(Photo courtesy of Nintendo. “Tomodachi Life is among the stranger of Nintendo’s ventures, but it is a fan favorite and its latest upcoming entry is full of highly-requested features and changes.”)
Rosalie Pineda
Connector Staff
In March 2025, Nintendo roused the attention of many fans when they announced a surprise sequel to Tomodachi Life, a game released back in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS. The announcement was brief at the time, disclosing little about the gameplay other than the visuals and the official title.
Tomodachi Life garnered a niche fanbase due to its unique premise of customizing and taking care of Miis every day. These Miis have their own appearances, personalities, voices, and dialogue.
They can also interact with the world and form relationships with other Miis. The relationship drama is known for being particularly dynamic and memorable.
Many players enjoy making Miis of fictional characters, themselves, and their loved ones. It’s fun to see what they’ll get up to together.
Then, on January 29, 2026, Nintendo posted a direct dedicated to showcasing some of what this sequel has to offer.
Currently, the US version of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream’s direct has over 1.6 million views. The Japanese direct has over 2.5 million views. Reactions online have been generally favorable and full of excitement.
One feature that was discussed early on was also one of the most popular requests by fans: letting Miis have same-sex romantic relationships.
In the original game, Miis could only identify as male or female, and they could only pursue romantic relationships with the opposite sex. The sequel reveals the addition of a nonbinary option, and their dating preferences can now be customized, too.
This is following a statement made by the developers several years ago, where they promised to include same-sex relationships in following games if they were given the opportunity. Fans are delighted to see that they held true to their word.
The direct also showed off plenty of other creative features, such as the ability to draw directly on your Miis, allowing for even more customization freedom. There are expanded hairstyles, colors, makeup, and players can even put ears of varying shapes on their Miis now.
There will also be customization of the island that all the Miis will live on. Not only can players expand the terrain, but they can also customize the exterior of buildings and pathways.
This system feels similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons in this aspect, which is another game beloved by many Tomodachi Life fans. It will be interesting to see how much of the system is brought over into this game, and if it’ll somehow improve on what New Horizons had to offer.
The room and pet system also appears to be revamped. Players can now draw original pets for their Miis, which could lead to some hilarious results. They can also draw on clothes and food.
Miis can also now have a chance to move in together, with up eight Miis per living space. These roommates will have unique interactions with each other.
It’s clear that Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream has made immense strides since the first game’s release 13 years ago. But even so, it still manages to keep the overall “weirdness” that made the franchise stand out. The iconic, silly voices are still present for the Miis, and the Mii News Network is still around, relaying in-game news about the Miis in absurd situations.
The number of Miis that can possibly live on one island is still unknown, but it is expected to be at least 100 like the original game. Hopefully another direct can shed more light on this and other returning features, such as the family system.
The game has a release date of April 16, 2026. Needless to say, excited fans will be keeping a close eye on announcements in the future.
