A Weekend with Miitomo
So I was supposed to be working on a follow-up to my last write-up about the View-Master VR headset, but then I got a Samsung Galaxy S7 along with a GearVR. Needless to say, I tinkered with both for a few days. My last weekend was overrun with family, so all my other spare moments sank into Miitomo.
My wife rolled her eyes every time the music popped up, asking if the sound “really” needed to be on. I’ll admit that I sort of lied and told her that it was integral to my experience. My favorite music in Miitomo has to be in the Miifoto section. It’s light and cheery and seems to cycle randomly. You can listen to it here. It reminds me of Katamari Damacy, probably because of all the “Da da’s” sprinkled throughout the track. If you have the time, definitely listen to the whole thing. It has a real “Wii” and “Mii” feel to it.
Mii Interaction
Beyond the charming soundtrack, the heart of Miitomo lies in asking relatively mundane questions. How you and your friends answer these will either elevate or kill the experience.
I’ll admit I didn’t just spend the weekend with Miitomo. I actually found a mirror for the Android App online and pretended to live in Japan so that I could get a glimpse the weekend before the US release. At that time Miitomo was close to complete. It was fully localized with just a few issues around entering text for your answers. The keyboard defaulted to all caps, and sometimes the EditText would stay inactive. This left you stuck not being able to enter anything until you killed the app. They’ve since fixed this in the latest release (v1.1.2).
Since I’m the only one I know on Android (that would download this app), I had to create a friend to test it out, so I coerced my Program Director to create a Mii. As the Mii maker worked, snapping pictures and converting them into Miis, there were a few words of disapproval as it churned out Miis that looked less and less like their subject, but in the end I got a friend to test out the app.
The loading animations are pretty silly and fun, but you do get them a lot. Switching apps or even accidentally hitting the Recent Apps button triggers a loading animation every time. The upside is that you get to see you and your friend’s Mii performing all sorts of funny actions.
Now that my friends are able to download the app, my experience has only gotten better. Gaining more friends on your friends list is nice, but finding people that want to have fun with the limited experience really makes the app shine. You can share your responses out into images as hints or answers and then also share them out to social media. This is a nice touch and well executed by Nintendo, but it’s a pretty hidden feature.
Linking accounts
Problems did arise when my friends and I tried to link our accounts. There are three ways to add friends: Face-to-face, Facebook friends, and Twitter followers. Facebook friends and Twitter followers are pretty straightforward. Any friend or follower will show up if they’ve linked their account to Miitomo. Since we live thousands of miles away from each other, the face-to-face feature wasn’t much help to us. Any a number of my friends don’t have Twitter or Facebook accounts, so account creations had to happen. But now that we’re all linked, I have more followers than I’ve ever had (15!). It took a little time for everyone to show up, but after a few small annoyances, all my friends were posing as Miis.
I tested out Face-to-face on an earlier version. This method guides you through setting permissions and then selecting a suit from a deck of cards. Some “magic” happens and you are linked, or you fail because one person hits it faster than the other. It looks to be a bonjour style solution. Not a bad solution, but definitely a little flaky. Once you have friends, you can add their friends and expand your list from there.
Dress up and Miifotos
The two sections of the app that I haven’t touched as much are the game of dress up and taking Miifotos. It sounds childish, and it really is, but I have to admit both are pretty fun . There are three ways to acquire items to wear, one of which is as a gift from Nintendo. You can get the Mario hat very easily, and you can also (after you linked your “My Nintendo” account) gain Mario’s overalls with the coins you receive completing your first set of missions.
The second option for clothing is to play the Miitomo Drop game. And the third is simply purchasing outfits from the Shop. There is a section of the shop with a constant collection of items as well as a rotating stock that changes daily. Whenever you change your outfit you are asked to take a Miifoto of it to share. They are random, and sometimes a little inappropriate, but you can always edit them or start again from scratch.
Customizing your Mii is probably my favorite part of the game. You start by taking snapshots of your face to generate a set of Miis to customize. You can also start from scratch, similar to the 3DS and Wii U versions, or use the QR code scanner. When I tried to use the scanner, I could only import Miitomo QR codes and not codes from other games like Tomodachi Life, however.
Once you have your Mii, you create your Nickname along with the pronunciation of it. You can throw just about anything in there, and this brought me back to playing Kid Works 2 when I was younger, where you could change the pronunciation of any word. (We used to switch in swear words for ‘the’ and other common words.) Sadly, in Miitomo, there’s a bad word list when creating your Mii, but everywhere else you can say whatever you want.
After your Mii and nickname, you customize your voice. I Admittedly spent a fair amount of time here trying to get something desirable. Finally, you fill out a personality chart that helps determine how your Mii will act like.
Miifotos, or placing your dolled-up Miis in an environment, is another huge part of the game. Once you have your Miis, you can place them on pre-rendered backgrounds or upload your own. You can do just about anything here. The more friends you have, the more actors you have to play around with. You can select a pose, facial expression, or change your clothes temporarily to achieve the effect you want.
Miitomo Drop
The last section of the app is the only real “gaming” portion, unless you count trolling your friends. Miitomo Drop is a game where you spend your hard-earned (or bought) coins and tickets to have a chance at unique accessories. It’s a fun time waster, and you’re not guaranteed to even get what you want.
There is some skill to it: where you release your Mii, from left to right, as well as the angle of the Mii. Sometimes it’s better to drop them flat on their sides, or straight up and down to squeeze past an obstacle. The worst case scenario is that you get a duplicate or that you get candy. Duplicates are not a huge problem because you can only claim one color per drop. If you have all the colors, you can always claim them as candy.
Candy is fairly useless overall. Currently, it just allows you to ask your friends a few more questions than the normal amount. Though I am not really certain what the normal amount is. Think of it as a tasty bribe for your digital friends. If you want to continue to play the drop game, or buy clothing outright at the shop, but you run out of gold, you can purchase some at any time. Prices range from $0.99 for 1,000 coins to $74.99 for 105,000 coins. If you have kids playing this game, keep a close eye on them or at least password protect the play store to avoid unwanted purchases. When you just start out on Miitomo, you will get a ton of game tickets and coins. As time goes on they will dry up and you may start thinking about purchasing coins. Completing missions through your linked My Nintendo account can help you here, but that’s limited to mostly Game Tickets.
Another way to get tickets and coins are by completing missions and leveling up your Mii. By changing clothes daily, listening to your friends, or writing responses, you can get coins or My Nintendo Coins that are specific to Miitomo. These coins can be used online to gain tickets for the Miitomo Drop game, as well as for other rewards that can be used outside the app. There is also a daily check-in bonus that awards you items.
Conclusion
Overall Miitomo is a fun experience in short bursts. I’ll enjoy the rdop game as they add new and interesting accessories. And, no doubt, I will continue to make Miifotos from time to time to show off a new outfit or to send a joke over to a friend. Overall, this is a good first effort from Nintendo as they branch out and try to embrace the mobile platform.
Next up, Pokemon Go!
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