Since their introduction in 2006, I’ve largely viewed Miis as creepy little things. Sure, some of them are cute–anytime I buy a new Nintendo console, I spend a few minutes attempting to make my Mii a bit less offputting–but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a growing sense of dread in the pit of my stomach the first time I fired up my Wii U and saw them all run toward the screen en masse: a tiny stampede of ever-smiling, soulless bobbleheads. I silently judged fellow Animal Crossing: New Leaf players who chose to import their Mii’s face rather than use the game’s default settings to create a slightly less-cursed look for their player character. If, a few weeks ago, you’d asked me my opinion on Miis, I’d have probably responded that they occupy the same spot in my heart as those freaky little Bitmoji avatars people plaster all over Snapchat.
But after sinking over 50 hours into Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, my feelings have done a total 180. I’ll admit it: I love Miis. Not just because they’ve gotten cuter (though they have). Not just because there are more Mii customization options available than ever before (though there are). I love them because in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, Miis feel alive–far more alive than the characters I create in The Sims 4 ever have.
The customization was what first hooked me. Whereas The Sims 4 only has 24 hair-color options–something I’ve been baffled by for years–Tomodachi Life has 100 shades to choose from, all of which can be used for Miis’ hair, skin, and eyes. Want a four-eyed Hearthian à la Outer Wilds? You got it. Want to create Adventure Time’s Princess Bubblegum? Easy-peasy. Players can even choose a secondary hair color for an ombré or highlighted look, and bangs can be styled separately from the rest of a Mii’s hair. The game’s custom face-paint option allows for infinite possibilities only limited by the player’s imagination and artistic skill.
Then you have the Palette House, an unlockable building that allows players to create quite literally anything they want. The color options here are endless–players have access to the full spectrum of color and can adjust the shade, tint, and saturation to their heart’s content. The Palette House is like Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ custom pattern-maker on steroids. Using the Palette House, players can create custom clothes, custom houses (with custom flooring and custom wallpaper), custom “treasures” (effectively toys for one’s Miis), custom items to decorate their island, and even custom food for Miis to eat.
But looks aren’t everything. What really brings Miis to life are their personalities. Players can tweak these personalities during Mii creation, but they also have baked-in preferences like favorite foods. Miis aren’t afraid to make their preferences known, either–when I fed one of my Miis a food he hated, a brief (and hilarious) cutscene played, depicting his soul physically leaving his body.
In addition to the preferences they’re “born” with, Miis can also be given Little Quirks: player-chosen attributes that range from restless sleeping to a penchant for public farting. Once you start adding Little Quirks, Miis really start to come alive, and begin to feel more like the Miis they’re meant to be. For example, after creating Princess Bubblegum, I naturally had to make her girlfriend, Marceline the Vampire Queen. Due to Tomodachi Life’s fantastic customization options, she certainly looks the part, but it’s the Little Quirks that make her feel like Marceline. The “floats instead of walking” quirk allows her to hover in the air just like the character she’s based on, and the “night owl” quirk means she prefers to fill her social calendar with after-dark activities, as any true vampire would. Combined with the playable guitar I gave her during her most recent level-up, this Mii doesn’t just look like Marceline: She behaves like her.
Of course, The Sims 4 allows for plenty of personality-tweaking, too, and–at least on paper–it’s far more in-depth than anything you’ll see in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. But in practice, all of my Sims behave more or less the same, as most aspects of Sims’ personalities are implemented in a player-facing manner via “moodlets.” If I create a Sim who dislikes children, she’ll get a negative “moodlet” after interacting with one, but that’s about it. She won’t glare at nearby kids or recoil from them. My Sim might be in a bad mood because I made her interact with a kid, but she’s unlikely to actually tell a Sim-kid to go kick rocks. The Sims 4 constantly tells me how my Sims are feeling, but it rarely shows me.
What makes Miis stand out is the fact that their personalities are largely displayed externally. Sure, sometimes they’ll flag me down, break the fourth wall, and demand that I feed them. But if I create a Mii with the “scaredy cat” Little Quirk, they’re not just going to let me know they’re scared–they’ll make it evident to everyone. If they get startled by one of their friends, they’ll jump, yelp, and then sprint back to their house, slamming the door behind them and bending down to catch their breath. My Sims can literally die of fright, but most of the information I have about their emotions comes from the player-facing “moodlet” icons rather than actual behavior.
Nintendo has also managed to implement extremely well-polished autonomous Mii behavior in a way EA hasn’t really managed to with The Sims 4. To be fair, The Sims 4 is a much more complex game with much more content than Tomodachi Life, but it’s also taken EA over a decade to get the game working properly, and developers are just now getting around to working out the kinks in Sim behavior–especially autonomous behavior. In Tomodachi Life, however, the transition between player-controlled behavior and autonomous behavior is seamless. I can drag my Marceline Mii over to Princess Bubblegum, and make them interact, but they’ll also interact with each other without my input. I can then interrupt them mid-interaction to give them food, change their clothes, or tweak their appearance, and when I’m done, they’ll go right back to whatever they were doing before, whether they were having a chat or practicing ballet together. Any longtime Sims 4 player knows that getting a Sim to actually do what you tell them to–let alone in a timely manner–is like pulling teeth, and only gets more complicated when you try to involve another Sim. Come to think of it, even with the free will setting turned on, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my Sims go for a casual stroll together, or have a lovers’ quarrel–things my Miis do frequently.
