Tomodachi Life came out of nowhere. Nintendo announced their plans to bring their popular 3DS life simulator west in a recent Nintendo Direct, and it looks sufficiently awesome. Loaded with all sorts of quirky interactions between user-generated Miis and an abundance of situations and locations to enjoy, it seems to have channeled the bizarre and eccentric side of Nintendo that fans adore. It’s taken many people by surprise, and appears to be the game to finally utilize Miis in a creative and captivating fashion. The game launched in Japan last year under the title Tomodachi Collection: New Life, and is a sequel to the original that appeared on DS. It’s sold millions of copies, and looks well equipped to repeat that feat again in the west. But the game found itself at the center of some fairly heavy controversy last year that’s rearing its head again as the western audience begins to notice a gaping absence in Tomodachi Collection: there are no gay or lesbian relationships.
For a time after the games initial release, however, a bug in the software allowed two male Miis to marry and procreate, while female couples remained excluded. But Nintendo quickly released a patch that removed those relationship possibilities entirely, reverting the game to its originally intended design supporting solely heterosexual couples. The company issued a statement attempting to clear up any misunderstandings about their intentions, explaining that “same-sex relationships were not possible in the original software” and that their presence actually resulted in a game breaking bug that corrupted save files and stopped players from continuing the game. The controversy was magnified when the company described the occurrence of male couples as “human relations becoming strange”. However, that remark was originally made in Japanese and is widely believed to have translated poorly to English. Regardless, Nintendo was clearly only trying to assist its consumers, but also inadvertently took an unfortunately jarring stance on gay marriage. But before passing judgment on the Japanese gaming giant, it’s important that we understand the context of the situation in more depth. We know Tomodachi Collection was designed and released without addressing the presence and reality of gay and lesbian relationships in society, which is either a severely egregious oversight or a calculated omission, but which is it?
Tomodachi life is one of my favorite video games but lately its been getting me pretty frustrated. No amount of internet searching has really helped. The problem is that one of my mii couples have been dating for about a half a year and both their relationship statuses are 'Lets get married!' But neither of them have proposed yet.
Nintendo is a Japanese company, and Tomodachi Collection is a game designed with Japanese society in mind. Gay marriage is not yet legal in Japan, though there is no law against homosexual relationships, and same-sex sexual activity was legalized in 1880. However, same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protection offered to straight couples, and are unable to seek legal action when subjected to discrimination in any area of their life (though certain cities have installed laws preventing such acts). The Japan Self-Defense Forces have stated that sexual orientation is not a factor in their enlistment policies, and teachers in every level of education often come out with little to no trouble. So, Japanese society accepts the presence of homosexuality but has yet to grant gays and lesbians equal rights. When polled in 2013, 54% of Japanese citizens said they thought homosexuality should be accepted in their country. Interestingly, an overwhelming amount of those who opposed the idea were members of older generations. On top of all that, political parties rarely address the subject directly, so it’s clear that Japan can’t quite agree on its stance on the matter. With such varied opinions in the populace, it seems Nintendo chose not to risk rattling the cages of the Japanese radicals and instead took the “safe route” by pretending their game design had no issues and ignoring the possibility of same-sex marriage completely.
At the end of the day Nintendo is a company, and companies are designed to make money. There were obviously concerns about the possible backlash that could have resulted from a game that made such a blatant statement about gay rights in a country that has anything but a universal opinion on the matter. Nintendo probably hoped to escape any form of controversy by side-stepping the reality of same-sex marriage and only presenting “traditional” heterosexual couples. However, in the current age of equal rights activism and other life simulators like The Sims that openly accept same-sex couples, Nintendo’s approach is absolutely archaic. Yes, it’s the company’s first foray into the realistic life simulator genre and its first game to allow players to create their own character couples. But when variety in sexual orientation is such a present entity in modern life, its exclusion in Tomodachi Collection is in severely poor taste.
