Miis were once a pillar of Nintendo’s marketing and appeal. With their bulbous heads, simple faces, and minimalist designs, these avatars defined the Nintendo Wii generation. They appeared in a wide array of mostly casual games, got added to the Smash lineup, and were copied by Nintendo’s competitors. For half a decade, Miis were mostly a novelty, toiling around in whatever brilliant or bust Wii party game Nintendo developed when it should have been making Project H.A.M.M.E.R. or Super Mario Spikers.

It wasn’t until the Nintendo 3DS that Miis came into full bloom and started to make headway toward reaching their full potential. Well, at least worldwide, as Japan did see Tomodachi Collection there on the Nintendo DS. But I digress.

On the Nintendo 3DS, they became like little collectibles, trading in passing with Street Pass and starring in an assortment of StreetPass Mii Plaza games. They also started to move beyond the party and sports game genres, first with the perfectly fine if unmemorable Pilotwings Resort, followed by Tomodachi Life a few years later and Miitopia in the sunsetting years of the handheld.

A source of joy for these titles was the ease in which you could create and import Miis into your 3DS to utilize in them. On the Wii, you had the Mii Channel, which allowed users to make their own Miis and share them on the Mii Parade, send their Miis to the few Nintendo DS games that supported them (I miss you Personal Trainer: Walking), and transfer them to the Nintendo 3DS. The latter device made creating and sharing Miis even easier with QR codes and the aforementioned StreetPass. At last check, my New Nintendo 2DS XL has more than 2,500 Miis in the Plaza. Having such quick access to such a large number of Miis made jumping the likes of Tomodachi Life and Miitopia a breeze.

Such a system doesn’t exist on the Switch or Switch 2. While Nintendo continued to evolve Miis for use in games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, they were largely deprioritized after the 3DS. With its hybrid consoles, Nintendo opted to forego developing a new Mii creator and sharing app. Players were also unable to import their collection of StreetPass Plaza residents to the console. Instead, we got the bare minimum, a simple Mii maker that’s mostly used to make account avatars. Sportsmates have largely replaced Miis in Nintendo’s sports outings and games like Wii Play, Wii Music, and Nintendo Land have yet to make a reappearance on the new hardware. Sure, you’ll still find them in apps like Pikmin Bloom and Super Mario Run, but Nintendo didn’t even bother tossing them into Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

So what is the point of this drawn out lede and unnecessary history lesson? Well, in my opinion, the lack of Mii infrastructure on the Switch and Switch 2 undercut the general appeal of Miis. With the sleek, simply layout of the Switch user interface that eliminates apps in favor of just games, Miis have easily faded in the background. I don’t know about you, but I have one Mii on my Switch 2 and it’s me. I don’t have family or friends or international terrorists we all created so we could beat them up in the Wii Sports boxing. It’s just me, and when I picked up Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream six months ago, I didn’t know if I had it in me to get back into the Mii maker mindset necessary to get the most out of the game.

If you give a Mii a cookie…

THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU WON’T LET ME EXPORT SCREENSHOTS

Arriving more than a decade after Tomodachi Life brought official Christina Aguilera and Shaq Miis to our handhelds, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is here to close out the Switch and give Switch 2 owners something to tide them over before the next Animal Crossing arrives. Like the last Animal Crossing, Living the Dream takes place on an island you’re given full reign over. Shape the flat land as you want, move houses, trees, and objects at will, and create an island paradise your bevy of Miis will call home.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series and are not one of the eight million or so people who already picked it up, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a humorous social sim where you create Miis, give them personalities, and then watch them interact with one another. As the unseen overseer of this island, you step in, deus ex machina style, to help Miis solve their problems, make decisions, and develop friendships with their neighbors.

Basically, you’re the zookeeper of a human zoo. You feed them when they’re hungry, buy them clothes they’ll absolutely hate (based on my experience), play little games with them, and occasionally drop in to watch a trio of Miis slick their hair back like ’50s greasers as they talk about how many push-ups they did that day. It’s not much of a “game” in the traditional sense, rather a living diorama.

It’s full Porky Pig in a drafty dome.

I ALSO DON’T HAVE AN SD CARD ON MY SWITCH 2, SO I HAVE ZERO OPTIONS FOR GETTING TOMODACHI SCREENSHOTS OFF THAT THING

The challenge for a game like Living the Dream, with an absence of a Mii creation or sharing app on the Switch, is allowing players to get the most out of it before the already lean experience begins to thin out. If you’re the type of person who can spend all day creating characters, have at it. After a slow start introducing the features of the island, you’re given free rein to make up to 70 islanders. The Mii creator included with Living the Dream is quite extensive, allowing you to make detailed and lavish Miis without sacrificing the simplistic design that made them so popular to begin with. You can tweak the various assets that make up their looks, customize their voice, and assign personality traits to match their outside counterparts, though the latter may not always go your way. My Shigeru Miyamoto Mii is a great recreation of the real man. My Aerith Mii, however, is a far cry from her in-game disposition, be it original or Remake.

Of course, you don’t have to base your Miis on existing people. You can make aliens and other creatures if you have the creative spark. If you can’t think of a Mii to make, Living the Dream will create one for you using a few prompts. You can also import Miis from your Switch account or add them from a friend’s island using local play. As of last month, if you have a USB camera attached to your Switch 2, you can scan QR codes to import Miis to the console. It’s a nice feature, though I cannot imagine how often it’ll be used.

