Oct 29, 2015 Miitomo: Nintendo’s first mobile is Tomodachi Life for phones. JC Torres - Oct 29, 2015, 1:30 am CDT. Nintendo has finally taken off the covers for what is its first ever official smartphone.
Nintendo's Tomodachi Life released in Japan in April 2013, but the title gained attention earlier this year because same-sex marriages cannot take place in the game's fictional world. The title is a Sims-like game starring Miis inhabiting an island. Friends, family and anyone else you can think of can take up residence on the island through the use of Nintendo's Mii creator, which is available through all of Nintendo's recently released game consoles. Making friends, eating delicious food and finding love are just some of the activities players can expect when playing Tomodachi Life, although gamers will soon find plenty of surprises in this quirky title.
A cast of Mii's only limited by your imagination
As we mentioned earlier, players can add a Mii version of anyone they can think of onto the island in Tomodachi Life. If you already have Miis of your friends and family on your 3DS, adding them into the game will be relatively easy, especially if you already have their birthday and other information put in as well. When adding a new Mii, you'll input their personality traits. Personality traits focus on five separate categories: movement, speech, expressiveness, attitude and overall. When choosing one of eight pegs in each category, the game helps you understand what each peg means by displaying a text informing you how much in favour or against a Mii is with a certain category. For example, choosing the sixth peg in the movement category will give your Mii a 'moves pretty quickly' result.
A Mii's personality trait isn't the only portion of their character you'll be able to edit, as Tomodachi Life also gives Mii's a voice. A total of six presets are available that give your character the voice of a child, adult or an elderly person. You can also choose to give your Mii a random voice, or fine tune their voice through six categories: pitch, speed, quality, tone, accent and intonation.
The entire process of adding Mii's can feel tedious at times if you don't have a large enough library of characters. Thankfully, Nintendo allows players to scan QR codes that will add a Mii to your game. Tomodachi Life even uses a special QR code that contains a Mii's personality and voice, but most online databases of Mii QR codes only contain a person's looks. So adding your favourite celebrity, musical icon or anime character will challenge even the most die-hard fan when you attempt to input someone's voice or personality.
Mii's just want to have fun
Once you populate your island with Miis, that's when the fun really begins. You can purchase food, clothing, hats and interiors, among other things, for your Miis. When you give a Mii something, they'll often comment on whether they like it or not. Feeding Mii's a wide variety of food is one way to see what kind of reactions you can get from them, which range in simply liking or disliking, to a more exaggerated melting if they really hate it, or dance around if it's their most favourite dish.
Most of your time in Tomodachi Life will be spent solving your Miis' problems. These can vary from being hungry to wanting a change of clothes or scenery. Miis will also ask for your help in making friends with one another, even going as far as calling you if they ever decide to pop the question. From time to time, you'll be able to experience special events that occur at certain dates and times. Most of the events are the same every day and feature magic acts, different markets throughout the day and even a photo shoot starring the player. The game also holds special events based on particular dates, such as a Mii's birthday.
Share the fun on various social networks
Tomodachi Life gives players the option to share everything you experience within the game through a built-in screen capturing feature. Players can take a screenshot of either the top or bottom screen by pressing the X or Y buttons, respectively. When a screenshot is taken, it'll automatically be saved on your 3DS SD card. This allows you to download your photos on your computer and share them anywhere you like, but you're able to share your shots on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr within the game. The process takes a couple of steps to complete, but its convenience means you'll most likely share nearly anything and everything you experience in this game.
Prepare to spend your days with Tomodachi Life
Tomodachi Life will take up a lot of your time. The process of adding Miis at the start of the game can feel tedious if you already don't have an army of Miis available on your 3DS. But once you feel comfortable with the number of Miis you have to play with, following and watching them grow is very satisfying. Players will experience a number of quirky and unique moments during their time with this title, but they're few and far between. As a game promoted as one where players need to see what happens next, we wish these quirky moments happened more often. When they do occur, though, you won't forget them any time soon.
GAME's Verdict: 7/10
The Good
- Watching Miis grow from their humble beginnings is satisfying
- Quirky and unique moments that will often surprise
- Nintendo makes sharing these moments extremely easy
The Bad
- Adding Miis to your island can be a painstaking process
- Quirky moments aren't as frequent as wed like
- Repetitive gameplay
Published: 09/06/2014
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| Tomodachi Life | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Nintendo SPD |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Director(s) | Noriyuki Sato Ryutaro Takahashi Eisaku Nakae |
| Producer(s) | Yoshio Sakamoto |
| Composer(s) | Daisuke Matsuoka Asuka Ito |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 3DS |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Life simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Tomodachi Life[a] is a life simulationvideo game developed by Nintendo SPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game, which is a direct sequel to the Japan-exclusive Nintendo DS title Tomodachi Collection, was released in Japan in April 2013, June 2014 worldwide and July 2014 in South Korea. The game received positive reviews and good sales records. Many reviewers praised the gameplay but criticised the minigames. Its name means Friend Life.
Gameplay[edit]
The game begins with the player naming their island and creating or importing their personal Mii, who is referred to as the player's 'look-alike' and lives in an apartment building. The building holds up to 100 Miis. (or more depending on the date of the release of your copy)
The player can import Miis from the system's Mii Maker, other devices or QR codes or create them from scratch using the 3DS's camera or the in-game Mii Maker. The Miis are voiced by a text-to-speech software and have unique personalities. Miis can then perform various actions, such as eating, trying on different outfits, falling in love with each other, and engaging in many leisure activities. As more Miis are added to the island, many strange and curious interactions can occur between them, such as friendship, romance, rivalry, romantic relationships and families. As the game goes by, the player unlocks more stores, clothes, food, and places for the Miis to play. They can even unlock a port, where they can give and 'trade' goods with other islands.
