Nintendo's first mobile game stars a very familiar character: you.
Or rather, the cartoon version you make of yourself. Miitomo, announced late Wednesday night at a press conference in Kyoto, Japan, will feature personalized avatars familiar to anyone who has owned a Wii, Wii U or 3DS handheld.
According to details from the Wall Street Journal, the only English-speaking outlet to cover the press conference live, Miitomo characters won't just stay on your phone: They'll go to your friends' devices as well.
There are already a few games where players trade Mii characters through the NFC chips on the 3DS handheld, though many of those Miis are only used in simple games. In the Puzzle Swap mini-game, included in every 3DS, each character you meet brings a single puzzle piece, until you can collect a full set.
Miitomo, which will be free-to-play with add-on purchase options, is part of Nintendo's mobile game partnership with DeNA. Nintendo Director Shigeru Miyamoto said that company will focus on operating the game, while Nintendo will concentrate on promoting the game, according to the WSJ.
Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima, who only recently took over stewardship of the company in September, said the Miimoto launch had been delayed until March 2016. The company promised that its first smartphone game would come before the year's end when the initiative was originally announced, and that five games would come out before the spring of 2017.