Since the wacky life sim series kicked off in 2009, Nintendo’s Tomodachi Life has been like a big, beloved dollhouse where players watch their Miis get into the weirdest relationships possible. There’s just been one caveat: until today, Miis have never been allowed to be gay.
Just seconds into Thursday’s Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Direct, Nintendo confirmed that players will finally be able to make their Miis queer through a surprisingly inclusive settings menu that occurs during the usual Mii creation process. Players can pick each Mii’s “dating preferences,” allowing them to date and marry multiple genders (or none at all).
Possibly more impressively was the game’s use of the word “nonbinary” as a third gender option, which comes as a surprise for fans—in recent Nintendo games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the developer has evaded the topic by including two ambiguous options called “styles” that are still tied to traditional perceptions of gender. Adding the term, and an entire third gender option, is a massive step forward for the developer.
In 2014’s Tomodachi Life, Miis were forced to be heterosexual and be solely male or female, so queer players resorted to using various mods. Another common workaround for the marriage issue, and my personal favorite, was setting one Mii up as the other gender and just ignoring the game’s pronouns (and annoying little comments on them disliking any gendered clothes they wore).
Nintendo’s decision to leave gay marriage out of Tomodachi Life, the first game in the series to be released outside of Japan, drew quite a bit of criticism. In 2014, fans petitioned for Nintendo to add gay marriage, and Nintendo responded pretty harshly. At one point, there was even a rumored bug that allowed gay marriage, and a strange translation of some Japanese patch notes made fans believe Nintendo had cruelly patched it out.
Just a few days after its first statement, however, Nintendo circled back with a slightly more empathetic promise: “We pledge that if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players.”
Players have anticipated the addition of gay marriage to the game since then, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Still, after nearly 12 years of anticipation, it’s just a huge relief that we got some confirmation today (with the added bonus of a nonbinary option, which nobody seemed to expect). I’m not the only person who’s relieved after today’s announcement—the livestream’s comments were flooded with gay flag emojis, and a quick glance in the game’s Subreddit makes it pretty clear that everyone else is delighted.
I personally cannot wait to have a more diverse island, and I’m honestly thrilled to make my poor little Miis get into some even messier relationships when Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream releases on April 16.