Development[edit]
In May 2014, a playable demo of the game was distributed to Platinum members of Club Nintendo in North America, the data of which could be transferred to the final version to unlock a bonus in-game item.[1] The game is bundled with two Nintendo eShop download codes for a 'Welcome version' demo, which can be given to friends.[2] A slightly different demo version was later publicly released for download via the Nintendo eShop. This version does not unlock any features in the full game.
Following the announcement of a worldwide release, controversy arose concerning the impossibility of same-sex relationships. Nintendo stated, 'The ability for same-sex relationships to occur in the game was not part of the original game that launched in Japan, and that game is made up of the same code that was used to localise it for other regions outside Japan.' [3] In May 2013, it was widely reported that a bug in the original Japanese version of the game, which enabled same-sex relationships, was patched by Nintendo.[4] This was refuted by Nintendo in a statement made April 2014, explaining that same-sex relationships were never possible, and that the patch in fact fixed a different issue.[5] Despite various campaigns from users, Nintendo stated that it would not be possible to add same-sex relationships to the game, as they 'never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of the game',[6] and because it would require significant development alterations which would not be able to be released as a post-game patch. The company later apologised and stated that if they were to create a third game in the series they would 'strive to design a gameplay experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players.'[7]
Reception[edit]
Tomodachi Life has received positive reviews. It holds an average of 72% and 71/100 on review aggregate sites GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively.[8][9][10]IGN gave the game a score of 8.4, calling it 'a surprisingly funny and rewarding experience.'[11]Polygon gave Tomodachi Life a 7.5 out of 10, praising its likeability despite certain aspects being repetitive.[12]GamesRadar gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, praising its weird humor and relaxing gameplay, whilst criticising the minigames for being too simple.[13]GameTrailers gave the game a score of 6.0, stating 'the pervasive sense of quirkiness in Tomodachi Life works, but can’t sustain the entire game.'[14] The game has received criticism for not enabling relationships between Mii characters of the same sex; Nintendo of America later apologized for failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life, stating that it wasn't possible for NoA to change the game's design, or for Nintendo to change this aspect in a post-ship patch. It also noted that 'if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players.'[15][16]
Tomodachi Life was the best seller in the Japanese video game market during the week of its release, selling about 404,858 units.[17] By September 2014, its global sales reached 3.12 million units.[18] As of December 31, 2019, Nintendo has sold 6.55 million units of the game worldwide,[19] making it one of the top 10 best selling games on the 3DS.
Legacy[edit]
A stage based on Tomodachi Life appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[20]Miitomo, a social networkingmobile app for iOS and Android devices, was released in March 2016. The app was created by the same core team who developed Tomodachi Life, and features very similar ideas. In 2016, a similar game involving Miis, Miitopia, was released in Japan.[21] It was released worldwide the following year.
Notes[edit]
Tomodachi Life 2 Kaufen
- ^Known in Japan as Tomodachi Collection: New Life (Japanese: トモダチコレクション 新生活, Hepburn: Tomodachi Korekushon: Shin Seikatsu)
References[edit]
- ^'Club Nintendo Distributing Tomodachi Life Demo Codes to Select Platinum Members - 3DS News @ Nintendo Life'. Nintendolife.com. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
- ^MacDonald, Keza (May 21, 2014). 'Tomodachi Life Comes With 2 Free Demos to Give to Friends'. Kotaku UK. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
- ^'Nintendo resists #Miiquality campaign to let Tomodachi Life gamers play gayk=Guardian News'. Associated Press. May 7, 2014.
- ^Ashcraft, Brian (May 8, 2013). 'Rumor: Bug Makes Gay Marriage Possible in Nintendo Game [Update]'. Kotaku.com. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
- ^Parfitt, Ben (April 10, 2014). 'VIDEO: Nintendo to give Tomodachi Life a shot in the West | Games industry news | MCV'. MCV. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
- ^lang, Derrik (May 7, 2014). 'Nintendo Says No to Virtual Equality in Life Game'. Associated Press. Abcnews.go.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
- ^'We are committed to fun and entertainment for everyone - Nintendo Official Site'. Nintendo.com. May 9, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
- ^'Tomodachi Life for 3DS'. GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
- ^'Tomodachi Life for 3DS Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ^'Nintendo Apologizes For Not Putting Gay Marriage In Tomodachi Life'. Kotaku. Kotaku. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ^Otero, Jose (June 6, 2014). 'Tomodachi Life Review'. IGN. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ^McElroy, Griffin (June 6, 2014). 'Tomodachi Life review: semi charmed'. Polygon. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
- ^Gilbert, Herbert (June 6, 2014). 'Tomodachi Life review'. GamesRadar. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ^Moore, ben (June 6, 2014). 'Tomodachi Life - Review'. GameTrailers. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ^'Nintendo Apologizes For Omitting Gay Marriage From 'Tomodachi Life''. NBC News.
- ^Jason Schreier. 'Nintendo Apologizes For Not Putting Gay Marriage In Tomodachi Life'. Kotaku. Gawker Media.
- ^'This Week in Sales: Tomodachi Collection Sees Big Launch Sales'. Siliconera. April 24, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
- ^'Supplementary Information about Earnings Release'(PDF). Nintendo. October 30, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
- ^'Top Selling Title Sales Units - Nintendo 3DS Software'. Nintendo. December 31, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
- ^'Tomodachi Collection: New Life stage'. IGN. March 14, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
- ^Otero, Jose. '5 Things We Learned About Miitomo and Nintendo's Digital Future'. IGN. Retrieved 1 April 2016.