Tomodachi Life sickos waited 12 years for a sequel, and now it's so popular it's even overshadowed the Nintendo Switch 2 buzz in Japan

Tomodachi Life living the dream screenshot showing a giant woman looking at a smaller woman — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo's Japanese Twitter account's post about the upcoming Tomodachi Life sequel was a big deal, and it turns out it was more popular with fans than the announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2.

Last week's Nintendo Direct was a bit of an unconventional one, seeing as it is the last one solely dedicated to the original Nintendo Switch before we get the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct later this week. While we did see a couple of heavy hitters with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokemon Legends: Z-A, it was mostly dedicated to weird stuff. Announcements like PlayStation's Japan Studio are games being revived by Bandai Namco, the show-ending bombshell that Nintendo has a new app, and the most important announcement – a new Rhythm Heaven game is coming (ahem, let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO).

However, Rhythm Heaven wasn't the only MIA franchise to get a surprise revival after years of fan requests. The 2014 Nintendo 3DS oddball Tomodachi Life is finally getting a sequel in the form of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Extremely good timing, as the original has shot up in price over the last few years since the 3DS eShop was discontinued. While Nintendo did treat the game as a big deal, giving it the final game spot (the app was more important though), fans in Japan are seeing it as an even bigger deal than the Nintendo Switch 2.

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As spotted by YouTuber BoTalksGames (via VGC), Nintendo's Japanese Twitter post about Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream's announcement has been liked over 400,000 times. Which is wild enough on its own, but when you consider that the same account's announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2 only has 385,000 likes, it really puts into perspective just how long people have been waiting on this weirdo series to return.

While the West only ever received 2014's Tomodachi Life, the series actually debuted in Japan with 2009's Tomodachi Collection. The series grew a massive following online with the 3DS entries as players started posting all the wild things that were happening to their Miis. One particularly loved feature is the text-to-speech dialogue for Mii characters. This is at its best in the musical mode, allowing for beautiful performances like this love song adaptation of The Dark Knight Rises' opening scene and a litany of NSFW Mii songs across the years.