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Tomodachi Collection
Tomodachi Collection Cover
Developer Nintendo SPD7
Publisher Nintendo
Platforms Nintendo DS
Release date Japan June 18, 2009
Genre Life simulation
Ratings CERO - A (All Ages)
Website Official Site (JP)

Tomodachi Collection (トモダチコレクション Tomodachi Korekushon?, lit. "Friend Collection") is a Japan-exclusive life simulation game for the Nintendo DS released on June 18, 2009. It is the first game in the Tomodachi series. A sequel named Tomodachi Life was released in Japan on April 18, 2013, and in America and Europe on June 6, 2014.

Gameplay[]

The game takes place on an island in the middle of the sea inhabited with various Miis, who can be created from the built-in Mii Maker or wirelessly transferred from a Wii console. Their appearance, personality, and voice can be customized. Once a Mii is created, they will move into their own apartment on the island, allowing them to explore the island and its various facilities. As more Miis are added, more facilities and activities are unlocked, and the Miis may even become friends with each other, hanging out in their apartment or outside.

Inside of the city hall, there is an option to see a character trait chart. All of your Miis will be organized by their personality. It makes it easy to see which characters will be good as friends or not.

Miis can also be interacted with in their apartment, allowing the player to give them food, clothes, or an interior for their apartment. Depending on how much they like it, the Mii's happiness will go up. When it reaches a certain point, the Mii will level up, allowing the player to give them a level-up gift, such as a phrase or song as a reward. If the Mii is asleep, the player may have a chance to view a dream, leading to a bizarre mini-game, event, or activity and be able to draw on their face, though it is not permanent.

At certain times, the player can witness events, such as Street Live at the fountain and Questions at the Question Hall.

Differences in Tomodachi Collection[]

Compared to the later-released Tomodachi Collection: New Life/Tomodachi Life, Tomodachi Collection has several different gameplay mechanics.

  • Tomodachi Collection runs at 60 frames-per-second, while Tomodachi Life runs at 30 frames-per-second.
  • The main island is much smaller, consisting of only the Mii Apartments, Town Hall (called 'City Hall'), Clothing Shop (called 'Apparel Shop'), Pawn Shop, Food Mart, Interiors, Fountain (called 'Blessings Fountain'), Rankings Board, Compatibility Tester, Mii News, as well as two buildings not present in Tomodachi Collection: New Life: Question Hall and Job Diagnosis.
  • There is no Office in the Mii Apartments. Island info is instead displayed on a billboard outside the apartments. Apartments also cannot be swapped.
  • The Town Hall's options are different:
    • Send/Receive works differently, allowing users to import Miis directly from a Wii system (because the DS lacks a built-in Mii creator).
    • QR Codes are unavailable because they were not introduced by then.
    • A save button is not available on the bottom of the touch screen, but the Start button can still be used to quick-Save.
  • On the Rankings Board, there are no island, traveler, and splurge rankings.
    • The Romance Ranking displays the 20% parings or lower with both Miis angry instead of sad.
  • On the island, the day to night transition is much more fluid than it is depicted in Life.
  • Miis can be given one of four blood types.
    • However, this is still present in the Japanese version of Life.
  • There are no "Locate" and "Call" options for when a Mii is not at home.
  • Miis only have one all-time favorite dish and one worst dish instead of two, lacking the "Super" favorite dishes.
    • The animations Miis make when they eat their favorite/worst food are different.
  • Hats and hair dye are not available.
  • If the item intended to be given to a Mii is launched high in the room and falls behind them, they will become horrified for a few seconds before turning their head back towards the tossed item and walking over to pick it up. In Tomodachi Collection: New Life, they turn their head towards the thrown item almost immediately.
  • Songs are performed directly inside the Mii's apartment, rather than inside the Concert Hall. Singing Miis also cannot be put into groups.
    • Players cannot edit song lyrics with the keyboard themselves, only being able to use pre-made words and phrases instead.
  • The selection of bonuses a Mii can get upon level-up differs:
    • The available songs are different, offering six styles rather of eight.
    • The selection of gifts a Mii can be given are different, featuring the following:
      • Duster
      • Laptop
      • Study kit
      • Novel
      • Cell phone (resembles a classic folding cell phone instead of a smartphone)
      • CD (as a headset rather than a radio placed on the floor)
      • Wii (replaced with the Wii U in Tomodachi Collection: New Life)
      • DS (replaced with the 3DS XL in Tomodachi Collection: New Life)
    • Gifts given to a Mii can have different colors, which match the their favorite color. Since there are exactly eight gifts, Miis can have all eight at once.
    • The offered interiors available through level-up also differs:
      • Country
      • Industrial
      • Family
      • Natural wood
      • Scandinavian
      • European
    • Miis cannot be given pocket money, therefore they cannot go on trips to space. Once the Mii reaches the Level 22, the player can no longer give them gifts as they have everything.
  • The Islander Mini-Games is slightly different between Collection and Life, including a few that do not return in the latter.
    • Likewise, the pseudo-games consist of mosquito and backscratching, the former of which was moved to an activity in the campgrounds, while the latter was removed entirely and replaced with sneezing.
  • When Miis go to sleep at night, their beds are colored the same as their depicted favorite color. In Life, all of the apartment beds are identical, only different in size.
  • Dreams will only produce items if the Mii has the dream while sleeping in bed at night. Those that occur through a napping Mii will not produce any items.
  • Collection has a different selection of dreams than what is featured in Life.
  • Clothing with more than one color has each color variant represented as a separate piece of clothing with their own slot in the list, instead of all colors of one clothing sharing the same slot and cycled through with L and R. Clothing with more than one color are read as "[Clothing] ([Color])".
  • In the clothing shop, items given out through special occurrences (such as dreams) are not added to the shop's list, and they must be re-acquired through the special event.
  • Marriage is performed much differently than in Life, with two sweethearts instantly marrying. In Life, there is a minigame where the player has to help one of them propose.
  • Married couples do not get their own living space, as Mii Homes does not exist.
  • Babies are unavailable in Collection. Thus, the game's staff credits are shown during a marriage, rather than after a child has become fully-grown.
  • StreetPass and SpotPass items are not present in Collection as neither of those two functions have existed.
  • The background music in Collection (released in the December 2011 album Tomodachi Collection Platinum Soundtrack) is mostly different from the music in Life. Only a few tracks are shared between the games, such as "City Hall" and "Save Screen".
  • Miis can develop feelings for those who are already married, but will commonly get rejected. However, there is tiny chance that the married Mii will accept another Mii's love proposal. In Western version of Tomodachi Life, nobody will fall in love with the married Mii, unless the married couples become single again through a breakup.
  • Confessions have four locations (only the beach, park, school (classroom), and rooftop), with the manners being also four (only traditional, romantic, arrogant (Showy), and desperate). There are no interventions.
  • Miis can only have normal fights. Huge fights are not available.
    • Additionally, if the apology is rejected, the other Mii will not say they are sick of fighting and want to reconcile. The two also will never be friends again.
  • The Miis can only take artistic photos with the camera.
  • Miis will not ask to take a look around their apartment after being given a new interior.
  • If a Mii has a friendship problem, their window will use the grey dust cloud icon, instead of the orange smiley face icon. Sadness problems are purple instead of blue.
  • When Miis want to make friends, the person they want to befriend will visit the asking Mii's apartment; this was switched in the sequel. Miis cannot introduce two to each other.
  • The song's key changes depending to the pitch and the gender: if a Mii has a female high voice it shift it up two and half tones.
  • Miis thank the player upon being given food and wipe their mouth with one hand. This it also shown in the Japanese version of Life.

