Tomodachi Life

This article was copied (instead of imported) from the now-deleted Awesome Games Wiki.

Tomodachi Life
"All hail the Virtual Boy!"
Genre(s): Life simulation Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS Release Date: JP: April 18, 2013 NA/EU: June 6, 2014 AU: June 7, 2014 Developer(s): Nintendo SPD Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Predecessor: Tomodachi Collection Successor: Miitopia

Tomodachi Life is a life simulation game developed by Nintendo. It was released on April 18, 2013 in Japan, June 6, 2014 in the United States and United Kingdom, and the day after in Australia.

Gameplay

Tomodachi Life revolves around the player helping their Mii islanders and personal look-alike with various problems, making friends, stopping fights, confessing their love, and much more.

Why It's Our Friends, Our Drama, Our Life

1. The game works in a similar concept to The Sims, which you can create your own Miis and interact with them and watch them interact with each other so much that they can start dating, get married, have kids, break up/divorce, etc.
   • Though, unlike The Sims, it works in a different way where your Miis have problems, and you have to help them with those problems.
2. You're able to make your own QR codes for your Miis, which is helpful if you want to send/receive Miis from other players in the game.
3. You can level up Miis and give them rewards, like a gift, catchphrase, interior, clothes and hats (only if the islander reaches Level 20), or even a song to sing.
   • Speaking of which, you can create your own songs in the game and write your own lyrics.
4. Miis can have certain reactions to what you give them to eat, as they can hate it so much, they dramatically get down on the floor, or even turn gray and melt into the ground and end up biting themselves when they revive. They can also love it so much their face turns into the mouth-open, showing teeth happy face regardless of whether or not they have it, or even fly all the way up to space and make a robotic sound, which is presumably "Yum!".
5. You can get the Miis to say whatever you want, excluding profanity. (See BQ#3)
6. You can also get them to go on dates only if they're dating or married that can be in any location, and you can also give them gifts, which they will use them in specific locations.
7. You can give them awesome interiors, such as the sea, a soccer field, a "real" room, a prison cell which is great for your least favorite Mii islander, a fast food room, a cinema, the sky, etc.
8. You can also give them humorous clothes and hats, such as costumes including the hamster and hot dog.
9. The Miis sometimes say funny quotes, such as:
   • Don't stare! It makes me nervous!
   • Was I really dreaming?

Bad Qualities

1. In the Japanese version of the game, you can make kids and adults date, which is pedophilia. Thankfully, this was removed in the other versions.
   • Awhile not much of a big deal, you can't give your Miis different sexualities. For example, it's not possible to have homosexual relationships with the Miis nor make them transgender.
   • The lack of same-sex relationships in the game can be bypassed by making a female Mii with a masculine appearance and vice versa. However, pronouns won't match.
2. Whilst the NTSC example songs are okay, they're generally weaker compared to the PAL versions of the songs.
3. It's not possible to include profanity in the NTSC version. While it is in the PAL version, however, much more inappropriate swear words aren't allowed. While it can be justifiable as Tomodachi Life is supposed to be a children's game, it's kind of unfair since the game doesn't really involve online play aside from StreetPass.
   • Though, you can spell words that sound similar to swear words.
   • Also, in the NTSC version, you can't even use the word "screw", which isn't even a swear word! However, it can mean the same thing as the F-word, so it's somewhat understandable.
4. You can only have one island per save file, which can be quite annoying if you want to create multiple islands with different Miis in them.
5. Fighting: The mechanic in particular is extremely frustrating and annoying for players, since it happens almost every day when you play the game, forcing you to calm down your Mii and watch them apologize.
   • What's worse is that sometimes, the other Mii will refuse to forgive you Mii, causing them to get sad.
   • One thing that makes it even worse is that Miis can sometimes have massive fights which will make them so mad that neither will apologies, forcing you to visit another Mii who will try to fix the relationship between the two of them.
     • Though rarely, sometimes it won't work and they will never apologize and forgive each other.
6. It's not possible to change accents for your Miis, so if you're playing the PAL/NTSC version and you want them to have a British/Australian/American sounding Mii, you can't.
7. The babies can be a huge pain to care for, and their constant crying can be enough to get you on your last nerves real fast.

Reception

The game holds a rating of 71/100 on Metacritic and a 72.36% on GameRankings, indicating that the game got mixed or average reviews. It was given a score of 8.4 on IGN, calling it "a surprisingly funny and rewarding experience", whilst The New York Times calling it "comedic". It was given a rating of 7.5/10 on Polygon, praising its likeability despite certain aspects being repetitive. It got a rating of 4/5 stars on GamesRadar, praising its weird humor and relaxing gameplay, whilst its criticism was how the minigames were too simple. It has a score of 6.0 on GameTrailers, stating "the pervasive sense of quirkiness inTomodachi Life works, but can't sustain the entire game".

Controversy

Following the announcement regarding the game's release worldwide, it sparked controversy concerning how it's not possible to have same-sex relationships. There was a rumor in May 2013 that a bug in the original Japanese version of the game that enabled said relationships was patched by Nintendo. However, the rumor was refuted in April 2014 as Nintendo explained in a statement that same-sex relationships were never possible and a different issue was fixed. In reality, Tomodachi Life fans have been making their Mii islanders appear to be different genders, but it didn't change their pronouns. Angered by the lack of same-sex relationships, the fans started campaigns to add in the option.

Despite this, Nintendo stated it wouldn't be possible to add such relationships since they "never intended to make any form of social commentary to the game's launch" and the fact how it would require significant development alterations that would be unable to be released as a post-game patch. The company then apologized and stated that if they were to make a third game in the series, they would "strive to design a gameplay experience from the ground up that is more inclusive and better represents all players".

Comments

Loading comments...