To be fair, The Sims 2 did autonomy and personality quite well–back then, Sims had memories, autonomous emotional reactions to romantic betrayals, and would generally do something more exciting than sit around watching TV when left to their own devices. But as the series has progressed, Sims have become less like simulated humans and more like digital paper dolls. On one hand, I get it–too much autonomy can get in the way of the story a player might wish to tell with their Sims. But even with Sim autonomy fully enabled, it often feels like my Sims’ personalities are only working about 50% of the time. The other half of the time, they act, move, and behave just like all of my other Sims.
My Miis, on the other hand, continue to surprise me. They get into arguments, take each other on dates, develop crushes, and meet up in large groups to socialize. They show off their belongings, have opinions on the food and outfits I give them, and get dragged into messy love triangles. Sims may have wants and aspirations, but these are mostly expressed to the player via the game’s UI, not shown via Sims’ behavior. Miis even have dreams, but the game doesn’t just tell me about those dreams–it allows me to actually witness what’s happening in my Miis’ unconscious mind via amusing (and often relatable) little dream-sequence cutscenes.
Miis even have opinions. Mere moments after I created a Mii version of Starlight from The Boys, she laid eyes on the Mii version of Samara from The Ring, and it was love at first sight. Later, Starlight addressed me directly, and asked for advice on how to share her feelings with Samara. Surprisingly, I was given the option to ask Starlight what she thought she should do. She ultimately settled on waiting it out to see if Samara confessed her love first. (Which was probably wise–rushing into a relationship with a ghost girl who haunts TV sets sounds like a recipe for a bad time.)
Speaking of time, Tomodachi Life’s slow pacing is another breath of fresh air. In The Sims 4, I can pair two Sims up, speedrun a romance, and end up with a little Sim-baby in under an hour. Miis, however, take a bit more convincing–and a bit more time–before they’re willing to tie the knot, let alone think about reproducing. It took me multiple days to take my first Mii couple from dating to married with children, which made the little bundle of joy’s arrival even more exciting.
I’m not saying Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a better game than The Sims 4. It’s a very different game, and a much more simplified one. But the parts that matter–things like appearance, clothing and decor customization, autonomous interaction, and external displays of personality–are surprisingly well-polished. Sure, the game could stand to have a bit more content (I’d love to see weather implemented in a future update, for example), but the features it does have are fun, fleshed-out, and bug-free. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream actually reminds me a lot of the very first entry in The Sims franchise. 2000’s The Sims didn’t need 100+ DLC packs or a year-long roadmap of bug fixes or a ridiculous paid mod scheme to be fun. It launched as a complete product, and sold like hotcakes as a result.
The gaming market has obviously changed in the years since The Sims was first released, but life-sim consumers haven’t changed that much, as evidenced by the fact that Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is selling like hotcakes, too.
There’s a lot of discourse in the life-sim community regarding a mythical “Sims killer”: a hypothetical game that will take The Sims 4’s crown and prove that EA isn’t the only company that can make a great digital dollhouse. First it was Life By You, which ended up being canceled just days before its early-access release date. Then it was InZoi, which ended up being visually stunning but underbaked and full of generative AI. Next up is Paralives, which is set to release in early access later this month after an eleventh-hour delay was announced before its original November 2025 release date.
But after being repeatedly let down by EA’s endless output of overpriced, underwhelming Sims 4 DLC packs–and routinely being disappointed by canceled or delayed “Simslikes”–I’m starting to realize I don’t necessarily want a Sims clone. I just want a life-sim that feels alive. Between the continued improvement and support for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the whimsical, charming, bug-free world of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, I’m starting to think EA could stand to learn a thing or two from Nintendo, and I’m not alone. A recent tweet from a frustrated Sims 4 player in the wake of its paid mod scandal sums up my feelings pretty well.
“Full of bugs and microtransaction slop? Our weekend’s full too, but with something else,” the player wrote in response to an X post announcing yet another Sims 4 collab no one asked for.
“We’re ditching you for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream,” they added, sharing an image of several popular premade Sims characters in Mii form. “And we’re taking your guys with us.”
I’m not saying that Tomodachi Life is the long-awaited “Sims killer.” I’m just saying I’ve spent more time playing it in the month since its release than I’ve spent with my Sims all year. I hope EA’s next entries in The Sims franchise–Project Rene and Project X–aren’t microtransaction-riddled nightmares. But if they are, that’s okay. I’ll just be over here living the dream with my adorable, endlessly customizable Miis.
