The release of the Switch back in March seemed to promise a new dawn for Nintendo gamers, gone was the Wii and Mii branding of the past ten years in favour of something more appealing to young adults. Thus it may seem a little strange to release a spiritual successor to Tomodachi Life, a game which perfectly encapsulates the Nintendo of yesteryear, four months after the Nintendo 3DS was unofficially pronounced dead. Nevertheless, here we are, launching alongside the NEW Nintendo 2DS XL, the console that you never knew you wanted (until you saw its super slick design), is the new Nintendo RPG you never knew you wanted (until you gave the demo a shot).

I hold no shame in proclaiming that Tomodachi Life was one of my highlights of the Nintendo 3DS, despite its absurd premise and astounding level of simplicity, the quality of the writing and sheer charm managed to capture my attention for close to a year after release. Miitopia is cut from the same cloth, keeping things unashamedly simple while piling on the levels of absurdity and cutesy charm, all held together by fantastic writing from Nintendo’s localisation team. Some have already dismissed the game’s automatic battle system as overly simplified or as an “RPG for kids”, but this is simply not the case. Sure, it will never be able to compete with the likes of Fire Emblem, SMT or Bravely Default in terms of depth or difficulty, but Nintendo have once again strayed from the norms of game design, and Miitopia offers up a unique yet accessible experience which gives the player much more control that you might imagine.

The Dark Lord (played by my Dad) is here and he’s stealing the faces of Miitopia’s population! Only a hero from another world (played by yours truly) can save the day! Thrust into the crisis, you explore the first town and meet the now faceless locals as well as the mayor who asks for your assistance, before setting out to undo the Dark Lord’s work.  Eventually, you’ll be joined by other heroes of your choosing from your Mii collection, Tomodachi save file or Nintendo’s own online pool. Then it will be up to you and your new party to traverse this vast land, becoming closer friends while defeating the enemies, imps and various inanimate objects who have been brought to life and given a Miitopia resident’s nose, eyes or mouth by The Dark Lord “Big Steve”.

The game world is laid out Super Mario Bros 3 style, meaning there are levels dotted about the map to complete as well as people or events that will appear in certain places on occasion. Start a level and you will see why Miitopia is… different. You have almost no control over your characters or movement. The characters move from left to right of their own accord, throwing up comical lines of dialogue along the way. Over the course of the level, they will find something, such as a treasure chest, a fork in the road or some adversaries. This is where you come in, briefly. You can choose whether to open a chest, or which way to go, with the goal being to reach the inn at the end of the road. Thankfully, for the impatient among you, holding down the B button will speed this process up. At the end of each trek, the inn is where you exert the majority of control by managing your team and building relationships.

All my jokes about her nose hadn't gone down too well.  
And they were good gags, Imean quality gags like, 
"Where are we going?  Who nose."
No cheapshots.

The Inn sections are very much inspired by Tomodachi Life, and putting members of your team in a room together will see their relationship slowly grow, and as they do, you unlock perks for the game’s battles. For example, strong friendships will lead to assists in battle for extra damage, shouting out a warning so someone takes less damage or making sure someone is OK after taking a hit, thus building the relationship further. Managing and growing friendships between the team is key to being successful in battle, and arguments or jealousy between team members can have the opposite effect. So while the game’s battle system is mostly automatic, save your main character, the bulk of the work to determine your success is done away from battle. The relationship management aspect is surprisingly deeper than you might think, and opting whether to focus on building up strong pairs or having an entire team that gets on well will result in varying levels of success.

In addition, the Inn is the place where you can feed your team after a hard day of trekking, with the Tomodachi Life food system is implemented to good effect. Defeated enemies will drop food, with each containing levelling up properties for various skills. However not all members of the team will be too keen on wolfing down a slice of goblin ham or fried cobra, so feeding them something they don’t like won’t really improve their Attack, MP or HP by much. Feed them a BBQ scorpion, something they love, and you can get a +2 boost for that skill, so it’s important to initially experiment before strategically storing the right kinds of foods and giving them to the right Miis when they are hungry, particularly as levelling up skills is vital to later successes.