Locations[]

Location Image Information
Island Facility1 The main setting of the game.
Mii Apartments Notremodel Mii Apartments is the apartment building where the player's Miis live. By tapping on various windows, the player can interact with them.
Food Mart Tomodachi Collection FoodMart The Food Mart is one of four shops featured on the island, after the Clothing Shop, the Interior Shop, and the Pawn Shop. The Food Mart is where the player can buy various food items to give to their islanders, which updates daily.
Apparel Shop TCClothingShop1 The Apparel Shop is another store featured on the island, serving as an area where the player can buy clothing for their islander.
Interiors Shop TCInterior1 The Interiors Shop sells interiors to the player, updating daily. The shop is also known to have special interiors every month, as well as other interiors that are unlocked when a Mii reaches a certain level on the Island.
Pawn Shop Pawn Shop Exterior The Pawn Shop is where the player can sell treasures that they no longer want.
Fountain Fountain The fountain serves its purpose as a public hangout place where Mii can talk or exercise. The events include donations, English Lesson, Street Live, and Morning Market.
Question Hall TC - Question Hall building The Question Hall is used to asked Miis quirky questions, or have them vote based on two choices. Either of these can be initiated anytime.
Job Diagnosis TC - Job Diagnosis building The Job Diagnosis is where Miis can be given jobs without the use of a job ticket, such as a dancer, talk show host, or fireworks crafter. However, this can only be done with Miis that have registered birthdays; otherwise they cannot be given a job.
Mii News TC - mii news tower Mii News is a news station that broadcasts news at 7am to 7pm, which range from humorous reports to numerous events that have taken place on the island, such as when a new building opens. Two random Miis also can be seen being interviewed after the report is finished, giving their opinion to the news team.
Rankings Board TC - rankings board on island The Rankings Board is an area that post rankings based on several factors exhibited by the islanders, such as vitality, level of charm, or level of popularity.
Compatibility Tester CompataTesterCollectionOutside The Compatibility Tester is a location that analyzes two islanders to determine their level of chemistry. Depending on age and genders used, it can be a romance or friend rating.
City Hall Tomodachi Collection Hall The City Hall is where the player can gather all information of the island, including its residents, Miis' personalities, and the time on the island.

Development[]

The game was developed by Nintendo's SPD group, being directed by Ryutaru Takahashi and produced by video game designer Yoshio Sakamoto, the latter of which is best known for his work in the Metroid franchise also made by Nintendo. The team was mostly made up of younger developers in a small environment. Early in development, the game was going to be called "Fortune Telling Notebook for Adult Women" and would only feature only adult women. The game was later reworked to have more focus on life simulation, and thus Tomodachi Collection was made.[citation needed]

Although a Western localization was planned, it was not finalized due to the DS being unable to translate the voice synth into English. Despite this, a fan translation by jjjewel made in 2013 exists.

Reception[]

In Japan, the game has received generally positive reviews. Famitsu gave the game a 29 out of 40. On the day of its release, the game sold over 102,000 units, making it the best-selling DS game in that period. On March 3rd, 2010, Nintendo announced the game had sold 3.2 million copies in total.

Gallery[]

Main article: Tomodachi Collection/Gallery

Tomodachi Collection has a ton of photos but nothing compared to Tomodachi Life.

Videos[]

Main article: Tomodachi Collection/Videos

As with the videos, everything is smaller in Tomodachi Collection.

Tomodachi series
Publisher
Nintendo
Tomodachi series
Tomodachi CollectionTomodachi Life
Spin-offs
MiitomoMiitopia
Video Game systems
Virtual BoyNintendo DSNintendo WiiNintendo 3DSWii U
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