Since it was announced last year, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream has been among my most anticipated games. The 3DS original is one of the most charming games I’ve ever played, not to mention one of the funniest. It was a brilliant usage of Nintendo’s Mii avatars, letting you house all your creations on an island to see how they interact with each other.
The original Tomodachi Life is far from a Sims-esque life sim, however. The Miis aren’t particularly reactive, mostly waiting on you, the player, to interact with them to learn about their thoughts, ambitions, or simply what they’re getting up to at that moment in time. Be they dreaming about being spied on by the player (via the 3DS’s camera, no less), or hosting a hilarious news broadcast, Tomodachi Life was rarely predictable and often gut-bustingly funny.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is that game’s long-awaited sequel, set to launch on the Nintendo Switch this year. We’re set to learn more about the game (finally) via a 20-minute Nintendo Direct happening on January 29. Nintendo is usually pretty great at packing a ton of information into short, succinct showcases like this. So on that note, here’s a list of features and improvements I’d love to see confirmed for the sequel.
A Nintendo Switch 2 Edition?
So far, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream has only been confirmed for the original Nintendo Switch. That means it will still be compatible with Nintendo Switch 2, but whether or not the game will receive a Switch 2 Edition – or specific enhancements for the new console – remains to be seen.
Now, sure, it’s not necessarily a candidate that’s screaming for an enhanced version. It’s going to be a fairly basic game in both the visual and performance departments, so a Switch 2 Edition isn’t exactly a requirement.
But I’d argue that was also true of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which recently received a low-cost Switch 2 Edition upgrade that arrived in tandem with its 3.0 update. The enhancement here offered crisper image quality, Joy-Con 2 mouse control support, and GameChat compatibility, among other improvements. Similar quality upgrades would be great to see for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream.
More proactive Miis
One of the bigger drawbacks of the original Tomodachi Life – perhaps due to the limitations of the 3DS – was that Miis weren’t particularly autonomous. You could occasionally find one chilling by a fountain, or nattering with a neighbor, but by and large, they were waiting for you to check in on them.
For Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, I love the idea (or at least the illusion) of Miis having a life outside of when the console is switched on. If I load the game up in the evening to see that Willem Dafoe has fallen down a manhole, or Hatsune Miku’s caused her kitchen to explode, I’d be delighted.
In the original, relationships between Miis also felt a bit sporadic. They needed your permission to hang out with one another or even start romantic relationships. I don’t mind this as an option if you’re looking to ensure certain Miis get along with one another. But I think it’d be great to let these relationships happen organically, without us needing to act as overseers.
Better Mii customization
The 3DS’s Tomodachi Life let you dress your Miis up in various items of clothing, but its actual Mii creation suite wasn’t too far removed from what you’d find on the 3DS app or indeed the Wii.
It was a far cry from what was available in Miitopia later, which let players get truly wild and creative with Mii making. In Tomodachi Life, you could just about make Duke Nukem or SpongeBob if you knew how to game the system, so to speak. But with Miitopia, even to this day, I’m seeing social media posts of folks making everything from Like a Dragon’s Goro Majima to Spirited Away’s No-Face.
The sheer breadth of customization options is what ultimately gave Miitopia such longevity, especially after it really took off with its Switch port in 2021. It’d be great if Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream continued to let players unleash their creativity again. Plus, an option to share creations online would be a fantastic way to populate one’s island.
Freakier dream sequences
Alright, this one isn’t for everyone. But my honest-to-goodness favorite thing about Tomodachi Life was its many, many dream sequences. Tapping on a sleeping Mii would give you a glimpse into their subconscious mind.
Some were hilarious, like a gathering of your island’s Miis enjoying high society and discussing the economy, or worshipping a giant bowl of minestrone. Some were a little weirder, including two Miis driving down a foggy road, chatting utter nonsense to one another.
They were always fun little skits, no matter what the game decided to show you. But in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, I’d definitely want the game to take some more literal cues from its subtitle.
Longer, more elaborate dream sequences would be such a treat to see. I’m not asking for horrific nightmares or anything like that; rather, stuff that really leans into Nintendo’s often off-kilter sense of humor. I’m sure dream sequences will be just as bizarre here, given the snippets of what we’ve seen so far in prior trailers, but it’d be wonderful to see Nintendo get extra weird with it.
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