Once you make a Mii, you pick where they live on the island and start catering to their needs. The more residents you add, the larger your island grows. The more you help your Miis, the more you level up your island. The more you level up your island, the more buildings and design features you’ll gain access to. Additionally, the more you help your Miis, the higher their level will grow, and with it, access to presents and quirks that help further define their personalities. As your Miis form partnerships and relationships, they’ll move in together, requiring a small or extensive rearranging of your island’s layout to accommodate their space-eating abodes.

A parade of ants. Still awaiting the parade of uncles.

I COULD HAVE MADE THESE IMAGES WITH AI, BUT ZOEY WOULD HAVE KILLED ME

Tomodachi Life was a rather static experience back on the 3DS. On the Switch, Living the Dream breathes. It’s a real joy to zoom in on my island to see Alan Wake Mii using the laptop I gave him on the outdoor table and chair I set up. One time, I caught André 3000 Mii professing his love of a spinning top I gave him to Janine (from Abbott Elementary) Mii and Hemlocke Springs Mii. Just yesterday, I popped in to watch Miyamoto Mii and Link (from Zelda) Mii engage in a foam sword fight. Despite how limiting Living the Dream can feel, you really see the fruit of your labor. I love that I can give Poison Ivy Mii a soccer ball and have her invite Walt Disney Mii to kick it around for a bit.

Without that type of payoff, I don’t think this is a game I’d still be playing. There are a lot of features I loved on the previous Tomodachi Life that got the axe here. No rap battles, no concert hall, no Tomodachi Quest, no word chain; a lot of what made the memory of that game so enduring is gone. In its place, outside of a customizable island and free-roaming residents, is an emphasis on creation. The Palette House Workshop allows players to make original clothes, food, decor, objects, and landscape features. You can also create treasures to gift to your island inhabitants as well as pets that will follow them around. To really get the most out of this game, you’ll need to be the type of person who loves hands-on customization. If you’re not, there are simple templates you can alter. That’s how I created Kawaii Cake—a slice of cake with anime eyes—Bowl o’ Bees—a bowl of oily bees—and Red Rover—a red dog I gave to resident who then turned around and asked me for a dog.

That latter example is one of the downsides of the experience. Living the Dream can be repetitive in a way that works against it. The greaser example I mentioned before? Happened twice with nearly all the same participants in just a couple play sessions. I’ve watched island residents have the same dream almost two days in a row. Mini games can repeat multiple times in a single sitting (and they’re not really that good). Because island activities are randomized, you might end up on the more boring side of the RNG, stuck with multiple Miis asking you to pick heads or tails.

She liked it so she put a ring on it.

I ALSO DIDN’T WANT TO USE THE PRESS PACKET SCREENSHOTS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE

Mii relationships can also develop at varying speeds. Some friendships flounder over weeks and months while others take a fast pass to holy matrimony. Abdul El-Sayed Mii and Dolly Parton Mii met on a Thursday, were dating on Friday, married on Saturday, and had a kid on Monday. By Wednesday, that kid—who quickly grew up in a Pixar-worthy montage—wanted her own place. To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. And if you don’t stop and look around once in a while because you’re too busy reading Doctor Zhivago to get back to playing this game for review, you might miss it.”

Also missing it is anyone who doesn’t buy the game themselves because sharing content from Living the Dream is far more difficult than it should be. Nintendo decided to restrict screenshot and video sharing over the worry of “out of context” screenshots. Considering some of the shit I saw with the Miitomo app, I don’t blame them for going in this direction, but it feels far too much like being nannied. For fuck’s sake, I reviewed Omega Labyrinth Life back on Destructoid, and I could upload those screenshots directly to Twitter. There are ways to get your clips and snips onto your computer, but we shouldn’t have to go through any separate steps to do so. I guess, given all the negative press Nintendo got with the last Tomodachi Life, cold feet won out.

The largest issue for me goes back to the point I touched on in the lede. To unlock everything in a somewhat timely manner, you’re going to need a lot of island residents. To get a lot of island residents, you’re likely going to need to spend a lot of time making Miis. If you’re not the type of person who can sit there for long stretches of time, turning your favorite celebrities and crushes into robotic-voiced avatars, it might mean you end up spending more time than you’d like on an unfinished and underpopulated island, playing your third straight game of Shadow Quiz because you can’t possibly spend another minute trying to figure out which mouth best suites your Kake Mii.

That’s supposed to be Solid Snake and Zelda in New Zealand. Is that not clear from the picture?

I PROBABLY COULD HAVE USED A FEW MORE LESSONS WITH ART ACADEMY

Those early days of struggling to get into the right mindset are long behind me and I’ve come to appreciate Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream despite its faults. Yes, it would have been nice for Nintendo to give us an easy way to share Miis online—even a “Justin Bailey” password system would be acceptable—and sure, I’d love to be able to see my Diane Keaton Mii and Megan thee Stallion aka Tina Snow Mii engage in a rap battle, but I think what’s here is good enough to keep me popping in to say hello, even if it’s just for a couple minutes a few times throughout the day. That style of play comes naturally with mobile games and logging in to collect my daily rewards, less so with a console title that takes a dozen or so seconds to load up and shut down.

For the more creative among us, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is an appealing last hurrah for the Switch that is swimming with artistic opportunities. For everyone else, it’s something that, despite its shallow nature, aims to put a smile on your face with its goofy, irreverent humor.

6/10

This review was conducted using a physical Nintendo Switch copy of the game. It was paid for by the author.