Buying new armour and weapons is also handled at the end of each day. As you check on your Miis, you’ll notice that some of are dreaming about a new sword or some money. Further investigation will reveal they’re keen on owning a piece of gear, give them the money and they’ll jaunt off to buy it. Maybe. Be warned though, as they may not always come back with the thing they asked for, sometimes slinking back into the room beaming proudly at the purchase of their now 17^th HP banana. You’ll get some of the money back, but curse their name and their personality for betraying you. Each Mii’s personality is selectable during creation process and influences how they act in battle and at the Inn as well as out on the road, so if someone is ‘Laid Back’ and they find a pile of dirt out on the road (which may house some food or treasure), don’t expect them to dig for long before eventually giving up.

You'll get your Leotard Cat Suit when I get F-Zero Switch, K?

By far the most endearing and enjoyable aspect of Miitopia is the characters. You can choose your entire team and much of the supporting cast from your list of Miis and this is where the true appeal of the game lies. There is simply nothing more pleasing than watching Mage Iwata scream “PLEASE UNDERSTAND” as he burns a bunch of imps to smouldering piles of ash. The various classes are quite simply hilarious and wonderfully original, you get the more traditional options such as warrior, mage and cleric, but chef, pop-star and cat among other unique ones are also thrown into the mix. Pop-star is by far my favourite RPG class of all-time. I cast my best friend in the pop-star role and I have seen him in a completely new light. I wholly recommend casting someone like Jason Statham in this role to really embrace the hilarity to the full, helped by some magnificent animation by the devs. I’ve had Iwata, Reggie and Miyamoto in my team and I have no regrets, being able to customise their battle cries is a welcome and understated inclusion.

The rest of the NPC cast is seemingly filled by random Miis and I managed to meet Bill Trinen no less than six times and Waluigi four, with each iteration demonstrating varying degrees of success at the hands of whoever the creator was. Once again though, much of the appeal comes from travelling to the next town and seeing what god-awful creations inhabit it. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game which had Solid Snake, Jack Black, a Minion, Julian Assange and William Shakespeare on its credit roll. The story is relatively cliché, but is unquestionably helped by the genuinely fantastic writing and a couple of unexpected twists. Despite that, Miitopia occasionally falls into the classic RPG trap of back-tracking to level up or farming food and gold, though this rarely feels like a massive chore, and being able to speed up the action really saves this aspect from getting too tiresome.  Luckily you can find ‘game tickets’ along the way which can be spent in the Inn on a game of chance to help your acquire more gold, XP or food.

Reggie using his corporate robot attack to good effect. 

Switching to the 3DS fresh from the general HD visual loveliness of Splatoon 2’s turf wars was never as jarring as I had expected. Despite my 3DS being locked away collecting dust since the new console’s release, Miitopia’s playful art style and design more than makes up for the relative lack of pixels. The variety on offer in terms of world and level design is colourful and pleasing to the eye, with the 3D effect nicely complimenting the side-scrolling action and 

looking great during battle sequences.  Miitopia’s soundtrack is also a highlight, with a number of catchy tunes and retro inspired jingles, which fit perfectly with the setting. The 3DS is well into its sixth year on the market and that certainly shows in Miitopia, the team have done a cracking job, the all-round audio/visual design is quite simply fantastic.

I was a sceptic when I saw Miitopia slated for release. I didn’t initially see the appeal and was reluctant to dig out my 3DS, particularly when you look at the coming onslaught of quality releases on the Switch. After downloading and playing through the rather meaty demo following E3, I was completely sold on the game. I would urge anyone to at least go that far, you may be pleasantly surprised. It’s great that Nintendo is able to put out software of such polished quality on a console that is reaching the end of its life. Alongside Metroid and Fire Emblem Echoes, Miitopia is a solid addition to the 3DS’s superb library and another reason for Nintendo fans to keep their 3DS dust-free for a few months yet. If the Switch really does spell the end for Nintendo's Miis, Miitopia is a wonderful swansong.