For all their innovation and experimentation in hardware and game design, Nintendo has always been careful not to offend any groups through the content in their games. Omitting same-sex couples from Tomodachi Collection was most likely done in an effort to avoid alienating the percentage of the population that doesn’t approve of gay marriage. However, the forced removal of male couples from the game highlighted a gross lack of progressive thinking on behalf of the Japanese company that has instead offended the opposite party. It’s true that gay rights are a divisive topic in many countries, but when a game is designed around recreating modern life and marriage you will inevitably end up upsetting someone. Tomodachi Life is a life simulator, and as such it should reflect real life, where gay, straight, bisexual and transgender individuals are all present. I believe it would be in Nintendo’s best interest to be on the progressive side of this issue, as it would undoubtedly benefit from that position in the long run. The world is heading towards universal acceptance of sexual orientation, and when a portion of consumers will inevitably disagree with the content of the game it would be best to take a civilized stance.
These issues seem to be just as present in the localized version of Tomodachi Life arriving on 3DS in the West on June 6, but it’s important to note that while Nintendo has yet to offer the option of same-sex relationships in their massively popular franchise, it also hasn’t made any statements that would lead consumers to believe the company is in any way opposed to the idea. Such bad press will undoubtedly force the game’s designers to rethink their approach to the issue, and unless we hear otherwise I think it’s safe to assume that we will see same-sex couples in the next version of Tomodachi Life, if not in some sort of DLC or patch for the current title. In the meantime, the game’s lack of sexual choice will obviously be a deal breaker for some, but let’s all remember that the omission of gay and lesbian couples in Tomodachi Collection was a result not of spite, but of a company afraid to change with the times.
I started playing Tomodachi Life, the Mii sim from the 3DS, again. I love the game’s wacky humor and neat things you can do. And I started to think: what if Nintendo did a sequel for the Nintendo Switch? What would Tomodachi Life be like on Switch? Here are some ideas from me!
What do you get when you put together a bunch of Miis on an island? You may get something like Tomodoachi Life for the 3DS!
For those who didn’t play the game, Tomodachi Life is a sim where you put Miis into apartments and then you have to feed them, dress them, give them different looks from their apartments, watch them get together, break up, and even get married and have kids with other Miis. Basically, Tomodachi Life is sort of like the Sims but less three dimensional and you didn’t have to worry about bathroom breaks. The humor in Tomodachi Life is pretty weird. I love the game!
However we haven’t heard anything about a sequel for the game. I don’t know how well the game sold. That hasn’t stopped Nintendo from doing a sequel to a game anyway if they really want to.
Tomodachi Life How To Get Married Fast
So what if a sequel of Tomodachi Life was made for the Nintendo Switch? What would that be like?
Well, on the 3DS, it was very easy to make Miis and also share them via QR codes. The Switch does have a Mii maker and it has a few more features than the 3DS one. So no problem there. That said, there is no camera on the Switch so you couldn’t do QR codes for sharing. My hope is that Nintendo would let you put your Miis online and other people could download them.
I think a Tomodachi Life on the Switch would be more three dimensional than the one of the 3DS. This time, you get to see your Miis walking around in a 3D world. Just like in the 3DS game, you are still the player. Unseen, in first person mode and interacting with your Miis. Maybe Tomodachi Life could be a handheld only game on the Switch. It would be a perfect fit on the Switch Lite!
The Miis would still have apartments, there would still be shops and other things you could do. I’d like to see the Miis be a bit smarter and for the world around them to seem more alive. So maybe Tomodachi Life could be a bit more like the Sims, without bathroom breaks and speeded up time though. Time could still be normal, like Animal Crossing.
Then again, maybe Tomodachi Life on the Switch should be different. Instead of a direct sequel, this time you play as a Mii and live in a Mii world. You can put some of your own Miis in there but other Miis appear too. A 3D world where you can explore, visit shops, work, get married, and more. That could be very interesting.
Tomodachi Life How To Get Married Fast
Either way they go, Nintendo should do a Tomodachi Life sequel for the Switch! The Miis need to make a big return.
Would you play Tomodachi Life for the Nintendo Switch? What do you want the game to be like??
Tomodachi Life Free
Next week: I’ve played New Super Lucky’s Tale!! What do you think about it? I’ll tell you all about it next week.
More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. Time to play some Tomodachi Life!