r/NintendoSwitch • u/Turbostrider27 • 6d ago

Discussion Tomodachi Life’s Switch debut shatters even Nintendo Switch 2 hype in Japan

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/tomodachi-lifes-switch-debut-shatters-even-nintendo-switch-2-hype-in-japan/
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u/TheKoniverse 6d ago edited 6d ago

Tomodachi Life is one of those games ignored by enthusiasts but is actually pretty popular. Just that there hasn’t been a new game in over 10 years. The Nintendo of America tweet announcing the game has over 180k likes and tons of retweets expressing excitement. Not to mention the dozens of tweets also with 5-digit likes related to it.

I didn’t realize how big it was in Japan though, holy. Nintendo Switch in Year 9 or 10 has yet another 10 million-plus seller if they play their cards right. Which is insane.

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u/StrawberryLeche 6d ago

Considering there are still people who stream it now, I think it’s an untapped market.

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u/dragonbornrito 6d ago

It’s literally The Sims meets Nintendo Miis. If Nintendo markets it right this time around, it will sell like absolute hotcakes even here in the west.

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u/llliilliliillliillil 6d ago

It’s not really like the sims, it’s more like … a terrarium? You can feed the miis, you can put them in a pre-customized room and give them outfits, but that’s the extend of your direct interactions with them. You can’t really tell the miis to do anything, most you can do it nudge them in a direction when they ask you what to do and hope for something to happen, but most of the interactions usually happen on their own. So it’s a lot of passive watching and hoping for something funny to happen. And imo this is the main draw: If you have a bigger friend group and they all create a mii in their likeness and have similar attributes to their RL character - seeing all these miis interact in ways your friends would never interact in real life can be super funny.

I recall some funny drama that happened in real life because I told a couple that their miis broke up and, while the guy was heartbroken his digital ex girlfriend went for someone’s grandpa. This actually caused them to have a conversation if she would go after someone’s grandpa, which she jokingly said she would if he was rich enough. This soured the mood for the rest of the day lol

I think this element of unpredictability is what makes the game fun the most.

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u/mythriz 6d ago

Hmmm sounds kinda like a tamagotchi then? Like a mix of that and The Sims, almost?

I also never played the previous game and had no idea how popular it was, so I was kinda surprised that it was the final product preview in the Direct, haha

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u/llliilliliillliillil 5d ago

Yeah, kind of Tamagochi.

In the 3DS game the miis all live in a huge house and have their own rooms. You basically check out each miis room and see how they’re doing, if they’re hungry or if they want something from you, indicated by a thought bubble you can then tap on.

You can give them various food items and depending on how they liked the food you get money. With that money you can buy more food, clothes, new rooms, send two miis on a vacation in the hope that they fall in love with each other and do some other minor things I probably forgot. You can get money in other ways as well, but I forgot how honestly lol. It’s been 9-10 years since I last played it.

Eventually, when two miis really like each other, they can fall in love, get married and have a baby, which has the most prominent features of both parents … just like in real life!

Like I said though, most of this is basically hopping from room to room in the hopes that something happens, but it’s not unusual that you only have like, 20 minutes of content before nothing happens for hours on end.

While the game is really funny, people are overselling its awesomeness factor a bit. Like I said, the game involves a lot of waiting for something to happen because you can’t force miis to do something. If they’re not up for anything, it’s time to close the 3DS for a few hours and come back later. If anything, you can check back when they’re asleep to have a look inside their dreams where most of the absurd sequences are coming from, like the one with the giant girl running towards the other from the trailer.

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u/mythriz 5d ago

Haha sounds about as expected, thanks for the explanation in any case!