Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream will include same-sex relationships and non-binary characters, fulfilling Nintendo’s promise
A same-sex ‘bug’ in its 3DS predecessor caused backlash when it was patched out
Nintendo has committed to a previous pledge to make the next Tomodachi game more inclusive.
As confirmed during a Nintendo Direct dedicated entirely to Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, Nintendo has revealed that players can change their character’s sexual preference.
Players can create their own Mii characters from scratch, using an enhanced version of the Mii creator seen on recent Nintendo consoles, featuring more facial parts than before.
Players can choose their Mii’s gender from three options – Male, Female or Non-binary.
They’re then presented with an option where they can choose their Mii’s “dating preferences”. The player is presented with three options – male, female or non-binary – and can choose none, one, two or all three of these should they choose.
This means players can essentially create characters who are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual or pansexual.
The decision marks the result of a previous commitment by Nintendo to make a future Tomodachi game more inclusive, following backlash to an issue with 3DS game Tomodachi Life.
When Tomodachi Life was released in Japan, a rumour spread that the launch version allowed same-sex relationships but that it had later been patched out as a ‘bug’. This turned out not to be true – same-sex relationships were never in the game and players were changing their Miis’ appearance to make it look like they were.
Nintendo said it didn’t plan to add same-sex relationships to the game because it “never intended to make any form of social commentary”, but later apologised and said that if it was to ever make a third game it would “strive to design a gameplay experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players”.
