Nintendo announced late Thursday via Twitter that they will roll out Miitomo in Japan next week. The app will launch for iOS and Android.
Miitomo is a free-to-start social experience that lets you spark conversations with your friends in a whole new way and uses Nintendo’s Mii characters, which first debuted with the launch of Wii Sports in 2006. More than 200 million Mii characters currently exist across Nintendo systems worldwide. To get started, users can quickly create a Mii character, customizing its facial features, eyes, hair, as well as voice and personality. Users can also use the camera of their smartphone or tablet to snap a photo that will be translated into Mii form, or they can simply import their Mii from the Wii U or Nintendo 3DS systems using a QR Code.
Once their Mii is ready to act as their social go-between, users can add friends in person, or through their existing Facebook or Twitter accounts. Once that step is complete, then it’s time to answer some questions. Miitomo creates conversations and turns discussions into a form of play by prompting users to answer all kinds of questions. Did you know that your best friend’s favorite food is pizza? Maybe, but did you know her favorite music genre is secretly polka? And that she believes in aliens? The answers get shared among friends, sparking interesting conversations – part of the fun is discovering surprise facts about your friends that you never knew before. When users hear how their friends responded to questions, they can give it a “heart” or comment through text or with a picture.
Mii characters will travel around and visit others that users have added as friends in the app, so it’s important to look good. As users experience Miitomo, they’ll earn Miitomo coins, which can be redeemed in the in-app shop to get all kinds of cool outfits. Users also have the option to get more Miitomo coins via in-app purchase. Users can set their own style with shorts, pants, socks, shirts, shoes, accessories and hats. If users want to go further in expressing themselves, they can dress up in a variety of outlandish costumes, such as a bear costume, pirate costume or hot dog costume.
Users can also express themselves with the Miifoto feature, which lets them put their Mii characters in fun poses with cool stamps, or by combining their Mii image with photos they have taken themselves. These creations can then easily be posted to social media services like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.