The quirky Mii-simulation is almost here.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/preview/37540/living-it-up-in-tomodachi-life
Released over a year ago in Japan, Tomodachi Life is finally coming to the US and UK on June 6. This quirky simulation is part Sims, part Animal Crossing, and entirely absurd.
In Tomodachi Life, your Mii inhabits an island town, along with the Miis of your friends and family, and possibly even a few well-known Nintendo employees and celebrities. Similar to Animal Crossing, there aren’t necessarily explicit, over-arching goals. You simply try to keep the Miis on your island happy and satisfied. This can involve playing minigames, feeding them, and even buying clothes for them from the island’s various stores, which continue to expand as you play.
What makes this process unique are the Miis’ personalities. For the first time, those blank caricatures finally come to life with specific traits and characteristics. For your own Mii, you’ll develop a personality and a robotic voice with which he or she will speak and often sing. These different personalities impact how Miis interact as well as their overall dispositions. They also influence the Miis’ behavior both when you are around and when you aren’t playing the game. Unlike in Animal Crossing, even your own Mii will live independently when you aren’t playing. Every time you start Tomodachi Life, you can expect to find some new development with your island’s Miis.
The most entertaining—and now controversial—aspect of the Miis and their personalities is the building of relationships. Love will blossom, feuds will occur, and babies will even be born while playing Tomodachi Life. You might be fighting for the affection of a friend’s Mii one day, while the next sees that Mii dating your older brother instead. Like a soap opera starring all your Miis, Tomodachi Life is a hyper-exaggerated take on the relationship building found in games like The Sims.
Impressively, Nintendo has made a number of alterations to Tomodachi Life in its western localization. Personality types have been tinkered with to better reflect those of Americans and Europeans, food has been altered to match the local tastes, and there is even a new rap battle that wasn’t featured in the original Japanese release. That’s all on top of the complete translation of the copious original text, which has also been re-worked to better fit western culture while still being offbeat and humorous.
And humor really is the driving force behind Tomodachi Life. Watching the well-known Miis of your friends and family hula dance, soak in a bubble bath, perform rock concerts, and duel for the same love is as bizarre as it is hilarious. Though, peering into their dreams may provide the most absurdly funny moments. And, thanks to the in-game screenshot function, which allows you to tweet or post pictures to Facebook, sharing the unpredictable behavior of your Miis with their real-life counterparts is incredibly easy. With no real endgame, comparing the insane lives of your Miis with those of other friends who are playing Tomodachi Life may be the carrot that keeps you playing. And, thanks to the fact that each full copy of Tomodachi Life comes with two demo codes, it’s very easy to get your friends playing.
Tomodachi Life is an irreverent, unpredictable simulation of your Miis’ lives. Though we missed out on the DS original here in the west, the care put into Tomodachi Life suggests that Nintendo has faith in this quirky game excelling outside of Japan. You can look forward to our review closer to the game’s June 6 launch.
Topic: Living it Up in Tomodachi Life (Read 2471 times)
