Miitomo was a free-to-use social networking mobile app developed by Nintendo for iOS and Android devices, serving as a pseudo-spinoff of the Tomodachi series. The app allowed users to converse with friends by answering various questions, and featured Twitter and Facebook integration. The app, Nintendo's first, was released in Japan on March 17, 2016, and worldwide on March 31, 2016, launching alongside their My Nintendo loyalty/rewards program (which the app is incorporated into). The app could only be used when connected to Nintendo's servers.
Miitomo was a conversational app where users could communicate with friends by answering questions on various topics, such as favourite foods or current interests. Similar to Tomodachi, players would use a Mii avatar which they could create from scratch or obtain from their My Nintendo account or a QR Code, and give it a computer-generated voice and personality. Users could add friends to Miitomo by communicating directly with their device or by linking the app to their Facebook and Twitter accounts. By tapping their Mii, users could answer various questions which would then be shared with their friends, while tapping their thought bubble allowed them to hear answers from other friends. Users could visit, or be visited by, other friends and were able to answer certain questions that were only shared with a specific friend. Players were also able to take pictures of their Mii, known as Miifotos, which could be shared with friends as well as posted online.
The app was shut down on May 9, 2018, after only two years of service, due to dwindling popularity.
Miitomo contained examples of:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Like the Tomodachi series, you can rub the Mii's head; releasing your finger when rubbing it long enough, they dance happily with flowers surrounding them along with the caption "They seem to like that!".
- An Interior Designer Is You: Starting form Version 2.0, you can play special Miitomo Drop machines with floors and walls up for grabs.
- Anti-Grinding:
- Should you want to hear responses from a specific friend, you can visit their Mii directly, instead of waiting for your Mii to tell you their answers or for their Mii to visit. Until update 1.4 however, they would only say about three answers before they start requesting candy to go on.
- The game will only give you so much money for listening to answers, commenting on answers, and answering questions. After a total of ten each, no more coins will be received until the next day.
- You can only earn three tickets from the candy drop each day, so if you have a stockpile of candy, you won't be able to convert them to tickets all at once.
- The user can only receive a total of 85 Miifotos of the Day.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Only two Miis can be in an apartment at a time, and only five Miis can be put into a single Miifoto.
- Art Evolution: Miitomo has a lot more facial expressions for Miis than the Tomodachi games have. This is combined with the ability to change expressions mid-conversation (for example, talking about food makes a Mii lick its lips), allowing for Miis to express a lot more than they originally could.
- Ascended Meme:
- If a Mii says "direct" or variations thereof, they will do an imitation of the infamous Nintendo Direct hand gesture.
- The text on the back of the Rugby Ball headwear says, "BODY = READY".
- Blank White Eyes: A surprised expression Miis can have.
- But Now I Must Go: When a friend comes to visit your apartment, and you finish talking to them, they will immediately leave.
- Cap:
- A user can have up to 1,000 friends and 101 Miis (including their own) saved to their account.
- Eventually, the player's Mii (along with other Miis that ask questions that aren't "Just between you and me") will run out of questions to ask, prompting him/her to go "I was gonna ask you something, but I forgot... Talk to me later, would ya?" When the game gets updated (for instance, when there's a new Miitomo Drop minigame), Miitomo will give you more questions to ask, although sometimes it'll refresh any time specific questions, like what you had for dinner last night.
- Both of the levels stop at 30 (originally 20). Players can still level up, but it just loops.
- Cluster F-Bomb: A lot of the text you can write doesn't get screened at all. Even swear words and other profane language. Naturally, people are being quick to take advantage of it.
- Consolation Prize:
- Candy serves as this in the Miitomo Drop machines, as they'll (in most cases) appear as the "prize" for missing every major target.
- Ticket Stubs in Candy Drop, which occupy three of the four slots at the bottom of the machine.
- Console Cameo: A hoodie with the Super Famicom controller on it is available via My Nintendo. The SNES controller, meanwhile, has a t-shirt devoted to it.
- Crossdresser: Everyone have the same choice of clothes regardless of gender, allowing this to happen. Unlike the Tomodachi games, this won't have a detriment on happiness because no similar stat exists.
- Cute Kitten: Cats are featured many times through the game: Cat-themed outfits from certain Miitomo Drop machines, the cat smile, and once your Popularity reaches the double-digits, the different ranks' names incorporate "Cat" into them. When Miis talk about cats, their face will transform into that of a cat's face for half a second.
- Digital Avatar: With all Mii-related stuff, this is no exception.
- Dualvertisement: Every month or two, a promotion for another Nintendo series is held on Miitomo. Each adds many clothing articles based on the series, available through new Miitomo Drop machines, the Miitomo shop (for Miitomo coins), and My Nintendo (for Platinum Points). Some of these are given away for free if certain Twitter retweet milestones are met,
- Mario's cap was a launch present, and his suit was a My Nintendo points purchase.
