The only way people ever understood Tomodachi's life was as a sequel

I see my phone light up with an Instagram message from my lifelong best friend, only to open it to see a video of Mia whose entire face is an anus and whose voice is a fart. This was her introduction to Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, and in the weeks since, I can't count the number of times she's asked me, “What game is this?” as it sends wave after wave of reels into my inbox.

The first Tomodachi Life launched in the US in 2014, and while we were both huge Nintendo fans who could barely put down our 3DS handhelds, the game somehow missed it. On the other hand, I've been playing since it came out and I can't say enough how excited I am to finally have a sequel. But with social media now much more prevalent and more people owning a Switch than ever had a 3DS, it was the perfect recipe to get people to finally pay attention to a strange Nintendo title.

Let your imagination run wild (even if it's really, really wild)

Even though I finished the original game back then, I sold it at some point, a decision I regretted when the nostalgia kicked in a few years ago. When I went to eBay and spent way too much money to buy the game again, I no longer wanted to have my friends and family on the island as I believe Nintendo intended. Instead, I set myself the task of creating the weirdest, weirdest Miis.

Mii with their own Imperial Chamber interior in Tomodachi Life Living the Dream.

On the island I affectionately named Lil Freak Island, we had residents like Brock with his broccoli hat and all-green wardrobe, Hole, whose entire face I managed to squeeze into the gaping void of a mouth in the center of his head, and Jeeb, the wide-eyed reigning queen of the island who owns every color of ornate crown to pair with the golden bedroom she keeps with her gold.

But the real joy came when they all started to fall in love and have children, because oh my god, the babies looked even more special than their parents. Horrible combinations of already disparate traits passed down to new generations of ugly Miis that mix bloodlines in ways I never imagined.

The children eventually grew up and fell in love with each other, repeating the process even further to randomly spit out a third generation of freaks. It was… beautiful.

I ran out of Miis to eventually marry – the island is only so big, so the branches of the family tree quickly twisted in the third generation – but it was a huge source of joy that I carried gallantly into the sequel, not knowing how many more people would join the parade of weirdness that the Mii creator would come up with this time around.

Stressed Mii in Tomodachi Life Living the Dream.

Living my dream of seeing more people play one of my favorite games

When I was running the demo for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, my partner watched me make some horror movies for the new island. He meets Mii-Stake, a bean of a man with huge purple glasses and a pink mustache that looks like a septum ring, and Meeft, a tiny guy with huge eyeballs and the mouth of a bloodhound.

Rounding out the three demo Miis was Collars, a woman with hot dog skin, minty Wolverine hair, and a wiry beard that I stretched to her chin to give all her shirts and dresses an immovable, eternally black collar. With my Miis under house arrest until full boot, I gleefully showed my partner Lil Freak Island after digging out my 3DS one more time, assuring him that I can and will make even worse Miis since Mii Creator has grown so much since the first game.

Meanwhile, in the intervening weeks, my best friend kept the stream of social media posts flowing, texting me lots of critters and crazies as the time ticked down to full launch. My Instagram inbox was full of cartoon genitalia, anime characters and surprising the number of tiny faces of Charlie Kirks.

Miis around the fountain when the island opens in Tomodachi Life Living the Dream.

Once the game came out and I could expand it, I grabbed my 3DS again and painstakingly recreated Jeebo as a resident for Weirdo Island, the newest location in the Oddball Archipelago that I seem to be creating. I decided she had come to make a new life from the stress of being the ruler of Lil Freak Island, so I dressed her in sweatpants and a baseball cap like you'd see a celebrity wearing when TMZ shared a photo of them at Whole Foods buying oranges.

But it has stones in the shape of a crown – I can take her off the island, but I could never dethrone this queen.

And honestly, that's what Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is about – it's about the underdog Miis, the Charlie Kirks, the Jeebs living these weirdly full lives that come together in a beautifully weird tapestry on your island. As my partner and best friend has found out over the past few weeks, there is no right dream to live, and this game truly allows you to do whatever your heart desires to see it come true.