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Tomodachi Collection

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Tomodachi Collection
Cover art
DeveloperNintendo SPD
PublisherNintendo
DirectorRyutaro Takahashi
ProducerYoshio Sakamoto
DesignersMai Okamoto
Masanori Nakagawa
ComposersDaisuke Shiiba
Asuka Itou
PlatformNintendo DS
Release
  • JP: June 18, 2009
GenreSocial simulation
ModeSingle-player

Tomodachi Collection[a] is a 2009 social simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS solely in Japan. Directed by Ryutaro Takahashi, the game follows the daily interactions between user-created Miis, all of whom reside on a remote island overseen by the player.

The game was initially formulated by junior Nintendo employees in October 2005 as an imitation of the Nintendo-published fortune-telling video game Tottoko Hamtaro: Tomodachi Daisakusen Dechu. Originally titled Otona no Onna no Uranai Techō, its character creation system served as the progenitor for what would formally become the Miis. The team was reassigned to implement the Miis onto the Wii console, during which the game's production was put on hold. Following the Wii's release in December 2006, the project restarted as Tomodachi Collection. Developers sought to create a distinctive and engaging gameplay experience that emphasized the human-like characteristics of the Miis, whom players were incentivized to create in the image of their real-world friends and family.

Tomodachi Collection released in Japan on June 18, 2009 and was a domestic commercial success, selling 3.2 million copies by March 31, 2010. Following unrealized plans to localize the title overseas, Tomodachi Collection was followed up by the internationally-released sequel Tomodachi Life for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. Another sequel, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, is scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch in 2026.

Gameplay

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A screenshot of a human-like Mii character inside their apartment, currently requesting player assistance with a particular issue.
Screenshot of a Mii, who currently has a problem, inside their apartment.

Tomodachi Collection is a social simulation game[1] featuring a cast of user-created Mii avatars, together populating an apartment complex located on an island.[2] To add Miis, the player can transfer Miis directly from their Wii to their Nintendo DS, import them from other players' DS consoles via wireless local connectivity, or create new ones using the in-game Mii Maker. In either case, the player manually modifies their Miis' appearance and personality.[1] There are four temperament categories Miis can occupy, which, alongside their assigned date of birth, conjures an "ideal job" that matches them.[3]

Upon creation, Miis request assistance with a particular problem at random intervals. These include asking for food, clothing, occasional guidance on prospective relationships, and player participation in short minigames.[2][4] Satisfying their needs advances their level, upon which the player can gift them new clothes, interior designs for their apartment, personalized catchphrases, or songs for them to perform.[2][3] Completing minigames awards the player with valuables that can be exchanged for in-game currency. The player can optionally eavesdrop on the Miis' dreams while they sleep.[2]

Outside of the player's influence, the Miis regularly interact with each other, forming friendships and occasional conflict. If two friendly Miis share romantic attraction, one can confess their love to the other, which if successful pairs them as a couple. Marriage can occur following additional interactions.[2] As the player continuously appeases the Miis, new venues and shops on the island become unlocked. These include a "Career Hall" where jobs are formally assigned to Miis, a "Compatibility Tester" that gauges two Miis' likelihood of friendship, and a vendor for purchasing apartment interiors. An in-universe news broadcast occurs regularly to inform the player of recent events on the island.[2]

Development

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Prototype of Otona no Onna no Uranai Techō's character creation system, featuring a rudimentary Mii character on a pink background.
Prototype of Otona no Onna no Uranai Techō's character creation system, similar to that demonstrated to Shigeru Miyamoto.[5]

Tomodachi Collection's concepualization occurred around October 2005 by a small team of junior employees[6] at Nintendo SPD.[3][7] Its premise was inspired by the 2000 fortune-telling Hamtaro video game Tottoko Hamtaro: Tomodachi Daisakusen Dechu, published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color exclusively in Japan. Seeking to elevate the DS' appeal for adult women, the team envisioned a derivative version of Tottoko Hamtaro geared to the demographic titled Otona no Onna no Uranai Techō (大人のオンナの占い手帳, lit."The Adult Woman's Fortune-Telling Notebook").[3] The game featured a character creation mechanism where players could manually combine discrete facial elements to create caricatures of real-world people. Director Ryutaro Takahashi demonstrated the prototype to President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata in January 2006,[3] upon which he further relayed it to Shigeru Miyamoto, who at the time was working on the then-upcoming Wii console with a separate development team.[8] Miyamoto had attempted to implement character creation mechanics in games for more than a decade, but suffered technical limitations and repeated negative pushback from his team.[9][7] Upon viewing the prototype, Miyamoto told his coworkers, "You guys are useless," briefly switching teams to assist in developing the character creator.[8] Seeing promise in the concept, he petitioned for the character creator to be integrated as pack-in software for the Wii. Miyamoto was met with internal concern over the caricatures, executives believing they were too rudimentary and often not perfectly accurate. Once hearing Miyamoto's reasoning that most older users would find joy in the software regardless, most of the Wii staff agreed to implement the character creation system, which would become the foundation for Miis.[3]

