Introducing the Miitomo - Nintendo's latest breakthrough in mobile application

Foreword

The appearance of the application from Nintendo, namely Miitomo, received a very extraordinary response. Reporting from Nintendo’s official website, the temporary number of users who have downloaded Miitomo has reached more than three million!! No wonder Miitomo was able to achieve such a large number in a short time because so many people were curious to try it.

Miitomo is like other social media, but it should be noted that the main point that Nintendo wants to highlight is its ability to provide new ways of interaction compared to other social media applications. Through Miitomo, users can create and customize their avatar. Not only can they chat, gamers can also share their photos on other social media networks. Although this application has features that are close to social media, its usefulness for sharing information is not as big and powerful as other applications such as Facebook or Twitter. Yes, it can be said that Miitomo is just like other smartphone personalization applications such as Bitmoji, and the virtual simulation game Second Life.

Say Hello to Mii!
For users who are familiar with Nintendo’s console, they are definitely familiar with Mii, the avatar that is usually used to represent our presence in the game world. Although it’s not new, users who already have a Nintendo account before have to create a new Mii again if they want to use Miitomo, especially users who don’t have a Nintendo account at all. To make Mii, you can create even simple or complex characters. This application has a camera scan feature, so we can use your face for the Mii character. Equipped with various tweaks and filters, users can choose a style that really represents themselves.

After you finish making Mii, you can start by adding friends via a connection that is connected to a Facebook, Twitter account, or the QR code feature. After adding friends, gamers can visit other accounts and chat, to answer questions (in the form of chat bots) where these questions will appear every day. These questions can be answered to earn coins, which can later be used to buy outfits to beautify the look of your Mii. The available outfits also have a variety of designs, so users don’t have to worry if they don’t find clothes that suit your taste.

What We Can Do?
There are 5 categories of choices that you can access on the Miitomo application screen, including Recent, My Answer, Friends, Shop and Menu. Recent will display all of the user’s recent interaction history, including conversations and comments left each time you join a conversation. My Answer is a section where you can answer daily questions to get more coins, while Shop is useful for customizing the appearance of Mii by paying a certain amount of coins. Lastly is the Menu option, which is used to access profiles, manage Mii appearance, greetings, Miiphoto (photo album), Nintendo Missions, QR Code, gift box, and settings.

In running Nintendo Missions, you can go through several missions ranging from very simple to those with a high level of difficulty. The initial mission that you must complete is to get acquainted with the application environment, add friends, and answer questions. Then the mission progresses to more difficult levels, such as earning a certain number of hearts – a kind of “Like” on Facebook – on one answer in one day. Of course to make this happen you have to add some friends first.

Good but Not Perfect
Although interesting, this application still has a number of shortcomings. Miitomo requires a large enough memory space because every time a user posts a photo or downloads an outfit, there is likely to be a lot of memory space being used. Another drawback is the battery consumption is very wasteful. Tests conducted on iPhone 6 devices in full condition show that with just a few hours of opening applications without playing, Miitomo can drain battery power by up to 40%.

Indeed, Nintendo managed to make an application that can be used to interact with many people. However, Miitomo seems far from hot when it is called a mobile game like what has been predicted since before its launch. Well, although not as expected, Nintendo’s step in presenting Miitomo could be the beginning of their success in the mobile realm.

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