Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream review: "I've finally found the perfect reality TV simulator and my unhinged Miis are the stars"

Dracula is busy shouting at the sea, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is fighting with her roommate Lara Croft, and Frodo Baggins just confessed his feelings to Sonic the Hedgehog. This is a typical day on my island in Nintendo's Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, which, to my delight, is becoming more unhinged with every new highly customized Mii I create. That's the joy of Tomodachi Life, though. It's a wacky vehicle of creativity, where admittedly you don't do much. But, despite the lack of traditional goals, being a virtual overseer has its appeal and, in my case, I'm already hooked on all the drama unfolding in my highly curated, cartoony amalgamation of pop culture characters.

There really is no franchise like this Nintendo gem, as many fans of the last entry, Tomodachi Life for the 3DS, will tell you. The games are an odd life simulation that centers around Nintendo's customizable avatars known as "Miis". Players create new Miis (complete with their own delightfully weird robotic voices), play surreal mini-games with them, and assist them with any personal dramas they may be having with other Miis on the island. This unique feeling, but still barebones gameplay formula, is back in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, and to someone who hasn't experienced it before, it can seem like a hard sell. However, the best way I can explain its addictive appeal is by using reality TV as an example.

A new Love Island?

Loading up Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, you'll find yourself in the role of an omnipotent carer for a very underdeveloped island. The only real concrete goal is to level up your island via a new Wishing Fountain that stands proud in the Plaza of your new home. And in order to do that, you'll need Miis, and lots of them. Unlike the genre's other hits with games like The Sims, Tomodachi Life doesn't allow you to exert much control over your avatars at all.

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Once you make your Miis, they have a life of their own, and instead of having control of everything, the main thing you can do is offer them advice, give them hilarious conversation suggestions and nudge them in the right direction by forcing meet-cutes. You'll also be able to earn cash in order to gift them outfits, food, and other treasures that you can earn via mini-games, but even those things may not make them happy. There's a roulette feel to all your choices with your Miis, keeping you on your toes as you'll need to discover their preferences the more you interact with them.

You are both a TV producer and viewer here, and it's your job to cast who you want in your new little utopia, creating a variety of Miis that can have one of 16 different personality types based on your choices (via a Myers–Briggs Type personality system) – then watching them fight, fall in love, and cry over each other even without your interference. So far, I've seen a love square form, two surprise rejections, a scheme to break up a marriage, and two best friends fall secretly in love with each other.

It's like the OC and the Real Nintendo Housewives had a cartoony baby that swallowed a synthesizer. And like with every good reality TV show, I found myself treating each day like a new episode and kept coming back for more, to see storyline updates, and cause the occasional bout of chaos by creating new "bombshell" residents for my island to disrupt relationships. All this essentially captures what makes this game work so well – the fun unpredictability of your creations. Everything you do revolves around your unique Miis, and in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, Nintendo expertly makes sure you care about developing and making them all.

Creating the cast

I've made a fair few Miis in my day; however, the Mii maker in Living the Dream really does feel like the most intuitive and clean system we've had so far. Not only are there expanded base options like new hairstyles and eye reflections, but the face paint function lets you draw over features. The only thing stopping you is how patient you are drawing with a controller or your finger (I've never missed the 3DS stylus so much). And if you aren't fussed with the paint tool, there's still plenty you can do to replicate your favourite characters, create your own, or, if you're looking for true mania, even replicate a friend or family member.

It feels like a cleaner evolution of the creator in Miitopia, and so far I've managed to create Charlie Brown, Storm from X-Men, and Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time without any issues. Miis also continue to develop once you move them into a home on your island. Once they are settled in, just like in previous games, thought bubbles will appear over their heads, asking you for something. This could be feeding them, helping them make friends, or letting them cut loose with a mini-game. The more thought bubbles you solve, the more "warm fuzzies" you collect as your Miis level up, which in turn you can use to generate wishes at the Wishing Fountain, which will then unlock facilities, items, and more.

