Shall We Do It? (Tomodachi Life)

Even after all of the forehead-smacking, hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing that followed Nintendo of America's ham-fisted and tone-deaf response to consumer complaints that its recently released 3DS title, Tomodachi Life, wouldn't feature same-sex couplings, I still went ahead and picked up a copy of this quirky "life sim" (of sorts) at launch.

Although I've since spent about eight hours with the game, I'm not yet sure what I think about it. Oh, it's definitely cute, and there's no question it has a surprisingly sharp sense of humor, but it's also true that all of the above's already starting to wear a bit thin with me.

Anyway, compare my experience so far with this title to, say, the one I've had with Animal Crossing: New Leaf--a 3DS cart I played for a couple of hundred hours (OK, maybe more) before any feelings of burnout set in--and it should be clear why I'm currently a bit skeptical as to how long Tomodachi Life's content is going to continue to appeal to me.

It doesn't help, of course, that Tomodachi Life is far less engaging--in my personal opinion, of course--than New Leaf. In part, that's because in the latter, players fully control their avatars as they race around town picking fruit, planting flowers and plucking fish from the sea, but in the former, all players do is tap the screens of their 3DSes now and then in an effort to see what their avatars are thinking or to hand them food, clothing or other presents.

I fully understand and appreciate that Nintendo's designers likely went this route in order to create an experience that's as far removed from the company's Animal Crossing series as possible, but the fact is that I would've much preferred it if they'd simply made Tomodachi Life be something along the lines of "New Leaf with Miis and a closer-to-real-life setting."

Other than all of that, some of you probably are wondering how I feel about the title's aforementioned lack of what's known to most North Americans as "marriage equality." Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot to say about that aspect of Tomodachi Life either, as my lookalike Mii has yet to form a romantic bond with any of his neighbors, gender be damned.

Once that finally happens, though, I'll let all of you know how I feel about it in a future installment of "Shall We Do It?"

I'd expect those feelings to be more positive than negative, by the way, as my lookalike Mii's technically a female--I made him look and sound male--and as a result he should earn the affections of one of his burg's (it's called Rainbow Island--creative, I know), uh, "fully male" ("truly male"?) counterparts.

(Please don't take the above to mean I'm OK with Nintendo of America's decision to leave lesbian, gay and bi relationships out of Tomodachi Life, as that's the complete opposite of how I feel about the situation. I'm glad a workaround of sorts exists for folks like myself who want the experience to be as gay as humanly possible, but I can guarantee you that should the company release a follow-up for the 3DS' successor that fails to fully allow and embrace such pairings, I'll ignore it without batting an eye.)

It's possible, though, he'll attract the isle's lone lesbian--Madonna, who's male "below the covers" but in all other aspects is the cat-eyed, beauty-marked "Queen of Pop" we all know and love (or love to hate, in the case of some of you).

Here's hoping that's not how things play out and my lookalike will start macking on Tomonobu Itagaki, Hiroshi Yamauchi or, uh, Fox Mulder, while Madonna will hook up with Princess Zelda, Gwen Stefani or Steffi Graf.

In the meantime, are any of you also playing Tomodachi Life? If so, what do you think about it at this point in time?

See also: previous 'Shall We Do It?' posts