Development on Otona no Onna no Uranai Techō was halted around August 2006 following the team's internal reassignment as lead producers of the Wii's Mii Channel abroad. Leading up to the debut of the Wii in December 2006, Takahashi reimagined Otona no Onna no Uranai Techō as a simulation title appealing to all ages and genders, as the DS had already attained popularity with women.[3][7] The project formally restarted in April 2007 under the title Tomodachi Collection, "tomodachi" being the Japanese word for "friend".[9][7] Seeking to fully utilize the Miis, Takahashi characterized Tomodachi Collection's new directoral framework as "the ultimate family software that just makes you want to get up and show it to people."[7] Producer Yoshio Sakamoto visualized Tomodachi Collection as a laid-back and entertaining method for players to strengthen their real-world connections to friends and family, whom the Miis are intended to represent. Sakamoto found the concept of passively observing the day-to-day activities of the Miis as engaging.[3]

One of the team's goals was to give the Miis individualized personalities, diverging from their sole status in previous games as symbolic avatars.[3] Much of the game's surreal comedy and writing was penned by programmer Masanori Nakagawa, who worked closely with art director Mai Okamoto.[3][10] One of Nakagawa's contributions was proposing that Miis be able to sing, which led to them also being given conversational speech capabilities.[3] Daisuke Shiiba joined the team as Tomodachi Collection's lead sound designer in March 2008.[3] Shiiba left the project during the game's last six months of development, with Asuka Itou taking his place as lead composer. Both Shiiba and Itou characterized the soundtrack of Tomodachi Collection as "cheap-feeling" and simplistic, unintended to be a core facet of the game's identity.[7] For instance, when creating the theme that plays when the player idly monitors the island, Shiiba chose to develop "a melody that sounded like someone who wasn't very good at playing the recorder."[3] The two spoke of the composition process as nevertheless challenging due to Tomodachi Collection's distinctive and eccentric atmosphere, finding outside inspiration difficult to come by.[3][7] Shiiba recalled struggling to establish a balance between making the game's songs unconventional yet pleasing to listen to.[3]

Release

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Tomodachi Collection released as a Japan-exclusive title on June 18, 2009.[2] Miis debuted on the DS worldwide one year earlier in 2008, in the title Personal Trainer: Walking.[3] Following the debut of Tomodachi Collection, Nintendo considered localizing the game for overseas audiences. This plan was ultimately scrapped when it was discovered that the voice synthesis program used for the Miis' speech could not accurately replicate English phonemes. Additional concerns were raised regarding a potential lack of appeal outside of Japan.[6][11]

Reception

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Famitsu gave Tomodachi Collection a rating of 29 out of 40.[12] Kawachi, also of Famitsu, praised the game's surreal situational comedy as entertaining and occasionally touching.[2] IGN Japan's Esra Kurabe deemed it well-suited for casual gamers, calling its social simulation premise simple yet comedic.[13] Tomodachi Collection was nominated for the "Award for Excellence" at the Japan Game Awards' 2010 ceremony.[14]

It was a best-selling game in Japan during the week of its release, selling about 102,000 units.[15] By September 28, 2009, it sold 1.15 million copies in total, making it the fourth-best-selling game in Japan in the first half of the 2009 fiscal year.[16] At the end of the 2009–2010 fiscal year on March 31, 2010, Nintendo reported that the game had sold 3.2 million units.[17]

Sequels

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A sequel for the game on the Nintendo 3DS titled Tomodachi Collection: New Life, was released in Japan on April 18, 2013,[18] and on June 6, 2014, in North America and Europe as Tomodachi Life.[19] Much of Tomodachi Collection's staff, including director Ryutaro Takahashi, producer Yoshio Sakamato, and designer Mai Okamoto, returned to develop the sequel.[10] Tomodachi Collection: New Life features an exclusive mechanic whereby players can import Miis from Tomodachi Collection using a dedicated Nintendo eShop application.[20] Among the features newly included in the sequel is the ability for Miis to have children after being married.[10] The game was the best-selling title in Japan during the week of its release, selling 404,858 units.[21]

Another sequel, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, titled Tomodachi Collection: Exciting Life in Japan, is scheduled for release on April 16, 2026 for the Nintendo Switch. It will be backwards-compatibile with the Nintendo Switch 2.[22]

