Introduction

After a hard day at work, I won’t deny that I don’t always want to boot up something complicated. Sometimes I just need to relax and unwind — which usually means reaching for games like Animal Crossing or The Sims. One game that recently caught my interest — thanks in large part to the flood of videos I’ve been seeing on TikTok — is Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Taking the now somewhat dated Mii — first introduced back in 2006 — Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream lets you create a cast of Mii, drop them onto an island, and watch the shenanigans unfold. Is Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream a new game I’ll be losing sleep over, or will I find myself drifting back to the classics it draws inspiration from? We find out in our Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream review for the Nintendo Switch!

Gameplay

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the definition of a cozy life simulator. Players step into the role of an omnipotent observer — essentially a god — watching over a small island that Mii will soon populate at your discretion. The goal is simple: build up the land with Mii and shape the environment around them. There are no hard time limits, your Mii won’t perish if left to their own devices, and the game is there whenever you want it. That alone isn’t going to hook everyone, though — what will is that Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is simply a lot of fun.

When you first start, you’ll create a single Mii. Despite how deceptively simple Mii can look, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream offers a surprisingly wide array of customization options to make yours look like whoever you want. I made mine in my own likeness and was genuinely impressed by how close I got. There’s also a simplified creation mode that lets the game generate one for you, but half the fun is doing it yourself. Once created, your Mii gets a house and introduces themselves — and yes, they speak in these strange AI-like voices that are equally annoying and oddly charming. After your introduction — you can adjust how they address you — the game truly begins.

The ultimate goal in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is to build an island that reflects your personality. Early on, you can only summon a handful of Mii to your modest island, but as you level them up by caring for them, conversing with them, and keeping them happy, more enhancements become available. You can craft roads, reposition buildings, alter terrain, and more. I wouldn’t say Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream reaches the creative heights of Animal Crossing, but a quick search online reveals some remarkably imaginative islands that prove the potential is there.

Beyond island building, you can help your Mii live out their dream lives. Maybe they’ll fall in love, have children, or simply forge a best friendship. You can nudge a lot of interactions in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, but half the joy is stepping back and letting them just…do whatever they want. What I also loved is that as your Mii level up, you can assign them quirks and odd personality traits — catchphrases, bizarre statements, and unique behaviors. I made one of my Mii a mad scientist with dreams of world domination. It’s completely ridiculous, but watching him deliver his monologues to other unsuspecting Mii and seeing their reactions is genuinely priceless.

That’s what I love most about Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Yes, you design your Mii visually — but you also shape who they are, and that personality feeds into everything. Their attitudes affect how they interact with others, what foods and clothes they gravitate toward, and how they behave as they roam your island. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream gives you real creative freedom, and it all feels surprisingly fluid.

My one personal wish is that Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream had some form of online play. I can easily imagine gathering a few select Mii with friends, visiting each other’s islands, and watching the chaos unfold in real time. The inability to visit other players’ worlds feels like a missed opportunity. Is it a dealbreaker? Not quite — but I do think my enjoyment will gradually taper without it, and online functionality would have meaningfully extended how long I stay invested.

Graphics

Without comparing it to Animal Crossing again — Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is, visually speaking, fairly basic. Yes, your Mii and your island can look genuinely nice thanks to the extensive customization on offer, but the overall aesthetic remains quite simple throughout. I’m not expecting cutting-edge visuals from a game like this, but at a $59.99 price point, I would expect a little more visual polish. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it is noticeable.

Sound

The sound design in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is, much like its visuals, fairly minimal. To be straightforward — I generally can’t stand AI-sounding voices or overly synthetic voice noises in pretty much anything. I give Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream a pass here because it works to make the Mii feel quirky and alive, but many of the voice sounds are genuinely hard to stomach for extended periods. It’s probably why 85% of my Mii ended up sounding identical. The music too becomes grating after a few hours of play. My workaround was to throw on my own relaxing playlist in the background and only unmute the game when I wanted to hear what my Mii were actually saying — which, honestly, worked just fine.

Overall Impression

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is simple, fun, and relaxing — and there’s genuine value in that. I won’t be sinking hundreds of hours into it, but I can absolutely see myself booting it up every now and then just to check in on my Mii and see what chaos is unfolding on my rather odd little island. That said, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream isn’t for everyone. If you need real depth from a life simulator — the kind The Sims delivers — you’ll likely find this experience quite bare-bones. But fans of the original Tomodachi Life or anyone simply looking for a cozy, low-stakes game to unwind with will find something to enjoy here, no doubt about it.

Conclusion

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream sets out to do something specific — and it does it well enough. Yes, I would have liked more from it, but I equally enjoy what’s there and am still having fun in short bursts. Will I still be playing this next month? Honestly, probably not — and I’d wager the TikTok wave will have calmed down by then too. Still, with the right DLC or added content, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream could grow into something more substantial and better justify its price tag. For now, it’s a pleasant, quirky little escape — and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.