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Nintendo's upcoming new 3DS game: the heck did we just watch?

Nintendo has announced Tomodachi Life for 3DS, a Sims-style game that lets you grow a town full of wacky Miis.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr

Nintendo has announced Tomodachi Life for 3DS, a Sims-style game that lets you grow a town full of wacky Miis.

(Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)

Every now and again, some games publisher somewhere will release a previously Japan-exclusive title to the wider world. Those times are good times — particularly when the title in question is of the variety that leaves you scratching your head in entertained bafflement, such as, say, Bishi Bashi Special or Katamari Damacy.

One of those times is once again approaching. The publisher is Nintendo, and the game is Tomodachi Life.

(Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)

It sounds like a pretty straightforward sim. The aim is to populate your world with Miis — those you've collected in Street Pass, your own created Miis, imports via QR code and special Miis occasionally offered by Nintendo. These Miis will then develop personalities based on sliders and start living their lives, interacting with each other, and forming relationships and feuds, and your job is to help them by playing minigames, giving them presents and taking care of their basic needs.

It sounds, in fact, a lot like The Sims — except it's not. Your Miis will take on lives of their own, and the game... well... will go in some pretty strange directions, based on the Nintendo Direct announcement video below.

Tomodachi Life will be released in Australia on 7 June.