- July 2016 had a T-shirt festival which featured Mario-themed T-shirts. Later in December 2016, there were Mario-themed clothing and wallpapers to promote the release Super Mario Run.
- A Kirby promo started in September 2016, with items relating to the Kirby Café that was opened in Japan around that time.
- A promo for The Legend of Zelda was held in June 2016, in this case as a promotion for the full E3 reveal of Breath of the Wild.
- In late April/May of 2016, a Splatoon clothing promotion was held. In addition to the normal features, one Everybody Answers question ("Would you rather go to a fancy party or a costume party?") was taken from a Splatfest that ran around the same time. In July of the same year, another promotion was held to commemorate the game's final Splatfest (Callie versus Marie), with pins being given out based on the winner of the Splatfest.
- Metroid items were introduced to commemorate the series' 30th anniversary and the release of Metroid Prime: Federation Force in August 2016.
- In February 2017 had a Fire Emblem promo, coinciding the release of Fire Emblem Heroes.
- Dogfaces: A Mii's face will gain dog features for half a second when talking about dogs.
- Eyes Always Shut: When Miis are sharing answers or asking questions, they'll mostly use the "happy" expression, which changes their eyes to upside-down Us. Their default expression only shows up once reading the answer, unless it has a happy feeling with it.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Something that can be won during the wedding events.
- Fast-Forward Gag: You can fast forward through a Mii's dialogue by holding down on the screen. Depending on the Mii's voice, this can get ridiculous.
- Fingerless Hands: Like the Tomodachi series, the Miis have these.
- Funny Background Event: The following Mii animations from the Tomodachi series return here: "walk", "sneeze", "scratch head or hip", "sniff", "roll head", "twist arm", "yawn", and "fart".
- Happy Birthday to You!: This plays in the background when you greet your Mii on your birthday. Interestingly, this game was released after the song was no longer deemed copyrighted.
- Happy Dance: In addition to Easygoing Miis having a minor version of this as their idle pose, Miis can do this when happy, excited or loving.
- Hidden Depths: Unlike a lot of other social media apps and platforms, the coin system means that people actually have an incentive to share their thoughts and secrets and listen to others via the questions, and many note that they've learned some surprising things about their friends because of this.
- High-Pressure Emotion: When talking about angry things, the Mii will have an angry face and stomp as if throwing a temper-tantrum, complete with puffs of smoke and a steam engine whistle.
- Hitbox Dissonance: In Miitomo Drop, the Miis' hitboxes are effectively wide ovals, which can easily bounce or slide off a prize platform if they don't land sideways on the exact center, netting you nothing but borderline useless Candy unless you time it just right.
- Holiday Mode: Like other social media, you must enter your birthday upon starting up. If you start the app on your birthday, your Mii will celebrate and you'll receive a special birthday Miifoto.
- Unlike the Tomodachi series however, the player cannot change their birthday after it has been finalized, so this can be regretted by those who set it as a date that isn't their actual birthday (though people do this on purpose to prevent identity theft).
- Idle Animation: Identical to the Tomodachi series' idle animations (standing still if Outgoing or Confident, bobbing their head and arms if Easygoing, a Thinker Pose if Indipendent), complete with the same walk animations (Swaying their head and arms if Outgoing, walking normally while slouching if Confident, swinging their body a little if Easygoing, walking straight if Independent). Unlike in Tomodachi, this also changes the sounds a Mii makes when walking.
- Jump Scare:
- Get your or someone else's Mii to display the "Serious" expression during conversations, and he'll/she'll suddenly gain a photorealistic face as the camera dramatically zooms in onto their head, complete with a startling sound.
- The choice of notification sound for this app is very startling. It's the Mii's sneezing sound combined with a sparkly sound effect.
- Leitmotif: When visiting a Mii's apartment or when a Mii visits you while your Mii is home, one of four themes will play depending on the Mii's personality group.
- Outgoing Miis get a fast, upbeat song with a tropical theme.
- Easygoing Miis get a slow, calm, and relaxed theme.
- Confident Miis get a techno, robotic beat in their theme.
- Independent Miis get a theme composed of random slow beats and percussion instruments.
- Luminescent Blush: Appears on Miis when they mention something embarrassing.
- Microtransactions: While it's possible to get Miitomo coins without paying actual cash, they can be obtained in greater and quicker quantities by paying for coin packages.
- Mood Dissonance / Dissonant Serenity: Depending on how an answer is worded, something that is meant to come off as sad or tragic can show the Mii making a happy gesture or display the classic Eyes Always Shut. The same goes for the inverse.
- Ninja Log: One Miitomo Drop-exclusive outfit set is based on this concept, being a log suit with shurikens stuck to it.
