Miitomo Review

Right, then. Didn't see myself writing a review about a mobile game app but this was truly an unique experience to me as far as "social media" goes, since it's borderline a game.. maybe. Some will disagree with me going as far as calling it a game but I digress.

Introduction:
Miitomo, a Nintendo first released "app" rose in popularity almost immediately upon launch. With all things considered and being centered about "Miis" I pretty much dismissed it. Well, I saw the appeal to it when I was with my brother who was on it having a pretty good time, once I heard that they introduced ninja gear I delved right in.

"Gameplay"
Miitomo is centered around a lot of loose tie-ins when considered a mobile gaming app. It's hardly gaming, but does tread on the premise. The reason? Well, you gain coins for talking with your friends, as well as play an oddly frustrating pinball game for additional apparel, which can be fun at times but requires resources only found in game, or purchased online from Nintendo. Gimmicky as it may be, it's not an oversight to what really makes this app more of a game mixed with social aspects.

Communication:
One of the most fun but biggest flaws with Miitomo is that the communication between you and your friends can be satisfying while frustrating all at the same time. The app allows you to communicate solely on answering pre-rendered questions from Nintendo which sometimes can be sensitive subjects, or just weakly stated to lead to singular answers that almost provide no other segway for conversation. The charming part of Miitomo is hearing your Mii, among other Miis talk to outloud on the app. It can be fun hearing some of the voices that your friends chose for their Mii, which I particularly enjoy the most. It really sparks the feeling that you are there having a conversation, but again based on the question only.

A second problem for me is the fact that you can't easily find some of these conversations you have started. I have lost my conversations in the muck and mire of many people's questions, allowing for a lot of lost potential. Being said, I feel the game flops at this point. Without the chance of asking your own questions, and having to search through threads upon threads for your recent topic, the game hinders. Additionally, the more friends you have, the worse this situation becomes. I went from 5 friends to 50 in a few days, and when this happened, things got real hairy.

Which brings me to my third problem, the refresh rate. For my device running on iOS, I have found the biggest problem is the refresh rate of topic answers. For example "What is your least favorite purchase?" a friend answered "Amiibo" well, if I did chime in, and it happens to be a hot thread, it will constantly refresh to the top of my notifications, really putting a damper on looking for my other friends questions being answered. In other words, the app forces you to scroll in a 2D like immersion rather than 3D, forcing your way again, through countless questions that you have already read.

Again, another big problem, is adding friends. I have synced my account with Twitter, which was fairly easy, however - when I tried to add friends, I could literally do it one friend at a time. Ontop of this, my app would some reason at a certain point bring me to the Twitter login mid-game for some reason to confirm it is indeed me signed into my Twitter account. A huge slow-down to the process not only being frustrating but tiring as well, taking away from immersion.

The Fun:
Miitomo allows you to post pictures of your Mii with either your own backdrop, or the games custom ones it can choose for you. This can be really funny at times, as your friends unexpectedly show you photos of them doing some absurd action with their Mii. I like this aspect quite a bit, ontop of the comment style, this makes for a very thorough and fun experience allowing you to truly feel you are part of the conversation.

The more you answer questions, you get coins for a reward - until you hit a cap. This is slightly hindersome because it does bring in the "pay-to-play" aspect in my opinion, one of the worse gimmicks in gaming. If I want to continue having fun answering questions for coins - to buy more outfits, then why is it I get punished for enjoying the app to a larger extent?

Coins are used for more clarification, to buy outfits at the shop for your Mii. This is a fun experience as they update the shop daily, however I do find myself seeing a lot of the same clothing after just a couple of days of gameplay. I understand this is just a newly launched title, but it doesn't really make you want to work toward anything too amazing, leading to high burnout.

The Room:
You get an initial room with the game, and that is basically it. There is no customization feature (yet) for your room to really allow your friends to visit and be enticed over. The only real reason for your friends to visit is to answer more pre-generated questions that you may ask, or to see some of your answers from the questions. This is very bland execution of gameplay allowing the app to fall heavily faceforward.

OVERALL:
While Miitomo is fun and provides excellence to a new way of social media, the further you delve in you soon realize that this "game/media" is going to become intolerable. With all the hype behind Miitomo it's easy to find a reason to play and get involved with your friends, but as you continue forward, you'll soon realize that this is just a quick cash-in for Nintendo at the moment without any real interface, leading to what I would consider a high burn out. I hope Nintendo plans to add on future content soon, as well as fix the communication system of the app which is what Miitomo heavily relies on. If Nintendo can fix a majority of these problems Miitomo can truly bloom into a wonderful experience.

Final Score: 5/10