Tomodachi Collection

Tomodachi Collection is a social simulation game featuring Miis, user-customizable avatars, who populate an apartment complex on an island. To add Miis, the player can transfer existing Miis directly from their Wii to their Nintendo DS, import Miis from other players' DS consoles via wireless local connectivity, or create new ones from scratch using the in-game Mii Maker. In any case, the player manually modifies their Miis' appearance and personality. There are four temperament categories Miis can occupy, which, together with their assigned date of birth, determine an "ideal job" that matches them.

The Miis audibly speak through computer-generated voice synthesis. A maximum of 100 Miis can live on the island at once.

Tomodachi Collection was first conceptualized around October 2005 by a small team of junior employees at Nintendo SPD. Its premise was inspired by the fortune-telling video game Tottoko Hamtaro: Tomodachi Daisakusen Dechu (2000), published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color in Japan. Tottoko Hamtaro, whose core audience was young girls, had users register a list of virtual profiles of close friends to measure compatibility and generate predictions about their day-to-day lives. Producer Yoshio Sakamoto agreed with some female employees' idea for a derivative version of Tottoko Hamtaro geared to older women, the thought of which "stayed with [him]"; he would then find himself "in a team made up of all new people and we were relatively free to do what we wanted".

With the dual purpose of elevating the Nintendo DS' overall appeal to women, the project became tentatively known as Otona no Onna no Uranai Techō (大人のオンナの占い手帳, lit. 'Women's Fortune Telling Pocket Notebook'). Initially including only textual information about personal names and birthdays, the team resolved to add a three-dimensional character creation mechanism. This system—inspired by the Japanese game fukuwarai, which involves assembling a face using disembodied parts—had players manually combine selected face elements to create caricatures of real-world people.

Reviewers felt the game had significant comedy value. Four critics for Famitsu commended the humor as charming and most effective when the Miis were made in the likenesses of real-world people, even though one reviewer felt that the absence of a clear objective could cause Tomodachi Collection to become monotonous. Gregoire Hellot of Gamekult agreed that including both real-world people and fictional characters was enjoyable, but thought the game would lack long-term appeal for players who did not already have many friends or acquaintances to base their Miis on. The Miis' synthetic voices were reviewed favorably by Siliconera staff as unique for a Nintendo title.

Tomodachi Collection was awarded the prize in Innovation at the 2009 Famitsu Awards. It also received the Award for Excellence alongside 10 other titles at the Japan Game Awards' 2010 ceremony.