Dear Diary,
I'm not sure if I'm Living the Dream just yet. You see, I don’t think Helga likes me. Not “me” me, but Mii.
When I dragged my Nintendo-ified facsimile next to this nice-seeming old lady in the new Tomodachi Life, they greeted each other pleasantly. Helga isn’t anyone I know in real life — I’ve already crossed the uncanny valley far enough by creating myself and my spouse in-game (along with the game accurately judging that I’m a ‘Reserved Perfectionist’... ouch.) — she’s just a loose bit of imagination, created with a few helpful suggestions from the Mii creator.
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I figured Arcadia Island needed a few older residents, and Helga fit the bill – a 67-year-old who’s also reserved like me, but more of an Observer. She’s polite, a little serious, but plenty quirky, all traits I picked out as I created her character.
Yet her first interaction with my own quirky, slightly-spirited Mii left my doppelgänger a little upset! Nothing a head pat and some food couldn’t fix, but I almost felt offended. 'How dare you leave my mini-me upset, Helga?' I thought.
Oh no, am I already developing a God Complex?
I have control of a lot in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, much more than you ever had in the 2014 3DS hit. But I’ve never played it on that system, despite its popularity. On the Switch, I can pick up a Mii whenever I want and force them to stare at trees or patches of weeds, or get them to mingle with other island residents.
Sometimes, the Miis want me to get them to interact – one time, my partner Zach (the Mii) was sitting inside his house with a little ‘confused’ manpu icon above his head. That tells me he needs something from me. I click on him, and he says he wants to make friends with Alana (the Mii). Great! But we have to come up with a topic. At this point, I’m more tentative with my words, so I just go for something normal: “Movies”. We both like movies in real life a lot.
Just seconds later, these Nintendo avatars of our real-life selves are talking about Movies, but not in a normal sense. I’m watching myself ask my IRL spouse if he’s “good” at Movies, to which he replies that he is “better at Movies” than everyone else. I chuckle, and this is the bizarre tone that the game constantly takes.
I knew ahead of becoming “cap’n” of this island (yes, I gave myself that title) that Tomodachi Life thrives off of normal interactions laced with the absurd, and it constantly delivers. Mii’s will sometimes randomly fall over, and either I can help them, or I can bring a Mii over to pick them up. They can also be paralysed on-the-spot with a hiccuping fit.
Lines like “Would you say that a Board Game makes you think of an iced latte?” and conversations about pet hedgehog bites are just the tip of the iceberg. This is the exact kind of nonsense I’d probably say after a drink or three. And the news announcements are always a highlight.
My goal as God is, apparently, to make all of these Miis happy and level them up. When they level up, I can give them a new expression, or a new phrase, or a gift that matches their perceived personality. I’ve already given Jimmy — a 10-year-old who proudly dons a cow outfit — an enthusiastic wave, and Zach has a baseball he occasionally gets out to throw around on the beach. Meanwhile, Alana seems to have an existential crisis as I bestowed the phrase “I’m such a fool” on her, which she might mutter when she’s asleep.
Sometimes it’s a case of figuring out what food a Mii likes; even as “God”, I winced when I headed into the Fresh Foods market and saw the price of an apple. I do not need economy jumpscares in Tomodachi Life as I have daily in real life. A leg of lamb is almost as much as a park bench, for some reason. Also, I do have questions about why children and the elderly are allowed to run a grocery store or a home renovation shop.
But then I proceed to ignore that and spend over $100 in the Where & Wear Clothing Store. Not even being “cap’n” can stop me from indulging – but at least this time the clothes are for the Miis! They might not always like the clothes I give them, but I’m trying.
The amount of customisation and flexibility is off the charts; eventually, I can terraform the island and expand the land space, and it’s so easy to do with the tile-based system. I can buy benches and trees from the Quik Build store and place them down, ready for “high-octane relaxing” or for Miis to just ignore them and sit on the beach and talk about food.
But I’ve learned something about myself after spending a few days with Tomodachi Life: I’m not sure how much I love playing God.
The humour and the Island Builder are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for me right now, and both of these things are fabulous. Sometimes, I can play games with the residents like Red Light, Green Light, or Zoom Quiz, and these give me more "stuff" to hand out to residents, if I'm successful. Other times, I'll find one of the residents unsettled by their thoughts or napping on a bench, and I'll dive into their minds to clear out the clutter inside or watch some kind of fever dream of four people worshipping a realistic-looking rabbit.
But most of the time, it's about plopping one Mii next to another. They'll often start walking and talking, but they don’t always progress in meaningful ways. Mii problems seem to cycle through similar things – “I want to be friends with X” or “I’m hungry” seem to be the most common. But otherwise, it feels like owning Sea Monkeys or a Tamagotchi, two things I never really loved as a kid of the '90s/early '00s.
Before I sign off, I want to go back to Helga. Yes, I think she’s a bit wary of Mii me, but I look at the relationship chart in my menu and see that she and I “want to be friends”. Perhaps building some pathways and redesigning the inside of her house from R&C helped thaw her heart a bit, and she “saw” the real me on the other side of the Switch screen.
She didn’t need to gossip about my Mii with Zach behind my back, and that feels like a line that shouldn’t be crossed, but I think things will work out eventually. Maybe her love of UFOs is the key, or perhaps she too has a crush on Ryan Gosling.
Wow, being God is tough, and not always exciting, isn't it?
Until release,
A.H.