Tomodachi Life made quite an impact when it was revealed in gloriously wacky Nintendo Direct broadcasts last week, as an audience outside of Japan was given a clearer insight into how the Mii-sim works, and perhaps why it should jump to the top of some wishlists.
We've been fortunate enough to spend some time with this — we'll post some impressions later today — and have also discovered that it's not too punishing on our SD cards. The European version of the game, with some variation possible in the North American equivalent, is just 3391 blocks; that converts to around 424MB (megabytes), or just 0.41GB (gigabytes) — not bad if you're considering the eShop version.
Its small size shouldn't detract from its potential merits, however, which we'll outline more in our first impressions to follow shortly.
Are you excited about Tomodachi Life ahead of its release — in North America and Europe — on 6th June?
Comments (39)
So how about some comparisons to other titles for those of us that don't know???
@DadOfFour1972 Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - 14,284 blocks
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate is 11,658
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is 17,693 blocks
Ultimately, this is pretty small, and is under a quarter of a 2GB SD of a standard 3DS, under an eighth of the standard 4GB card in a 3DS XL.
I got my copy pre-ordered so i won't need to worry about the space. I pre-ordered it a day after the direct
Apparently if Nintendo had added a same sex marriage option to the game, the file size would have increased by 67kb.
@noctowl I gave it 10/10 on my blog. Still playing daily a year after release.
And the JP file size is 2,956 so there goes the different European voices.
Nintendo is incredible at compressing file sizes. Though when it comes to third party and Wii U games, developers don't seem to care nearly as much.
@BriBri Is it any better than Animal Crossing at holding your attention? Or is that something that can't be compared?
I enjoyed AC for a month or so, but then really lost interest.
This is another game I can see me going digital on... (The other being Brain Age: Concentration Training) But does it let you use the save data backup feature? I know some eShop games don't let you use that for some reason.
Really looking forward to this game. Though I'll be getting the physical copy. Gotta save my space for download only titles.
@gsmaciel The two are very similar but also very different. My favourite part of Tomodachi Life in comparison with Animal Crossing is that if you haven't time to visit your island for a few days/weeks your Miis feed and clothe themselves where-as in AC:NL there are weeds etc everywhere and you may find out a favourite villager has left!
This is actually good news. That big size means the game would have endless activities, content and random stuff that surely would keep us busy for months! I wans't so interested in this game but after that CRAZY FUN Nintendo Direct last thursday now It's a day one purchase from me, haha.
depends on what the importance of marriage is in the game. i know that sounds stupid but if it plays a large role it would cause a disconnect for myself. considering these types of games rely on the avatar being "you" i'd rather stick with animal crossing. if marriage is a minor role then i may pick this up but i'm currently playing thru several titles i missed out on last year including dream team and wonderful 101 and kirby and mario kart 8 are due soon.
@Phantom_R I think a lot of it comes from working with smaller space their competitors in the past (N64 carts vs. Cds, mni-DVD vs. DVD, DVD5 vs. DVD9, DS carts vs. UMD etc...) and continuing to learn to use the tricks, even when they don't need to.
Though to be fair things that take up a lot of file space can be FMV and streamed audio (as opposed to sequenced).
will wait for reviews... certainly not buying stuff out of hype or feel
Can you tell us if there is only one save file? Can multiple people use the same game card to exist in the same town like New Leaf? Is there mulitplayer with other people who have the game?
I know this is the wrong place to comment, but would anyone know the file size for Nintendo Pocket Football Club which is released later this week?
I've ran out of space but would like to know if I will need to buy a new SD card along with the game when it comes out.
@RobMondavi There's only one save file in the JP version.
@Retro-Commando The JP version is 1,721 blocks. Allow a little more for the EU version (more leagues/languages).
@BriBri Thanks for the response that sounds good, I may have enough space after all.
Cartridges are equality! Filesizes don't matter, all is welcome!

@BriBri What a refreshingly nice person you are!
@Kaze_Memaryu Thanks. You haven't read my recent complaints letter to my airline however;-)
Definitely getting both physical and digital. I have a habit of double dipping for life sim games. I just love physical copies to have on my shelf and the digital copy is much more convenient since I'm so lazy to swap. D; Haha.
I have an 8GB card in my system so I'm good.
I switched from 16GB to 32GB in my SD card slot last year and am still running out of space quicker than expected. You don't suppose they'll be making SD cards running 128 or 256 Gigs in the next two years, will they? :/
For comparison, my Japanese version of Tomodachi Life took 2956 blocks, which is 435 blocks fewer than the European version for supporting more than one language and added direct ImageShare interaction.
When I saw that Japanese version's file size last year, I was astounded by how small is the game.
@BriBri thanks for the info! I'm a bit sad though. My fiancé and I played the same town in new leaf until her birthday when I bought her a system and game of her own. Does anyone know what Streetpass and multiplayer functions the game has in its JP release?
@RobMondavi There's no multiplayer function in this game. Though, there's the StreetPass function that allows you to share your specialty fashion item (e.g. clothes, hats, helmets) chosen at some point in your gameplay and sending one of your children to travel island by island. SpotPass is used to download SpotPass specialty fashion items, like the Frog Helmet from a certain Japan-only Game Boy Game.
I still prefer physical.
Wow, the town hasn't changed a whole lot from Tomodachi Collection on DS. I love this game so much, I pop it out every time I got a little free time between jobs, usually muttering to my wife that 'I don't have a problem'. I just hope they give you a bit more to do in the game because after about 4 days of playing Tomodachi Collection, I spend about 5 to 10 minutes interacting with my miis and then I am left with nothing to do but wait for another mii to have an issue. A lot of that down time was spent coming up with more miis to add to my apartment.
It's weird but I have played this simple little game much more than my copy of AC:NL, and I'm totally pumped to play Tomodachi Life
@MamaLuigi i myself am using a 128GB card which I have a little over 400,000 blocks left on it. Only thing is the 3DS does not recognize the SDXC format, so you will have to reformat it from exFat to Fat32 yourself. Really not hard just Google it
Can't imagine any possible reason why I wouldn't download this game when the file size is so small.
That's great to hear! I already have Pokemon X, and A Link Between Worlds installed, so its good to hear I won't need to much space for this! I like having multiple titles available just by turning on my console :3
Ugh, that's not even half of that in Animal Crossing New Leaf. Wasn't ACNL 6000 blocks? I was hoping for a lot more content in the game, but who knows what factors play out for the blocks? the voices must contribute a lot... and the 3D Mii Sprites also must damage the blocks, so... it's not looking for very good. We might just have to wait and see!
Perfect for those downloading I'll be getting it on cart, but nice to hear the games is nice size for those downloading!!!!
this game will be my first digital download so im safe on file size. im wondering will it release to the eshop at the same price as Disney's magical world in the US (which is $29.99). Or the typical $34.99/$39.99
Huh, might actually download this at release instead of getting the retail version.
Have a 2DS and multiple 3DS-XL'S and I will get physical media and Nintendo DLC.
@MamaLuigi : They are already available. The only problem is that they're too expensive for the average consumer. 128GB SDXC cards vary wildly from around $70-$130 depending on the speed and brand (which isn't too bad, really). Forget about 256GB SDXC cards though. The cheapest I've seen online is $600. I think it'll still be another 18 months or so before they become widely available.
I'm getting eShop. It just doesn't seem like a retail game for me.
I'm still gonna have loads of fun with this.
Tap here to load 39 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...