Miitomo (iOS) Preview

Regular text messages seem to be old hat now, with many nowadays relying on WhatsApp perhaps more than they would like to admit, whilst the Japanese love LINE and Koreans adore KakaoTalk. These three applications are examples of chat modules with a twist in that simple communication can be brought to life through emoji, emoticons, and the like, with cute little animations especially being prevalent for users of KakaoTalk, and key words almost bursting out of the screen on LINE. Ease of communication - it is all the rage. How could Nintendo ever compete against established platforms? Well, it has an advantage in the form of the Mii characters that have been so popular since the Wii explosion many years back.

The avatars became so loved that Nintendo pushed on with the Animal Crossing-esque, Japanese-only Tomodachi Collection on DS, as well as its 3DS successor, the widely acclaimed Tomodachi Life. "Tomo," for those intrigued, is short for 'friend' in Japanese, and "Tomodachi" is almost like a group of friends that are cool to hang out with. There or thereabouts, anyway. The point is that Nintendo's loveable Mii characters have befriended millions upon millions of gamers and non-gamers alike across Wii, DS, 3DS, and Wii U - spanning nearly a decade. Going off the Wii userbase alone, that is over 100 million people exposed to Mii avatars, and there are over 200 Mii creations registered worldwide. Even if just a mere fraction of those consumers jump aboard and grab the free Miitomo app then it will be deemed a huge success, and a big-time competitor in the already bustling mobile marketplace. Thankfully, existing Mii creations can be easily imported to the new app thanks to the QR Code system, although there is still the option to build up a new one from scratch or use a real photo to allow the system to attempt to make a similar-looking Mii. Options a-plenty.

Ever used a smartphone? If the answer is 'no,' that would be quite shocking. For the 99% that answered 'yes,' though, Miitomo is instantly accessible. It is the sort of product that needs no real explanation once in-hand. Even after just a short presentation at Nintendo's office, once the handset was passed across, because of the intuitive layout of all the in-app icons, mimicking the positioning and style of the smartphones in general, no tutorial or hand-holding was required in the slightest. This is the perfect example of a pick-up-and-play experience - an app for all ages and all levels. Jump on in, create a personalised Mii, tweak the character trait bars, and ta-daa, the magic happens and the personalities are brought to life on the small screen.

Each Mii is now not only visually similar, but also represents your style of talking and acting in general, even going as far as copying voice tone, with users able to manually adjust various sliders to make movements and gestures more active/shy, or have a speedier voice at different pitches, with varying intonations for speech, and so on. With so many Mii styles to choose from in the first place, along with crazy outfits to suit all tastes, the connection between user and avatar is closer than ever before. There are even some conversational starters, with initial questions logged so that there are some intriguing topics to be had once the next step of adding friends has been completed. After all, everyone needs some form of ice breaker, right? Oh, and do not worry about making mistakes on the Mii setup side, since all aspects can be tweaked afterwards, as well as keeping a track on how the Mii has developed and what rewards have been gained (yes, the Mii can level-up by being fashion conscious!).

The easiest way to add friends is by being with someone face-to-face and adding via a Bluetooth method where both people need to choose the same shape - club, heart, spade or diamond - before the connection is confirmed. However, there is also the chance to leverage friend lists from Facebook, Twitter, and so on, although because Nintendo is currently playing it calm and not wanting to have the wrong people connecting with each other - for user safety reasons - even when hooked up to other social media channels, there is no option to just add in absolutely everyone, meaning a potentially laborious job of scrolling through a list of friends also using the app or sending out requests to those that do not currently use it. Not ideal for some, but it is something that is currently being gauged, and if enough people request a relaxation on it, so that all people can be added at once, updates may come further down the line. However, for now, it is a closed, personal chat module for those closest to you, and it works fantastically well, indeed proving to be a comical way of chatting. Especially with the Mii characters reading any messages written aloud, complete with distinctive voices, amusing actions depending on certain trigger words, and, of course, all done whilst wearing the choices of user-defined fashion (as wacky as they may be!), all within a personalised home setting. Responses to comments can be given hearts if particularly loved, or replies can come in the form of photos with wacky remarks on, and it is easy to track what has and has not been read so far. There are numerous methods of interacting with friends, which makes other chat apps seem quite antiquated when going back to them.

There are other aspects to make Miitomo even more engaging, though, since most people will already use their app of choice and will not be tempted just for Mii characters alone. Nintendo being Nintendo, then, has added incentives - a coin system whereby more are accrued for changing Mii outfits each day, answering more questions posed by friends, and so on. The more interaction there is with the app, the more rewards are given, and whilst there is an option to use in-app purchases for extra coins, Nintendo has attempted to follow the route of the highly addictive Pokémon Shuffle and throw in enough incentives to keep using Miitomo and get rewarded for doing so. It then becomes a cycle of spending the earned currency to grab new items, using the app more to use said items, and then earning extra in the process. Sure, there will be those desperate to skip several steps and pay for that privilege, but it is certainly not a prerequisite of the app to splash the cash.

There is a mini-game feature thrown in for good measure, as well, and rather like the StreetPass games in the Mii Plaza on 3DS, points collected can be used to jump into this 'Miitomo Drop' feature, whereby the user-created Mii is positioned at the top of the screen and then dropped, bouncing around on its way from top to bottom, hopefully landing on a cool new item to be used elsewhere in the app. Failing to grab anything exciting, though, still leads to 'candy' being grabbed, which can be used to unlock certain conversation threads that may have been locked for whatever reason. Want to try something else? Why not enter the Miifoto Contest, taking the most outlandish photos and popping the Mii into it using the plethora of positional choices available - sat perched on the arm of a chair, lounging around on the floor, striking a shocked pose, and many more - and wowing friends with the creativity, maybe even winning prizes in the process? Not interested, though? Well, just feel free to share creations via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or other services instead, all through the app itself.

Nintendo has tried to not over-complicate matters with Miitomo, yet has attempted to bring in as much of its experience as possible from free-to-play experiments over the past year or so to make this new venture extremely robust. Having 'Missions' on offer, on top of the regular coin rewards, means that bonuses are given for those wanting to achieve all goals - again, similar to the Mii Plaza targets on 3DS. Sign in to Miiverse or Nintendo eShop weekly? Get a bunch of Platinum Points! Purchase some new software through the eShop? Get some Gold Points! What else is there? Want to grab the hottest items? Just check out the Twitter integration where trending items will pop up… Worried about missing out on friends when not using the app? No worries, since messages will be waiting upon return. Think your Mii will look too similar to those of friends? Well, never fear, since in-app clothing is varied dependent on the user, with new goodies added to the store regularly. Want to pop the Mii into various cool surroundings and share with others? Easy. Save to Miifoto or take a regular screen-grab and send around. Speaking of Miifoto, actually, there is also the chance to get randomised backgrounds, and sharing with friends can unlock different settings for both parties, similar to how the puzzle-panels work within Puzzle Swap. There is just so much included…This is possibly one of the most comprehensive free apps available, and all without intrusive pop-up advertising. Prepare from Nintendomination…