Nintendo Direct: Tomodachi Life

Oh wow. I don’t normally get excited about announce trailers but today’s Nintendo Direct for Tomodachi Life is simply amazing. I must have this game. With Ryutaro Takahashi as director (Wario Ware, Wii Play) it’s a truly bizarre-looking game.

“Tomodachi” is Japanese for “friend” Looking rather like Nintendo’s version of The Sims but with less architecture and more quirk, Tomodachi Life lets you import your Miis and add personality traits. You can also import your friends’ Miis and download others. Set them loose in the apartment building and watch the shenanigans take place.

Each Mii gets a disturbing computer-generated voice that you can tweak to your liking with five different sliders. The European versions can speak English, Spanish, German, French or Italian. You’ll also choose their behaviour from a series of character options, pictured here.

Introduce your Miis to other residents and they’ll start building their own relationships. Watch them play sports, visit amusement parks or go on RPG adventures. Perhaps they’ll fall in love or have epic fights. In an article on CVG, director Ryutaro Takahashi discussed the dialogue for the European version of Tomodachi Life. “The dialogue of the characters for example is not just simple translation from Japanese; we have reviewed it so that it feels more natural. Regarding animation of characters – how they walk, nod, shake hands etc – we have adjusted those gestures in detail so that they match each territory.”

This is either genius, or incredibly disturbing. Perhaps both.

Also skip to 8:21 in the video above for a wonderfully creepy romance scene.

As the owner of the game’s island setting, you won’t be able to order your residents’ actions directly. Rather, you’ll be responsible for providing facilities for them to use and giving life advice. You can also reward them with gifts and clothes.

Right now it looks like incredibly silly fun to mess about with your friends’ Miis. I do wonder how much variety there really is in what they can do – is is the sort of thing that will keep you busy for weeks, or can you burn out in a couple of days. Given that the series has sold more than 5.5 million copies in Japan, there must be some longevity there.

Tomodachi Life is the first game in the series to launch in Europe and will be available from 6th June.