Nintendo's first mobile foray is more social network than game
Video games may have been the original social network. Even before online play, gathering around the couch, exchanging cartridges with friends and sharing strategies in person was how players deepened their friendships.
So it seems fitting that Nintendo's first mobile application, Miitomo, focuses on sharing.
In Miitomo, your personal avatar interacts with your friends through dialogs you create and photos you share with each other.
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"This acts as a bridge between the app world and the real world in ways that I had not seen other social applications do," Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime tells Mashable.
With everything from Facebook to Snapchat vying for our time and attention, Miitomo is a very Nintendo social network -- even as the company explores the uncharted territory beyond its own devices. The network blends conversation threads with the unique weirdness of Mii avatars, first introduced on the Wii in 2006.
Putting the 'Me' in Miitomo
When you load Miitomo -- coming to Android and iOS at the end of the month in the U.S., and launching in Japan this week -- for the first time, you'll create your Mii avatar. The system hasn't changed much in the last decade, so Nintendo users will pick it up quickly. (I opted to use one from the camera capture, which generates a bunch of Miis as you take a selfie.)
If you own a Wii U or 3DS, you'll be able to import a Mii you've created if you don't want to run through the customization features again.
You'll then assign your Mii attributes, as well as a robotic voice. Anyone who has played the Mii-based life simulator Tomodachi Life on 3DS will notice that these voices and attributes are pulled straight from that game.
You'll be able to find your friends using Miitomo. Instead of giving characters unique, searchable usernames, Nintendo has opted to limit your Miitomo friends to connections you already have. You can add pals via Facebook and Twitter (only if you're mutually following each other), and also find and add friends who are both standing in the same room as you and using the app.
Once you've grouped up, Miitomo's main interaction method comes through open-prompt questions. They range from "What is your favorite TV show?" to broader queries.
Each question can be answered with as much or as little text as you like. As your friends answer questions and do activities in the game, they'll see your answers as well. They'll have the option to like or comment on conversations, as well as uploading photos.
What differentiates these from Facebook comment threads, besides the generated prompts, are that your Mii's robotic voices will read the text on the screen.
"Nintendo’s approach is to always do something unique. That is what drives us today in everything we do. We saw an opportunity in this social space to do something unique and different," Fils-Aime says. "Doing it through the lens of the Mii enables an element of sharing, an element of conversation, both within in the app and in the real world that we think is missing today."
While Nintendo certainly has more iconic characters in its roster -- and Fils-Aime said that none are off the table for upcoming mobile games -- Miis are incredibly popular as well. He points out that there have been 200 million Miis created across Nintendo apps and games over the last 10 years.
"It started with our developers looking at a social space and saying 'What can we do to leverage with what smart devices do best and leverage what people can with these mobile apps?'
"In fairness, creating a content like a side-scrolling Mario experience, where you run and you jump, will take more time."
Getting weird in Miifoto
Miitomo's feature set includes Miifoto, a picture app that works with both real photos and posed shots with Miis. You can pose you and your friends in wacky dances for example, or stick your Mii inside of a coffee cup.
Customizing your character's costumes is also how Miitomo dips into monetization.
You'll earn in-game currency (simply coins) for logging in, answering questions and doing simple challenges, like connecting your Facebook account or taking a Miifoto. These can be used to buy items in the shop. There's also exclusive in-game swag that you can nab with your My Nintendo account, usually themed with Nintendo IP.
Miitomo is Nintendo's first chance to experiment with its unified account system, but Fils-Aime says it will eventually tie together much more than games.
"When we roll out My Nintendo, we wanted to make sure it worked for our future businesses too. That includes consoles like NX, mobile devices, and also the conversations we're having with Universal Studios [for Nintendo's theme parks]."
Could that mean in-app bonuses when you buy Nintendo games, or visit Nintendo's Universal Park? Fils-Aime says Nintendo is still experimenting -- but the idea is to reach Nintendo fans across as many platforms as possible.
"Our goal in the space is to have multiple applications that find broad audiences over an extended period of time. Our approach, instead of having a one size fits all, have a many size fit all," he explains.
Miitomo launches Thursday in Japan, and comes to 16 other countries — including the U.S. — in the next two weeks. It will launch on both iOS and Android in eight languages.
Chelsea Stark was the Games Editor for Mashable, where she covered everything from AAA titles, mainstream consoles, indie gems, mobile games and gaming culture. She handled news, feature stories and reviews. Before that, Chelsea was Mashable's Multimedia Producer, where she helped develop visual storytelling aids, whether they were photos of video. She came to New York in 2010 to pursue her master's degree in journalism at NYU's Studio 20 program, which focused on innovation as journalism is changed by new technology. Before coming to New York, Chelsea lived in Austin, where she did online journalism and social media for the local CBS affiliate. She loves good beer, classic Nintendo games, and all things geeky, and spends her time attempting to find anything close to good Tex-Mex in Brooklyn.