-
Nintendo Hard: Miitomo Drop, since the Miis themselves have awkward hitboxes that have to land on a target completely sideways on the center of a prize tile for it to count, otherwise the Mii will simply slip off and continue falling towards the bottom, ending up with questionably useful Candy as a prize. Some of the harder Miitomo Drop stages also invoke Guide Dang It! and varying degrees of luck. - The Nose Knows: Miis can often sniff the air when they stop walking. When doing so, you'll hear a realistic sniffing sound instead of the high-pitched slide noise heard in Tomodachi Life.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: An expression Miis can have in appropriate contexts, accompanied by a whistle sound.
- No Fair Cheating: The game refuses to launch if the game detects the device is jailbroken in the iOS version, or rooted in the Android version.
- Ocular Gushers: Miis will use these when mentioning really sad things.
- Permanently Missable Content: The game's shutdown, meaning all Miifotos are lost and unable to be retrieved unless you saved them to your system.
- Perpetual Expression:
- Averted; Miis are able to change their facial expressions a lot more than they normally could (though not to the extent of Videogame/Miitopia), especially compared to the Tomodachi series where outside of rare occasions Miis in that series would only display four variations of their normal expression (Happy, Shocked, Sad, and Angry) while always using their default expressions at the wrong time.
- Played straight if the Mii says they're out of questions. They'll always use the "happy" expression (see Eyes Always Shut above), only to shake their head desperately for a moment before resuming that expression.
- Play Every Day: Encouraged in multiple ways, including changing shop stocks and games, a daily rewards system, and challenges for My Nintendo Platinum Points (up to 35 a day).
- Rummage Sale Reject: Unlike Tomodachi Life, each piece of clothing (shirt, pants, socks, shoes, hats, and accessories) is in a separate category. Thus, it's very easy to make your Mii wear mismatching outfits or a mishmash of several themes.
- Say It with Hearts: As with the Tomodachi series, symbols appear around the Mii as they talk; either smoke puffs if mad, flowers if happy or excited, or hearts when loving something; if they talk about love, their eyes turn into hearts as well.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Subverted. When Miis sneeze, you'll hear a realistic sneeze sound rather than the chipping sound (or simply saying "Achoo!") heard in Life, and if Miis laugh, they use a cartoonish, high-pitched laughter instead of the flapping blanket noise. You can make them say their sound effects in your comments, however.
- Shirtless Scene: It's possible to have your Mii not wear a shirt at all.
- Slasher Smile: Miis get this along with their laughing sound when mentioning sneaky things.
- Socialization Bonus: Obviously, the game requires you to have friends registered to do most anything. In addition, registering friends gives you item gifts at certain milestones (for up to 20 friends), and registering someone Face-to-Face (as in, in person) gets you a one-time bonus of 100 Platinum Points for My Nintendo. Having more friends also makes it easier to complete the daily point challenges.
- Speaking Simlish: The Miis will speak in weird gibberish expression when they are talking to each other (which changes in speed and pitch based on the Mii's voice settings). Even their laughter sounds like gibberish. Averted when they're talking to you.
- Stock Sound Effect: The Mario coin sound (from 2009 onward) is heard any time the Miis say "Nintendo".
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Miis talk in this way. The game uses the same text-to-speech engine as Tomodachi Life.
- Sweet Tooth: Candy is a collectible "currency". Before July 2016, it was used to coax Miis into giving out responses to questions, instead of waiting for them or your own Mii to bring the question up.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Averted. The Miis will never fight each other, unlike the Tomodachi series. You can remove them from your friend list or block them, however.
- Thinker Pose: As with the Tomodachi series, Independent Miis will have this as their idle pose.
- The Unpronounceable: Depending on the language the game is set to, certain languages will become this to others, such as an English-language game trying to speak Japanese resulting in a long endless sequence of A's.
- Undesirable Prize:
- In the Miitomo Drop machines, it's (very) possible to get candy as a reward. Back then, candy was only useful if you wanted to hear your friends' answers to certain questions or if you wanted to hear a long streak of one friend's questions in one go (if they don't visit you), but it doesn't compare to a sweet new piece of clothing (considering there's no way to acquire the clothing you can win from them with standard currency). This was since averted as it's now a currency to accumulate new and lost Game Tickets via the Candy Drop minigame, though considering the difficulty to win full tickets and not just Ticket Stubs, it's usefulness is still justified.
- Speaking of Candy Drop, there are Ticket Stubs, which form into a Game Ticket when one obtains 10 (requiring up to 50 candy if the player doesn't use Free Plays). It's pale in comparison to winning a pure Game Ticket with just five Candies.
- Virtual Paper Doll: To a greater extent than the Tomodachi games, which group fashion items into hats and outfits (or just outfits in Collection); this game further breaks down outfits into shirt, bottom, full-body outfit, shoes, socks, and misc. accessory sub-categories, allowing you to fine-tune your appearance further.
- Wingding Eyes:
- The hearts version pops up on Miis when they're talking about love.
- The coin version appears if they talk about money or greed.
- Wrestler in All of Us: There's an overhead ring background that seems tailor made for body slam Miifotos.
How much time do you spend on TV Tropes every day?
All day? Me too!
All day? Me too!
