Tomodachi Life, a game released for the 3DS in 2013, was one of my first favorite video games. When I was younger, like five or six years old, I would spend hours sitting with my 3DS, watching my Miis as they got married and competed in rap battles. The game was so chaotic and silly. I absolutely loved it! You can imagine how excited I was last March when I was at school and my dad sent me a text that just said “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” and linked the announcement video. I couldn’t believe it—I hadn’t even known that there was a direct! And yet, I was also kind of worried. Nintendo hasn’t exactly had the best track record lately when it comes to making sequels that live up to the original game. I didn’t want them to ruin the image of yet another of my favorite games.

Just to address the elephant in the room, I am aware that technically Tomodachi Life was a sequel to Tomodachi Collection, which was only released in Japan. I, an American who does not speak Japanese, have not played Tomodachi Collection. So, just to be clear, when I say “original,” I mean Tomodachi Life, not Collection.

So far there have been two trailers for Living the Dream. From what I can tell, the game seems to be bringing back a lot of the key features from Tomodachi Life, which makes me happy. The initial reveal trailer is very brief and doesn’t show much; it’s mostly just short clips of Miis hanging around the island being goofy. I thought it was funny that the trailer shows Miis throwing items at each other angrily, I guess confirming that Mii arguments will be back. I’m not a big fan of how rectangular the new island is, but I’m going to try and let it grow on me.

The latest trailer shows more of the actual gameplay. Mii personalities, the food system, wacky dreams, and even Mii News have all been confirmed to be making a return. The Mii Maker seems to have a few new customization options, but for the most part it’s the same. It looks like Miis will not be living in an apartment building like they did in Tomodachi Life, instead living in small houses around the island. I’m interested to see how this will work when Miis get married or have kids. (They haven’t shown it yet, but I assume that Miis will be able to marry and have babies, as that was a very important aspect of the original.) From what I can tell, there seem to be shops and even a restaurant that I think will work like how they did in Tomodachi Life. I haven’t noticed a concert hall, but I would think (at least I really, really hope) that Miis will be able to perform songs in this game. Writing silly lyrics and watching your Miis sing in various styles of music was one of the funniest things about Tomodachi Life.

Unlike the original, this game seems to have Miis interacting with each other and things around the island in a more open-world sort of environment. In Tomodachi Life you could occasionally find that some of your Miis were building sandcastles on the beach, riding the rollercoaster at the amusement park, or something like that, but there was no real way for the player to interact with them outside of the apartments. Living the Dream’s trailer showed that Miis will be hanging out outside the houses, and players will be able to pick up Miis and drop them next to other Miis they want them to interact with. The way Miis meet and interact in this game will be much more controlled by the player, which could be a good or a bad thing (I really liked the randomness of the original), but I’m withholding judgement until I play it myself.

While the trailers look promising, there are still other things that haven’t been shown yet that I am really hoping to see. There were a lot of events around the island that happened at certain times of the day such as the magic show or frisbee at the park. I’m really hoping that those sort of events make a return. One of my favorites was Tomodachi Quest, a little RPG game starring your Miis that you could play once a day at the amusement park. I would love to see a sequel to Tomodachi Quest in this game. More than anything, though, I absolutely need to see rap battles back. I also had a lot of fun playing minigames with my Miis, and would love to be able to do that again in Living the Dream. As for new features, I really liked the makeup and wig system that was added to Miitopia when it was released on switch. While Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream seems to be adding hair customization similar to Miitopia’s wigs built into the Mii Maker, I would still love to see a streamlined way of transferring my Miis from Miitopia into Living the Dream.

I have very high expectations for this game, but I also have high hopes. Releasing on the Nintendo Switch, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream will reach a much bigger audience than the original did, so it better be great. I have my concerns, but for now I’ll just let myself ride the train of excitement. The game seems to still have that quirky Mii charm, and in my mind that is what made Tomodachi Life so special. The game comes out spring 2026, and I, for one, can’t wait! I think I’m really going to like this game. If the game does turn out to be disappointing though, I’ll be angry, but it’ll make for pretty great article.