Once you’ve built up a small community of Miis, the individuals start to develop their own random needs based on their personalities. More importantly, unexpected surprises play a major role in everyday Tomodachi Life. ![]() The overall effect of Miis communicating with each other in real English language is welcome and endearing – even though they speak in flat, text-to-speech robotic voices, it adds an extra layer of context and dimension that I’ve never absorbed from listening to Simlish. And they talk! Simple greetings like “Heyo!” or video sign offs like, “You’re watching Mii News.” make the world feel more vibrant and alive. My Miis make brief appearances as news anchors and shopkeepers, pop up at community events, and participate in fun musical performances. That tool empowers me to add whomever I want to my island, be it real-life friends, celebrities, or original creations, and each has one of several personalities and dozens of possible roles to play. They’re both imported from friends via StreetPass and populated with the character creator. Nintendo Miis sit at the center of Tomodachi Life’s friendly drama. At first glance, the touch-screen interface and world seem smaller and simpler than the multi-layered complexity of The Sims, but technical limitations can’t restrain Tomodachi Life’s unique charm or its unabashedly humorous spirit. Instead, a majority of its freeform gameplay lies in observation and responding to the random needs of Miis. ![]() ![]() Sure, Miis offer to play shallow minigames from time to time, but simple memory or guessing games didn’t keep me entertained at all. But there’s a lot of valley in-between, and while I arrived in Rainy Woods eager for a pleasant countryside escape, I didn’t feel like making a return trip after the credits had rolled.Those random events may sound strange, but they also highlight this game’s true purpose: Tomodachi Life is not concerned with the typical game structure like a lengthy campaign of completing objectives and to-do lists. I certainly enjoyed parts of it, and some of its stranger moments really do land as big, enjoyable peaks. The Good Life does many things, but they never felt like they coalesced together into an experience that could stick with me. Even exciting aspects, like turning into a dog or cat, feel mundane after a while. The quirkiness of its world and characters is the one aspect that really makes The Good Life feel its own, and it has to carry a lot on its shoulders. Between all of the hobbies and sidequests Naomi can pick up, there’s a lot to do but not quite enough to set it apart. But even then, there are other games that do this better. There are certainly folks this will appeal to, especially if they like the feeling of checking tasks off lists in a virtual world. There are a lot of side quests that I could only make a fair dent in, so there might be more there as each citizen’s quest line goes deeper, but I soon saw side quests as a means to earn cash rather than something I was eager to engage with. They encourage paying attention to the environment, but also feel like they could be a bit more involved. And getting more Emokes in general entails adhering to certain “buzzwords” that refresh twice a week. Most of the photo targets focus on either searching for an object or setting in the world, or in some cases, waiting for a person to do something so you can snap a picture of it. Instead, I spent a lot of time riding sheep and tracking smells as a dog. At the start of the game, it seems like a mystery game where getting to know the locals and snap good shots will be key. The Good Life introduces a lot of ideas and then moves them aside for other ideas. It’s more that the photography felt underutilized, and much like other aspects of The Good Life, starts to feel like an afterthought. There isn’t much more customization beyond that, and it was really more point-and-click than something with involved post-processing or finicky camera controls, but it fits the vibe. The most steady income in The Good Life comes from Flamingo, a social media app where you upload photos you take in the world and get paid for likes, or “Emokes.” The photography works, and I like that there are also options for picking up additional lenses in a wide-angle and telephoto lens. Of course, it all could all fall apart thanks to a little cold or a shortage of cash, and then you’re sent into a spiral trying to scrape together what you need to be healthy again and resume a quiet, easygoing rural life. On my way to see one character to advance a main plot point, I could also stop off to eat some food, catch up with the quirky and endearing folks living in Rainy Woods, and take a few snapshots to boost up my social media account. ![]() I would fill my quest log with little activities and tick them off as I went about my day. Generally, I liked how easygoing this still felt.
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