Hands on with Miitomo – Take a tour of Nintendo’s first mobile game

Nintendo has unleashed it’s first mobile game on … well Japan. While we wait for the rest of world to get it we snuck onto the Japanese App Store, used our Japanese NNID to bring you this – a preview of Miitomo. You can do the same too if you want but just keep in mind when you do link up your eventual real Nintendo Network ID you’re going to have to start from scratch.

So what is Miitomo? 

Miitomo is a communications game, your Mii acts the digital version of you to talk and communicate with your friends Mii to learn more about them. You ask them questions, they answer can them and then they can ask their own back. Nintendo says you should learn a lot more about your friends this way, especially if you’re not the one asking them – your Mii is!

Miitomo plays a lot like Tomodachi Life did on the Nintendo 3DS. It looks very similar, it sounds very similar and plays very much the same. The game is fully voiced with a robotic version of your voice of your choosing when you set up the app.

The real difference with Miitomo compared to Tomodachi Life is that it’s fully internet connected. You can sign up with your social network of choice, Twitter, Facebook or use your Nintendo Network ID.

You can easily chose friends from those networks and there’s no bothersome friend codes or even QR codes needed. QR codes are still supported for importing celebrity Mii’s and the like but there’s no need to do it for your own Mii as it can get it from the Nintendo Network ID.

So what else is there to do in Miitomo aside from the game of 20 questions? First things first you’re going to want to dress up your Mii and there’s tons of things to check out and buy! You use currency earned throughout the game, but like most mobile games you can choose to buy this currency with real money – hide it from the kids folks.

Elsewhere there’s a pachinko style game called Miitomo Drop, this allows you to for the cost of a token or some coins try your luck at collecting some more fashionable items. At the moment there’s a range of cat items to collect, each board has it’s own fashion set to collect much like there’s themed boards on Nintendo’s Badge Arcade.

One of the coolest parts of Miitomo is the Miifoto section, like a ‘meme builder’ almost you can build a scene with your Mii or your friends and add text, stamps, symbols and even pictures from your own camera. There’s a competition going already for the best cat photo using the Miifoto section. There’s some truly bizarre stuff in here, but don’t be afraid – that’s what the app is for isn’t it?

Miitomo is a well made application, it does seem to use a little bit of battery up though – so it probably won’t be your go to social media application going forward.

Nintendo’s created something fun and interesting here, hopefully new content, contests and ideas can keep it going forward.