Americans love crazy, too: Nintendo bringing life sim where cats marry marine biologists Stateside

I hate when I’m camping and Christina Aguilera joins me by opening a door in the universe. It ruins my peace and tranquility. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Nintendo captures that exact moment in one of its upcoming games.

The company revealed today that it is bringing Tomodachi Life to the U.S. later this spring. The friend-and-family simulator will hit 3DS on June 9. Tomodachi, which is popular in Japan, enables you to create Miis of people you know and then watch and interact as their virtual lives unfold. It has a similar vibe to Nintendo’s popular social-life sim Animal Crossing, and the company is targeting this release at the same audience.

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“Nintendo fans are familiar with Mii characters, but now they come to life in ways they never have before — with their own lives, interests, and personalities,” Nintendo of America marketing boss Scott Moffitt said. “Customization and open-ended play are two big video game trends for 2014, and Tomodachi Life delivers a fun, creative experience that makes you want to visit again and again, because there’s always something interesting going on.”

Check out the game in action (as well as the aforementioned Christina Aguilera) in the trailer below:

Tomodachi is all about creating fun and strange stories with the people you know. When you bring your friends into it, they might get into odd situations like chasing a bowl of Corn Flakes on a string. Characters can even fall in love with one another.

Players have some control over the action, but Tomodachi’s best moments will likely emerge from its unpredictable artificial intelligence. Your cat might end up married to marine biologist Jacques Cousteau, or your grandma might go explore space. It’s all about creating drama and silly situations.

Tomodachi is already a best-seller for Nintendo in its home country, and the publisher is likely hoping it can re-create some of that magic in the states. Animal Crossing, which also focuses on atypical gameplay scenarios, caught on in the U.S. when it first debuted on the GameCube in 2004. That popularity continued through the release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS, which has sold more than 7.38 million copies worldwide. Nearly 1 million of that came from the U.S.