Tomodachi Collection: New Life, the 3DS sequel to the original Nintendo DS game back in 2010, is going to be released in Japan on April 18th.
The gameplay is similar to The Sims and Animal Crossing and stars your Mii character. The original DS game used imported Miis from the Wii but the new game can use your existing character or a new one can be created. Players can make friends, perform everyday tasks, and give clothes, food, and special items to the Miis to gain experience. Constructed places can be opened once the player has earned enough in-game money by performing tasks.
The original game, though with great appeal to those who have played both The Sims and Animal Crossing, was never released outside of Japan. In 2010 Yoshi Sakamoto stated in an interview with 1UP that the game couldn’t be converted into English for a North American release.
“Tomodachi Collection is something we’re really interested in bringing to the U.S.,” said Sakamoto in the interview. “The problem is that we only built Japanese language generation into the software, and that’s a very important part of the game. We can’t make it work with English, so we won’t be able to release the game here.”
Sakamoto went on to say that while he couldn’t speak for future plans but they might revisit the idea once “more powerful hardware comes along.” With the newest game on the 3DS hopefully this new game is planned for a Western release. Even if the game was stripped of the digitized voices and replaced with synthisized gibberish (a la Animal Crossing) I’d be fine with that.
Take a look at the full “Tomodachi Collection Direct” below.
