Last month, Nintendo launched Miitomo, a socializing app where you dress up your Mii and answer questions ranging from “How was your day?” to “What does friendship mean to you?” The first week it was out you could say I had an addiction for it. I spent a lot of time finding out new things about my friends, buying clothes until I was broke and doing all I could to win exclusive prizes through chance. I’m going to walk you through this game with my own little Mii and maybe you’ll want to give it try.
1. Set up a Mii
Kara Robson’s Mii on Miitomo. Image courtesy of Kara Robson.
The first thing the app will prompt you to do is create your own mii to represent yourself. If you have a Wii, you probably already have an idea how you would look. But if you’re new to creating avatars, there is also an option to take a picture and the game will take your facial features and translate it into various options that you can choose from on the app.
2. Add friends
Image courtesy of Kara Robson.
After you’ve set up your mii, you’re going to want to add friends; unfortunately, there are only three ways to do this. Two ways are connecting your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts, and those you are mutually friends with or following will appear on a list for you to add. If you’re not present on either of those networks, your only other option is to add them in person, which may not be possible for a collegiate who is hundreds of miles from home. There is a secondary way, however — if you share three or more mutual friends with someone else, he or she will be available to add. I’d take caution with this as you might not know who these people are. Miitomo is a pretty personal app and you wouldn’t want your deepest, inner confessions available to people you’ve never heard of before.
3. Pick your outfits
Image courtesy of Kara Robson.
A big aspect of the game, next to rounding up friends and interacting with them, is collecting clothes. The shop is the best place to get new clothes and outfits. They have styles ranging from practical to quirky and there’s a section that changes daily, so there’s always new clothes to buy. About a month into this game you’ll find yourself scrambling for money. You’ll ask yourself, ‘was it really worth buying those expensive butterfly wings?’
Yes. Yes it was.
But buying clothes isn’t the only way to acquire them. There is also Miitomo Drop, where you chance dropping a mii character into a pinball-esque machine to win themed clothes. So far there have been themes ranging from cats, sandwiches, ninjas, goths, plants and fruit. Some articles of clothing are really hard to land on, so when you see one of your friends wearing, say, that prized Pineapple-leaf hat, you just know. All the bragging rights are yours if you win them.
4. Questions and answers
Image courtesy of Kara Robson.
The final and most pinnacle aspect of the game are the questions and answers your Mii share with you. All of the questions your friends answer are filtered back to you through your own Mii attempting to say it all, and yes, you’re permitted to curse as much as you want. It’s actually pretty funny. You can like or comment on these answers, creating threads of conversation that can range from very light-hearted and supportive or serious and thoughtful. Remember to answer these with civility, because your friends will always be able to see it and hold you accountable for it.
While seeing your friends’ answers are fun, remember that they’re only having as much fun if you’re conscious of your answers too. Try not to share anything you wouldn’t say in person. It’s just a fun game meant for friends to learn more about each other, but don’t feel like you have to be compelled to share your life story. Something as precious as that should be addressed in person, never over a screen.
Miitomo is a fun, casual app where we learn small things about each other. Even best friends may learn a few new things with a game of 20-questions. I love learning interesting tidbits about my friends and hey, if you think you might be interested too, the Appstore is only a few clicks away.