7 Games Like Tomodachi Life, Sorted by Who Writes the Drama

Some let the little people pick their own friends and fights. Others hand you the script. Seven picks, sorted by who's writing.

Your sister has been moping indoors all afternoon, on an island she doesn't know exists. Your old roommate picked a fight with her yesterday, and now they're holding a grudge. You pick her up, set her down next to someone friendlier, and wait. You didn't write that fight. The question for the next game is who does.

The best games like Tomodachi Life fill a small world with people and drama. What sets them apart is who writes it. In inZOI, the characters' personalities do. Miitopia and Fallout Shelter let you set up the pairings. RimWorld's storyteller deals events. In The Sims 4, The Sims FreePlay and BitLife, you make the calls.

We make MirrorMii, a game about Miia, a reflection of you who lives her own life. Watching her make her own choices is the feeling we care about most.

Which games let the characters pick their own friends and fights?

Start with the new one if you haven't yet. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream came out on Switch in April 2026, plays on Switch 2, and costs $59.99. Friendships between your Miis can go in all sorts of directions, from best friends and roommates to fights, grudges and now and then something more. Hand them food, clothes or treasures and they'll tell you exactly what they thought. Our guide to Tomodachi Life personalities sorts out who's who.

In An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior, published in 1944, Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel of Smith College showed 34 undergraduate women a two-and-a-half-minute film of cardboard shapes moving around a rectangle. Asked only to describe the film, all but one described the shapes as animated beings, mostly people. One cast the small triangle and the circle as young lovers and the big triangle as a bully. Miis give you a lot more to work with than a triangle.

inZOI

inZOI takes that to a city that looks like a perfume ad. Its people, called Zois, act and build relationships from their own personalities and life experiences, and rumors and trends start moving through town. It's in early access on Steam for Windows and Mac.

Which ones let you set up the drama and watch it play out?

Miitopia

Miitopia takes the same faces on the road. You cast anyone you like as the heroes, the royalty or the face-stealing Dark Lord, with wigs and makeup to get the look right. Pair two of them at the inn and their relationship grows, and the interactions get personal. You might hear hot gossip about grandma, or find your best friend and your mom doing pushups. If a pair can't get along, the quest can suffer for it.

It's $49.99 on Switch and plays on Switch 2.

Fallout Shelter

Two thousand feet underground, Fallout Shelter runs its own version of the inn. You build the vault, find your dwellers the right jobs and outfits, and play matchmaker to grow the population. It's free on iPhone, Android and Steam for Windows, with purchases inside.

What if you want the drama to have real stakes?

RimWorld calls itself a story generator, with relationships inside a colony you have to keep alive. Your colonists are crash-landed survivors, maybe a nobleman, an accountant and a housewife, with moods, needs and relationships that form and break with lovers and spouses. Two colonists can be happily married until one falls for the surgeon who saved her from a gunshot wound. Meanwhile an AI storyteller deals the world's events, from storms to a traveling trader to a pirate raid.

You choose the storyteller. Randy Random throws anything at you, Cassandra Classic builds the tension, and Phoebe Chillax likes to relax. It's $34.99 on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux, and it gets properly dark, so pick it knowing that.

Which ones put you in charge of the story?

The Sims 4

In The Sims 4 you're closer to a director. You customize your Sims' personalities and aspirations, then decide how they'll spend their days, and the drama is the story you choose to tell. The base game is free on Steam, the EA app, PlayStation and Xbox, and the packs cost extra, like a $19.99 game pack.

The Sims FreePlay

The Sims FreePlay puts that on your phone. You can keep up to 34 Sims, build them a whole town, and choose their relationships, right down to turning down a marriage proposal. It's free on iPhone and Android, the Android listing flags ads, and some purchases are random items.

BitLife

BitLife strips the whole thing down to text. It's one life told year by year, built around the choices you tap, from careers to marriage to crime. It's free on iPhone and Android with ads and purchases, and it's rated 18+ on the US App Store.

Which games like Tomodachi Life are free?

Four of the seven cost nothing to download, though each sells extras. The other three, like Living the Dream itself, have a price up front.

MirrorMii: a life you don't script

The appeal is watching friendships you didn't arrange. MirrorMii is a game built around exactly that.

Miia is your digital twin, a reflection of you who lives her own life on the other side of a mirror. She makes her own friends and gets into her own drama with other players' Miias, and you shape the conditions, never the outcome.

Your part starts with your real day. Snap something, like lunch or the walk home, and hand it to Genii, the island's host. What you find becomes outfits and decor for Miia. You pick her outfit. What she does in it is up to her.

FAQ

Is there a Tomodachi Life for your phone?

No. There's no Tomodachi Life on iPhone or Android, and Nintendo's first phone app, Miitomo, shut down in May 2018. The games like Tomodachi Life for mobile in this list are The Sims FreePlay, Fallout Shelter and BitLife, all free to download, and our list of life simulation games for iPhone goes wider.

Is Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream on PC or the original Switch?

It's a Nintendo Switch game, so it runs on the original Switch and plays on Switch 2 too. There's no PC version, and it isn't on Steam. On a PC, inZOI is the closest in spirit, and The Sims 4 is the free place to start.

What if I want a farm with my little people?

Our list of mobile games like Stardew Valley starts with Stardew itself on your phone and sorts the rest by which part of the valley you miss. It's the list for when you want little people and a field to plant.

Want a character who writes her own drama? Snap your real day, and Miia lives it in her own world. Join MirrorMii free