Tomodachi Life Review: Cute, Casual, Chill

Or Chaotic and Crazy – It’s Up to You!

When I first saw the preview of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream I was immediately interested. I’d never played the older version of it before (originally a 3DS game) and I’m not generally into life sims but this…something in it appealed to me. And I’m so glad I listened to my instincts!

Tomodachi Life is a Nintendo exclusive game, which means if you don’t have a Switch you’re not going to be able to play it. Unless you figure out how to use an emulator of some sort but I’m not into that. I get confused with the emulators and give up. It’s priced high (it was $84.95 in Canada) so I was hesitant. I’ve bought some high ticket games in the past, played them for a little bit, and got bored. I’m still determined to get back to Fantasy Life i and give it another go after the money I put out for it.

But, this time, I was smart….

I’ve been playing mobile phone games through MistPlay and FreeCash. I had enough for a $50 card on MistPlay, so I cashed that out for a Nintendo eShop gift card. And on FreeCash, I had enough for a $25 PayPal payment in US funds. Between those two and a couple extra dollars I had in PayPal for doing small tasks with Web Club, I had more than enough to get the game. So, ya, I still paid for it but my mobile gaming funded this game. So thanks MistPlay and FreeCash!

Tomodochi Life is a Life Sim

First and foremost, Tomodochi Life is a basic life sim. You create your characters, and they run around doing their thing. You interact with them and there are things you can do to encourage certain behaviors.

For example, when a resident of your island (yes, you’re on an island but your island grows as you increase the amount of residents living there – as many as 70!) levels up you have the option of giving them a gift. At the beginning, there are only a few options but there are more as you level up your island. What you give them affects the things they do. If you give them a baseball, you’ll likely find them wandering around with a ball and glove, throwing it in the air. If you give them a laptop, you might find them sitting at a picnic table writing a story or browsing the internet. And if you give the a Ballet 101 DVD, you’ll find them in dance attire doing ballet in the park!

You can also give them quirks, eating habits, catchphrases, and things to yell at the sea (although I haven’t seen mine yelling at the sea yet). It makes for some interesting scenes.

Romance is Alive!

These residents (by the way, also called miis) are romantics at heart and you’re likely to find them falling all over each other. Unless they are related. You can specify if they are related to real people in your life and if they are related so they don’t start developing crushes on each other.

A lot of my residents have been based on real people so I was careful to set things up so it didn’t get weird.

Or so I thought.

I have my current partner in the game and my mom (Nana) and dad (Teddy) and even my ex-mother-in-law (Grandma Vie) (because she’s a cute little old mii). None of them are related. So, my current parter (JB) had a crush on Nana at first. Fortnately, you can discourage it (although I’ve heard that sometimes they ignore you) so I shut that down pretty fast. Then, right after I created Grandma Vie, she developed a crush on JB. Shut that down, too.

I also have my past husband (Linds) and an alter ego of myself (Autumn) on the island and of course, myself (Dani). That made things interesting.

Autumn developed a crush on Linds and JB had a crush on Autumn and Linds and JB are besties so, I thought I might have a throuple on my hands! After I created myself, my current partner switched his affections to me although the mii version of me is kinda dumb and hasn’t figured it out yet.

In fact, when Autumn was confessing her love to Linds on the ferris wheel, Dani popped up and tried to take Linds’ attention away by confessing her love (and that totally came out of nowhere). Dani forced Linds into a decision and he chose Autumn. Dani cried and Linds and Autumn are now a couple. I think JB will soon get Dani’s attention though.

I have a few other couples on the island. Nana and Teddy got together finally (in real life, he has passed away and they were divorced but they really did love each other and were best friends) and Jas (based on my real life daughter) and Pan (fictional) are now living together. I think they will be the first couple to get married and maybe have a baby. Nate and Kaili (my real life son and daughter-in-law are finally a couple and Caitlin (real life BFF of real life daughter) and Shawn (fiction) might be getting close to being a couple but maybe not because in their last interaction she followed him around making goo-goo eyes at him and he ran away.

Familial Relationships Revealed

In Tomodachi Life, if your miis are related in real life, they won’t know right away, even if you specify when you create them. They all live in their own houses at first and just make friends with each other.

But if the relationship grows and they become close enough friends, they might ask to live together. And if they are both on the same page, they’ll get to move in together in a bigger house. By the way, you can chose different decorations for the main shared room of th house, too. I didn’t realize that until recently.

Anyway, when two relatives move in together, they’ll realize they are related. Dani moved in with Kyra (my real life granddaughter) and now, not only do they live together but they “care for” each other. I love that.

Linds and Lolo (other real life granddaughter who is only 2) also live together. They never got to meet in real life because she was born after he passed away so I love that they get to be grandparent and grandchild in the game. Nate moved in with them so now they all live together, although I’m sure at some point Nate and Kaili will move in together and hopefully Lolo will move in with them and they can be an in-game family. And then Autumn and Linds can move in together and we can be together again.

Get Weird or Be Normal – Your Choice

I’ve seen some people create some really interesting characters in Tomodachi Life. Some people like to create characters from TV shows or books. Others create odd characters with monster-like vibes or just total weirdness, like a carrot head.

You can really do whatever you want.

I prefer to keep my miis pretty normal looking (although I do have a very granola looking chick based on Pippi Longstockings). And many of my miis are based on real life people. But I like to have some extra fictional characters around to keep things interesting.

Buildings on Tomodachi Life

I haven’t been playing Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream for a long time yet (maybe 5 or 6 days of playing?) so I’m not sure if there will be more buildings but so far I have:

• food store
• clothing store
• home decor store
• outdoor decor store
• pawn shop
• restaurant
• market
• photography studio
• ferris wheel

I think that is it. And resident homes, of course.

You can buy multiples of stores if you want but so far I haven’t seen a reason to.

And then there are the creative buildings and items you can make. Ya, you can totally make all sorts of stuff. Buildings, clothing, pets, and more.

I’m not super creative so I haven’t successfully created a lot yet. I’ve made little glowing owls and a tent and some clothing. But I’ve seen people make amazing things. And a lot of weird things.

Rating for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

For me, this game is a solid 8/10.

It keeps my attention. It’s fun and chill. It makes me laugh a lot.

Some people say it is not the kind of game you can play for hours on end but I’ve played it for 5 or 6 hours at a time and wished I could keep going.

I’ve streamed this game twice now and I’m likely going to stream it some more so check my socials for the next time I’m going to play.