Leveling up your Miis will make watching them interact with each other and the island you design amazingly entertaining as you can gift them with "little quirks". Quirks are by far my favorite feature that has been added to the Tomodachi Life formula in Living the Dream and showcase the deep level of care and detail that's gone into this sequel. Every quirk I've used is integrated seamlessly into my Mii's everyday behaviour and is consistent. Along with their distinctive personality types, the island residents' quirks lists make them feel more alive and unique as they walk differently, talk differently, have their own hobbies, and favorite sayings.

Getting my Charlie Brown to start every sentence with "Good Grief" or making Hatsune Miku break dance in her spare time is giggle-inducing and genuinely promotes you to just follow your Miis in their spare time to see what they get up to. It makes for one of the most successful social simulators I've seen, and it's also easy to grow attached to your Miis thanks to all the extra work you put into developing them, something I definitely didn't really feel in the 3DS game, as my teenage self kicked out a ton of avatars from their apartment block, without blinking an eye.

However, this extra level of customization afforded by Living the Dream's Mii leveling up system also highlights an important aspect about this game in general that has its own pitfalls. In order to have a great time, you need to use your imagination and customize as much as you can. The game won't make your Miis stand out without your input, and if you refuse to use the creation tools to their full ability, you'll be left without much of anything to keep hold of you long-term.

Customization is king

There's no denying that at its heart, Tomodachi thrives the more you create. Aside from making Miis, your next most important job is designing your island. Once you level up your Wishing Fountain, a ton of features get unlocked, and close to all of them revolve around customization. Occasionally, interactive facilities will be available to place, but those are few and far between.

I'm personally torn about this pure focus on creating. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream beautifully integrates all your creations, with Miis interacting with what you place on your Island and what you've gifted them, and, though the enthusiasm of your lil virtual guys can sometimes feel a bit artificial, it's still nice to see your work being appreciated as Miis wander about. This blank-slate approach also resembles the creative freedom found in experiences like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is a go-to relaxing staple for Nintendo fans. However, its building functions are too barebones to make it truly stand out against the competition.

There are no inclines or landscaping you can generally do apart from making coastal areas and building roads. You can eventually create your own hangout spots with more items that you unlock. But, there's also a lack of variety in interactable objects for your Miis, so creating spaces that they can actually use is limited, and it can take a while to get to the good stuff. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream gives you tools to let your imagination run wild, but not enough to keep you from remembering the missing gameplay features from the 3DS game.

Like with any sequel, certain features will be missed, and in Tomodachi Life's case, that's some of the facilities and pre-made hangout spots for your Miis. While I'm not allowed to share many specific unlocks ahead of launch, so far (many, many hours into my game), the iconic concert hall hasn't made an appearance, and every marriage proposal I've seen doesn't let you pick a spot, but instead takes place in a bedroom. These are tiny issues in the grand scheme of things, but they are noticeable.

Unlocks are generally focused on items, creation, and more little quirks for your Miis. There are plenty to work through and even seasonal things to grab. It can be amazing fun working towards these at first, but less rewarding later on in your save once your island is built up, and instead, you'll be craving fewer customization options and hoping for more Mii-focused avenues to fill up your time.

Star potential

Luckily, the weird, surreal cutscenes that the series is known for are back, and there are some returning mini games as well as some fresh new ones that are genuinely a blast, especially the new game (a take on Space Invaders) you'll play every time a Mii wants to propose. But even mini-games can get repetitive, especially if you have over 30 Miis who all suddenly want to play with you.

Even as a Tomodachi Life veteran, I at times found myself wishing for more variety in mini-games and generally more things for my Miis to interact with. On one hand, that may feel greedy considering how Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream's Miis have never felt more alive or entertaining as they do here. I could spend hours filling up my island dictionary with strange topics and watch Miis chat and wander for hours. However, it's the little aspects that stop it from being a truly perfect sequel and instead just a great follow-up.

All in all, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is almost everything I could have dreamed of. The Miis are the thing that makes it alive, and if you are willing to put in the creative work, you can make the most entertaining reality TV show imaginable, complete with off-the-wall conversation topics that you suggest and some wild family trees forming as the days go on. Building is admittedly limited in the grand social simulator scheme of it all, but despite that, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is still intoxicating with all its fever dream potential and big personalities.

After more new Nintendo offerings? Check out our lists of all the upcoming Switch games and upcoming Switch 2 games still on the way.