Notes

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  1. ^ Japanese: トモダチコレクション, Hepburn: Tomodachi Korekushon

References

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  1. ^ a b Aetas (June 18, 2009). "友達100人できるかな？ ニンテンドーDSの中でMiiの"トモダチ"と暮らせる「トモダチコレクション」が本日発売" [Can you make 100 friends? "Tomodachi Collection" - where you can live with your Mii friends on the Nintendo DS - goes on sale today]. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Archived from the original on March 20, 2024. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kawachi (June 18, 2025). "『トモダチコレクション』が発売された日。自分や友人のMiiを登録して、架空のマンションで生活する様子を眺めるゲーム。Miiどうしの結婚には思わずニヤニヤ【今日は何の日？】 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com" [The day "Tomodachi Collection" was released. It's a game where you register your own Mii and your friends' Miis and watch them live in a fictional apartment. I couldn't help but grin when I saw Miis getting married. [What day is it today?]]. Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 2, 2025. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "社長が訊く「トモダチコレクション」" [Iwata Asks: Tomodachi Collection] (in Japanese). Nintendo. June 11, 2009. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  4. ^ Hellot, Gregoire (September 1, 2009). "Test : Tomodachi Collection (DS)". Gamekult (in French). Archived from the original on August 23, 2025. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  5. ^ Goldie, Joshua (December 26, 2021). "Feature: From Famicom Disk System To Switch - The Evolution Of Nintendo's Miis". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on May 17, 2025. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
  6. ^ a b Marrujo, Robert (June 5, 2014). "Tomodachi Beginnings". Nintendojo. Archived from the original on December 6, 2025. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Walker, Matt (July 18, 2016). "Game Seminar 2009 - The Road To Completing Tomodachi Collection Part 2 - Feature". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
  8. ^ a b Breckon, Nick (March 7, 2007). "Shigeru Miyamoto GDC 2007 Keynote". Shacknews. Archived from the original on February 15, 2026. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
  9. ^ a b "Iwata Asks - Volume 5 Asking Mr. Miyamoto Right Before Release - Page 2". Nintendo. Archived from the original on August 20, 2025. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  10. ^ a b c "社長が訊く『トモダチコレクション 新生活』｜ニンテンドー3DS｜任天堂" [Iwata Asks: "Tomodachi Collection: New Life" | Nintendo 3DS | Nintendo]. Nintendo (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 5, 2026. Retrieved February 8, 2026.
  11. ^ Parish, Jeremy (July 1, 2016). "E3 2010: No Plans for Tomodachi Collection in America". 1up.com. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  12. ^ "Revue de presse internationale" [International press coverage]. Gamekult (in French). Archived from the original on September 18, 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
  13. ^ Kurabe, Esra (April 30, 2019). "平成の100大ゲームを振り返る !" [The 100 Greatest Games of the Heisei Era!]. IGN Japan (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 18, 2025. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  14. ^ Aetas (September 17, 2010). "［TGS 2010］日本ゲーム大賞2010発表授賞式レポート。経済産業大臣賞は堀井雄二氏，年間作品部門の大賞は「New スーパーマリオブラザーズ Wii」に" [[TGS 2010] Japan Game Awards 2010 Announcement Ceremony Report. The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award went to Yuji Horii, and the Grand Prize in the Game of the Year category went to "New Super Mario Bros. Wii."]. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 15, 2025. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  15. ^ Tanaka, John (June 26, 2009). "Virtual Miis Rule in Japan". IGN. Archived from the original on June 28, 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
  16. ^ 2009年度上半期のゲーム市場規模は前年度同期比10.5パーセント減 [Gaming market decreased 10.5 percent in the first half of the 2009 fiscal year] (in Japanese). Famitsu. October 1, 2009. Archived from the original on October 15, 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
  17. ^ Thorson, Tor (March 31, 2010). "Wii sales near 71 million, DS almost 129 million". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 23, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  18. ^ Cowan, Danny (May 21, 2014). "Tomodachi Life site teases new Nintendo 2DS color variant". Engadget. Archived from the original on February 15, 2026. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  19. ^ Otero, Jose (April 10, 2014). "Tomodachi Life Could Be Nintendo's Next Animal Crossing?". IGN. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
  20. ^ Madden, Orla (April 4, 2013). "Tomodachi Collection: New Life Detailed in Latest Nintendo Direct". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on November 19, 2025. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  21. ^ Sahdev, Ishaan (April 24, 2013). "This Week in Sales: Tomodachi Collection Sees Big Launch Sales". Siliconera. Archived from the original on August 27, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  22. ^ Norman, Jim (January 29, 2026). "Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream Moves In On Switch 1 This April". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on January 29, 2026. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
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