What do you get when you cross The Sims 4 on a reality TV show like Big Brother?
The answer is The Tomodachi Lifeis a life-simulation series about sitting back as real-life versions of your friends and family get into increasingly absurd situations rather than honestly trying to recreate the real world. It’s never been the most popular franchise out there, but it’s become something of a cult since the first entry outside of Japan landed on the Nintendo 3DS back in 2013.
The article continues below
It’s the kind of game that seems perfect for the current age of TikTok, and after being compatible with the upcoming Nintendo Switch update (and the Nintendo Switch 2 expansion). Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, I can’t wait to see what kind of hijinks players get up to when it’s in their hands.
Mini Mii
To support everything internally Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream you are a powerful creator full of powerful tools. The experience of creating a new Mii (those avatars that look like a small person) to live in your game can be obvious or hands-off as you like, with the ability to create completely new characters or by answering a series of quick questions.
These start out basic (encouraging you to choose the most appropriate age, face shape, feature structure, etc.) but soon start building on top of each other to get into an amazing level of granular detail with great results.
Obviously, my first instinct was to create a mini version of my boss, TechRadar Gaming and Broadcasting Managing Editor Rob Dwiar, which was easily accomplished after just a minute or so of filling out questions while looking at his picture on my phone screen.
The results weren’t entirely perfect (for some reason, the game insisted on giving her ginger hair even though I don’t remember choosing that option), but you can freely edit whatever comes out afterwards if needed to get things right.
Once the visuals are nailed down, you adjust the sliders to select a custom voice for the attractive text-to-speech lines the characters come with and fill out a small personality chart, which informs the assignment of a different personality type.
Rob is described as an imperfect, thoughtful and inspired person who “finds beauty in even the smallest details.” Not the result I expected, but honestly, not too far from the real thing I’m thinking about now.
You don’t have to stick to creating real people, either. In fact, I’d argue that systems like the amazing composition menu that lets you draw pretty much whatever you want on an on-screen canvas using a controller or touchscreen are there specifically to encourage you to actually eat shit.
The Tale of the Two Lances
Mini Rob was then unceremoniously thrown onto TechRadar Island (my imaginary custom name for the tropical city where everyone lives in the game) and began to go about his daily life.
What do you really do all day? Just wander around, apparently, occasionally looking up at the sky to ask for help from his omniscient creator god (that’s me). Within the first few minutes, he demanded food (obtained from a nearby grocery store staffed by Rob) and, strangely, insisted that I pat him on the head using the touch screen. I don’t think HR would be too impressed with that…
The next order of business was obviously to make friends for her so she would leave me alone, so I jumped back into the character creation menu to make my own version with the Editor on Lance Lance Ulanoff (mainly chosen because I thought it would be easier to make as a Mii).
If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, there’s even an option to copy an existing character from your island as a starting point. This allowed me to quickly spawn a rogue Lance clone, aptly named ‘Evil Lance’, to scare everyone – although despite my best efforts he doesn’t appear to be aggressive beyond looking angry all the time.
The novelty of new programs is a big part of the fun
Seeing how every character talks to each other is a big draw here, and you can control how things go in this regard. You can pick up characters and bring them to each other to greet each other, but the next scene can happen by chance. Throw in a relationship system that measures how everyone is doing, and a seemingly endless variety of different situations that can occur, and you have a fun way to have short-term fun.
Almost everything you do contributes to both your Mii’s happiness level and the level of the island as a whole, which unlocks new buildings and rewards as they level up, giving you more features to spend.
This included the ability to get Rob to start every conversation with his catchphrase: “Rob’s time” – something he never said in real life but which seemed funny to me. I won’t spoil all the surprises in store, as the novelty of new shows is a big part of the excitement, but everything that’s been introduced so far has left me eager to hear more.
Like previous games, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream it will be a niche experience, but lovers of a certain absurd comedy series have a lot to look forward to when it launches on April 16, 2026 on Nintendo Switch.
The best Nintendo Switch games to pick up and play
Follow TechRadar for Google news again add us as a favorite resource to get our expert news, reviews, and opinions in your feed. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok to get news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us WhatsApp again.
