Tomodachi Life has been released in the United States on June 6, 2014. Tomodachi Life is Nintendo’s life simulator that’s easily comparable to The Sims developed by EA Maxis. Instead of creating families and building houses, you simply move your Miis to live with other Miis in the same apartment building. Unfortunately, there’s no way to have any brothers and sisters with other Miis that relate to each other, but you can only have a family relationship with Miis that relate to you.
Presentation - Tomodachi Life is a life simulator where you move your Miis in the same apartment building to build friendships, marriages, solve problems, decorate their rooms, change clothes, and feed them etc. I’m not sure exactly the limited amount of Miis that you can move it to the apartment building. Tomodachi Life is a fun casual game to play, but there are a few problems that needed to be ironed out before the release date. First, the Miis constantly ask you to change their clothes and interiors for them. This can be frustrating especially if you just recently changed their clothes for them about a day ago. Second, some Miis ask out to date other Miis that already have sweethearts/couples, and that Mii would automatically be depressed. This problem is more major because in real life, dating two or more men/woman would be considered cheating. Nintendo should have programmed Miis to not date other Miis that already have couples. Third, it would have been better if you can choose favorite foods for your Miis instead of feeding them to find out what foods they like and dislike.
Now, here are some of the positive aspects of Tomodachi Life. First, you can create multiple friendships to increase their happiness levels. Each time a Mii levels up, they can learn a new song, a new phrase, and have new interiors and gifts. However, each Mii can only have up to eight gifts that range from Nintendo Wii Us and 3DS to soccer and baseballs. The Miis can also play video games and sports (kind of) with each other as well. Second, you can have marriages and babies as well. When two Miis have been in a relationship long enough, they are asked out to go on a date to a restaurant, amusement park, and beach etc. The catch is to only press the button on the touch screen only when that particular Mii is being thought of. Don’t make too many mistakes or else the Miis will not get married yet. Luckily, you have the option to turn babies off, so the married couple will not have babies. Also, married couples can live in separate houses, but they still live in their apartments as well. Third, you can also take pictures on any event and special event that happens to the Miis. Fourth, you don’t have to worry about playing Tomodachi Life everyday because you won’t get penalized for it like you do in the Animal Crossing series.
Graphics - The visuals look about the same as they did in Pilotwings Resort for the 3DS. Overall, the visuals look very colorful and pristine/clear.
Sound - The music is mostly composed to relaxing tunes, but they don’t really have a theme song except when you hear actual music at a concert. You can also create solo or groups and even create your own song and title as well.
Game play - Tomodachi Life isn’t a traditional video game where you control your character around, but it has you doing commands for them that’s similar to The Sims. The controls work well enough for a life simulator.
Lasting appeal - Although there is a local play two player mode, there are no signs of online and download play. However, you can StreetPass other islanders to visit your island for a few days and import goods. You can also use SpotPass to connect to internet hotspots. In addition, you have two codes to give to your friends to try out the demo move-in version of Tomodachi Life, but they can only have three Miis live in an apartment, and the amount of problems to solve and places to go to will be limited. Tomodachi Life can be addicting at times since there’s always something to do to take care of your Miis and watch them enjoy their lives.
The Good - Miis can create multiple friendships, increased happiness levels give them new rewards, can interact with each other, have marriages and babies, and an option to have or not have babies, won’t get penalized for not playing Tomodachi Life everyday, has a two player mode
The Bad - Miis constantly ask you to change their clothes and interiors for them, ask to date Miis who already have couples, no way to choose favorite foods for them, and no download and online play
Presentation - 7
Graphics - 8
Sound - 7
Game play - 9
Lasting appeal - 8
Overall, 7.8 out of 10 GameSpot score 8 out of 10