humour. It can be absolutely ridiculous, but in all the right ways, and believe me, it never grows old… or maybe I just need to grow up?

The game isn’t entirely flawless, though. Because it relies so heavily on random interactions, repetition does eventually rear its head, and you will inevitably start seeing some of the same actions and gameplay mechanics pop up. And, because the daily tasks are quite light, you will quickly find yourself running out of things to do once everyone is fed and happy, forcing you to put the console down until later. Admittedly, I see this as one of the game’s strengths, but for those who’re looking for something to buy that they can really stick some non-stop hours into, it might not offer enough – if you’re not looking for a long-term, drop-in experience, at least. It’s the perfect example of a game that simply won’t be for everyone, but for those it DOES appeal to… well… they’ll love it.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Review

9/10

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream provides a wonderfully goofy foundation, but what you get out of it depends entirely on how much creativity you pour into it. If you take the time to build a diverse cast of characters, design custom gear, and lean into the sheer nonsense of it all, you will be rewarded with one of the funniest, most charming games of the year. And sure, the novelty might fade a bit as time goes on and it won’t be for everyone, but so far for me? It’s been an absolute joy.