The Best Simulation Games Published By Nintendo

Highlights

• Nintendo publishes a variety of simulation games beyond their popular franchises like Mario and Zelda.
• Tomodachi Life and Fantasy Life are highly recommended simulation games for Nintendo consoles, each with their unique gameplay mechanics.
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons is considered one of the best simulator titles published by Nintendo, allowing players to create their own tropical island paradise.

Simulation games are some of the most popular for players due to them allowing a player to experience a life that may be entirely different to their own. Many companies have created their own simulation titles, including Nintendo, which is known to publish all sorts of genres of gaming that don’t only include Mario or the Legend of Zelda.

Many players may be familiar with Animal Crossing, a brilliant life simulator title that sees players start their own life alongside some adorable animal villagers. However, this isn’t the only simulation title published by Nintendo, with these simulation games also being some of the best available on their various consoles.

8 Tomodachi Life

Metascore: 71

Social Simulation games are one of the most popular simulation subgenres after life simulators, and Tomodachi Life on the Nintendo 3DS is by far one of the best published by Nintendo. In this simulator game, players put their custom-made Miis on an island to live in a hotel together.

Players watch relationships form, give their Mii’s nice things, and simply create a life for these tiny characters. With most of the fun being found by sitting back and seeing what happens, Tomodachi Life is a game that players are likely to revisit daily to see what has changed.

7 Fantasy Life

Metascore: 73

Fantasy Life combines some players’ two favorite things by providing a life simulator title that takes place in a fantasy world. In this game, players can try an assortment of jobs that also double-up as classes.

With a license for every job, players will have a wide variety of quests to complete, as well as uncover the main story of the game, which will see them putting their skills to work to craft themselves a perfect set of armor, weapons, and the potions needed to protect themselves in combat. With the original Fantasy Life being available on the Nintendo 3DS, players are eager for the next edition in the franchise, which is expected to release on the Nintendo Switch in 2024.

Metascore: 74

• Platform: Nintendo Switch, Famicom Disk System, Wii, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Game Boy Advance
• Released: 1989-05-23
• Developer: Nintendo
• Genre: Adventure

Taking on the role of an up-and-coming detective, players in this adventure simulation title must solve crimes and get to the bottom of an interesting mystery. There have been multiple Famicom Detective Club games published by Nintendo, but The Girl Who Stands Behind is certainly one of the most intriguing.

Not every bit of detective work is set in reality, as players find themselves solving the mysterious and supernatural death of Yoko while also searching for the protagonist’s missing parents. Balancing all these questions in an authentic detective title makes for an amazing game that simulates the stressful life of a detective.

5 New Pokemon Snap

Metascore: 79

Pokemon is an incredibly popular franchise due to its monster catching mechanics, which has seen the Nintendo exclusive title becoming incredibly popular over the years. However, there are plenty of spin-off franchises that are also exclusive to Nintendo consoles, such as New Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo Switch.

In this simulation title, players take on the role of a Pokemon photographer as they are led through a wild environment filled to the brim with different species of pocket monsters. Tasked with taking the perfect shot of a specific Pokemon, there is plenty to enjoy in such a vibrant simulation game.

4 Style Savvy: Styling Star

Metascore: 80

• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Released: 2017-11-02
• Developer: Syn Sophia
• Genre: Simulation

The Nintendo DS was home to various different simulator titles that allowed players to experience various different jobs. One of the best franchises to be found that made its way onto the 3DS was Style Savvy: Styling Star. In this game, players owned their own boutique where they aided their fashion-curious customers by helping them pick out the right shirt, pants, or even entire outfit.

In the fourth game in the franchise, players are also tasked with styling some up-and-coming pop stars to find the right outfits to match their songs. The player even has the pleasure of helping these pop stars decide on what sort of music they should be performing.

3 Dragon Quest Builders

Metascore: 83

Set in an alternate world of Dragon Quest where the evil managed to win, causing destruction across the world, in Dragon Quest Builders, it’s up to the player to fix this chaos. Players are tasked with building a block world to defeat the evil Dragonlord and bring Alefgard back to its former glory.

It will require the player not only to adventure, but also to craft various things to continue building the best for the kingdom. While Dragon Quest Builders on every other platform was published by Square Enix, Nintendo was the company to publish this building simulator title on their Switch console.

2 Nintendogs: Lab & Friends

Metascore: 83

• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Released: 2005-04-21
• Developer: Nintendo
• Genre: Simulation

Nintendogs is a pet simulator that many players wish would return to the Nintendo Switch, but unfortunately, these fluffy companions can only be loved and looked after on the Nintendo DS. As the name of the game suggests, Nintendogs allows players to choose two to three dogs of their dreams to look after and train in a virtual world on their DS.

A Nintendogs’ owner was tasked with checking up on their companions daily to make sure they fed them and gave them water, while also giving them the attention they needed like a real dog. There were plenty of competitions for players to try out as well with their dog, or just simply taking them on walks.

1 Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Metascore: 90

Unsurprisingly, one of the greatest simulator titles to be published by Nintendo comes from their Animal Crossing franchise. Players have fallen in love with every game in the series, with the most love being given to the Nintendo Switch version of the title, known as Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Players are in charge of their very own tropical island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where they decide where each house, museum, and shop is placed to create a perfect island resort. The game includes many classic Animal Crossing Villagers for players to hopefully have living on their island, as well as some new additions to meet.