Tomodachi Life is a communication game for the 3DS in which players can convert their Miis into Tomodachis (or create new ones) and put them in a wide range of scenarios ranging from charming to utterly ridiculous. A key feature of the game is its text-to-speech tech which outputs user generated text as computerized speech in seven languages (EFIGS, Japanese and Korean).
A weird, hillarious, and heartwarming game that still surprises me after three solid weeks of playing it.
Yet the game fails to genuinely engage most of the time, leaving the player to observe when they should be making choices and doing things. It lacks clear objectives and direction, never making you feel like you've made any progress or done anything important. It's just plain boring too much of the time to recommend whole-heartedly.
Tomodachi Life does its best to cut through a lot of society's hateful garbage to produce an incredible island paradise of distraction and more often than not succeeds, but not without stumbling all over itself, revealing too many embarrassing inner thoughts. Just like that kid in gym class, it's possible to cross a line trying to prove a point. There's...
Tomodachi Life isn't for everyone, but it's still a fun game that can also be enjoyed in short bursts when pressed for time. While the main goal of the game is to basically keep your residents happy, it's a slight disappointment that you can't control their actions directly. I feel bad for a Mii who was shot down after asking for a relationship as...
Tomodachi Life offers a great kind of humor: it's just fun to laugh at yourself and your friends in absurd situations. Nintendo gets a lot out of mileage out of this Sims-like concept, but still manages to find ways to make it simple, accessible, and entertaining. The stiff, robotic voices could use improvement, but the effect of hearing the Miis speak...
