In March of this year, Nintendo announced the long-awaited revamp of the 2013 3DS game, Tomodachi Life, would be coming to the Switch in 2026.
This announcement sparked a flurry of conversation on social media, with many expressing their excitement at the series' return. To them, this revamp was long overdue—fans have been wanting an updated Tomodachi Life for years.
Why?
If you’ve never had the pleasure of playing this game, let us enlighten you on why it's so fun. The game's premise is simple: You create a mini, and you interact with the other Miis living on an island. It sounds boring, but what the game lacks in complexity it makes up for in hijinks.
This game encourages you to become deeply involved with your neighbors' personal lives, helping them to work out problems, build friendships, or even to intrude on their dreams.
This turns the game into your own personal soap opera, where you are bombarded with crazy schemes or problems that only you can solve. It's as if you have a simpler, more cartoony version of The Sims, which only adds to the game's addictive feel.
Sadly, up until this point, the game was only available to those with a 3DS. The game sold over 6.7 million copies, making it the 11th-highest-selling game in 3DS history. The 3DS as a whole sold just shy of 75 million units worldwide, but that’s not even half of the 154 million Nintendo Switch has sold. If all goes to plan, we could see Todomachi Life being a very successful sale in the near future.
Why Not Earlier?
One of the many questions as to why this adorable game didn’t get a sequel before this point was likely due to the “Mii saturation” of other early games. For years, Miis dominated the Wii, appearing in games like Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Mario Kart and Mario Party, Wii Fit, and many, many, many other games.
This overuse of our cartoon selves on the Wii, DS, and 3DS consoles led Nintendo to shy away from Mii-centric games for the Switch, leaving many of us wondering if a sequel would ever grace our screens. It’s likely that the success of the Switch game, Miitopia, a fantasy RPG with similar customizations to Tomodachi Life, is the reason why Nintendo has finally relented.
As we patiently await the next installment of Tomodachi Life, fans have voiced what they hope will appear in the sequel. More customization, more content, LGBTQ+ marriage, family options, seasonal events, and more intricate dialogue are just some of the many updates we hope to hear about in the near future.
No date is currently set for the release of Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream, but we expect an unexpected Nintendo Direct will give us everything we need to know, and more.
To learn more about Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream, you can find its first promotional video here.
