About two years ago, I was sitting with my friend watching the Nintendo Direct for that day. For those who don’t know, a Nintendo Direct is a livestream that Nintendo does to announce new games and other updates that will be coming within the next months or years. I remember seeing each new game announcement happen, thinking to myself, “Will Nintendo ever make a new Tomodachi Life for the switch?” Both of us really wanted it to happen, but weren’t entirely sure if it would.
For the next year, Nintendo Directs came and went with no announcement of Tomodachi Life. I was starting to lose hope, thinking that there would never be another one. But, on March 27th, 2025, the announcement finally came! Nintendo would be making a new Tomodachi Life for both the Switch 1 and the Switch 2, with a ton of updates to how the game would be played!
Tomodachi Life is a silly game where you create Miis and they interact with each other in different ways. Sometimes the Miis hate each other, or they can fall in love and get married! In the original game, the Miis lived in an apartment building and would occasionally visit the beach, the restaurant, or the amusement park. Along with that, in the original game, the Miis were limited to falling in love with the opposite gender, and there were no non-binary options. Fans of the game speculate that this is the reason that Nintendo took as long as they did to make a new one, because they were hesitant to make gay or lesbian relationships an option.
But Nintendo delivered on that promise and then some! When the player customizes their Mii, they have the option to have their Mii’s dating preferences be male, female, and/or non-binary. They can also choose to make the Mii non-binary themselves, and give the Mii specific pronouns! Personally, I made everybody on my island pansexual because I thought it would be awesome to give every Mii the chance to fall in love with anyone.
Not only did the gender and love interest customization improve, but the game mechanics are so much better as well! In the original game, the player was somewhat limited to how long they could play and what exactly they could do with the Miis. Now, there is an open world that the Miis can walk around on and interact with. There are unique cutscenes, new games to play with the Miis, new housing options, an island customization option, and the player can even give the island its own unique lingo!
I am still in the early stages of playing the game, so I have yet to see the entirety of what is new , but so far, I am having so much fun making Miis and watching them interact! If I want Miis to become friends, I can make them interact and watch their friendship bloom. If anyone reading this is looking for a fun, low-stakes game to play, I highly recommend checking out Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. You won’t be able to put it down once you start!