I made exactly three mistakes when I started Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. My first was turning myself into a Mii and tossing my tiny doppelgänger onto the game’s island. My second was having my real life girlfriend move in next door to my Mii’s one-bedroom house. My third — and most critical — error was introducing Bethesda Game Studios executive director Todd Howard to the neighborhood.
See, Nintendo’s wacky new life sim is supposed to be a tropical escape from a world full of modern anxiety. It’s an absurd take on The Sims where all you have to do is sit back and watch your Miis interact with one another. It’s a digital paradise where everyone is your friendly neighbor… or so I thought, until I created a smirking caricature of Skyrim’s director who eventually butted into my personal affairs. Because of Tomodachi Life, I now have an archnemesis. His name is Todd.
At first, the simulation I set up was all going according to plan. I thought it would be cute to add my girlfriend and I to the game so we could watch our Miis naturally carry out our love story. Almost immediately, my Mii developed a crush on hers in the first few hours and spent some time pining from the sidelines with googly eyes. Over the course of a few sessions, I played wingman for myself. I encouraged my Mii to ask my digitized girlfriend out. But, like me, he was too shy to pull the trigger. Todd smelled blood.
After moseying into the scene with his little shit-eating grin, the Bethesda bully bonded with my girlfriend over Oblivion, so they decided to become roommates. And soon after that, Todd developed a crush on her and started making his own moves. My Mii’s hesitation had landed me at the heart of a reality TV drama, and I was about to be humiliated in front of everyone by the guy who directed Starfield.
Perhaps sensing the stakes, my Mii told me that he was ready to ask his crush out. About time. I told him to meet her over at the restaurant in town and confess his love. He nailed it, delivering an impassioned speech before asking her out. It was perfect… until Todd Howard appeared from the booth next to hers. He interrupted to instead confess his love, leaving my girlfriend’s Mii to choose — a decision that would no doubt shape our real relationship depending on how she answered. Thankfully, she chose me, leaving behind a very depressed Todd.
As a God-like figure in charge of taking care of all my Miis, I felt a pang of guilt as I watched the heartbroken guy sulk around. To make it up to Todd, I decided to craft a custom item that would lessen the blow. I drew an open-world scene on a Nintendo Switch screen and labeled it Skyrim. He was overjoyed and started proudly parading around with the Elder Scrolls game he directed. Problem solved.
But Todd became a menace from this point on. Skyrim started to become a pervasive force on my island. Characters talked about it constantly. I caught Todd dreaming about getting showered in copies of Skyrim. Even other Bethesda games became a topic of conversation after I programmed Todd to chat with the islanders about them. The Rizzler told me he wanted to get into “developing Fallout,” no doubt poisoned by Todd. My girlfriend moved out of his house and in with me, but Mariska Hargitay and Charli XCX moved in and dubbed themselves “Todd Heads.” The man was amassing a Mii cult in response to being dumped.
Time went on. More Miis moved in who became popular among the locals. Soon everyone was more interested in talking to David Lynch and Garfield. Todd’s relationship opportunities dried up as my other Miis paired off, and he became a local eccentric who could be spotted on the street playing one of his games on Switch. Meanwhile, my girlfriend and I were thriving. After a successful cohabitation, my Mii popped the question. We got married in a ceremony attended by Todd. I had defeated him, and my Mii’s life was at peace.
But I did not get the final word. My daughter did.
One morning, I logged into my island to find that my wife and I were holding a baby. Yes, Miis can have children in Tomodachi Life, as the game will combine two character’s features together to create a kid. In a delightful scene, my wife and I met our infant daughter for the first time. She cooed, as if she was already about to speak. We listened with baited breath as she let out her first word: “Skyrim.” Game set match.
I’m not telling you all this simply to curse Todd Howard. Rather, these anecdotes explain the weird appeal of Tomodachi Life better than I ever could. It’s an absurd life sim where you give the game a set of dominos to arrange, and then wait to see how they fall. Teach your Miis to talk about financial crime, put former New York City mayor Eric Adams in the game, and then watch the simulation naturally mix those two things together to make accidental comedy. The emergent stories that unfold can be as entertaining to watch as reality TV.
I’m eager to keep playing just to see how else Todd Howard can poison my island. Can another eccentric Mii wipe away his influence? Will he find love? Can I get him back by getting his firstborn child’s first words to be New Vegas? Find out next time on my current save of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream!
