Mii

About

A Mii is a digital avatar used in Nintendo's Wii, Wii U, Switch and Nintendo 3DS gaming consoles. The Mii concept allows users to develop a likeness of themselves, other people, or invented characters.

Origin

Nintendo first introduced the idea of a personal avatar software at the Game Developers Conference in 1997.^[1] Shigeru Miyamoto said that the personal avatar concept had originally been intended as a Famicom game, but that the concept could not be turned into a game and was suspended.

In 1999, the 64DD (a disk drive peripheral for the N64), was launched in Japan. Nintendo had produced a short film using the 64DD's Mario Artist: Talent Studio's avatar maker, which includes clothes and a built-in movie editor. Nintendo designer Yamashita Takayuki attributes his work on Talent Studio as having been foundational to his eventual work on the Mii. The Mii as it's known today made it's debut in 2007's Wii Sports.

Related Subcultures and Sites

Wii Series Games

The Wii Game Series is a series of fifteen physical simulation video games for the Wii and Wii U consoles. These games feature a common design theme, especially in their casual gameplay style and Mii integration.

Mii Channel and Mii Maker

Mii Channel is the default avatar creator for the Wii, where users can design 3D caricatures of people by selecting from a group of facial and bodily features. At the Game Developers Conference 2007, Shigeru Miyamoto explained that the look and design of the Mii characters are based on Kokeshi, a form of Japanese doll used as souvenir gifts.^[2]

Mii Maker is the app that allows Mii creation on the Nintendo 3DS. It can each store up to 100 Mii characters. The Mii Maker installed on the Nintendo 3DS can use facial recognition to generate a Mii, which selects facial features based on a photograph of a person's face taken with the system's cameras.

Tomadachi Life

Tomodachi Life is a life simulation video game for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console which takes place on the virtual Chin island inhabited by Nintendo Mii digital avatars. The game gained interest on the English-speaking web after Nintendo announced a North American release in April 2014.

Miiverse

Miiverse is a social network operated by Nintendo. It is split into communities for specific franchises, and can be further grouped into specific games.

Miitomo

Miitomo is a free-to-play social networking application developed by Nintendo for Android and iOS. The app allows players to converse using Miis, Nintendo’s avatars, by having their Mii ask them questions and then the Mii repeats the answers when it is asked by another player’s Mii. It is Nintendo’s first mobile app.

Miitopia

Miitopia* is a role-playing game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS console. Using elements of life simulators, the game allows users to play as Mii characters, the standard avatar design for the Wii entertainment console.

Related Memes

Lonk

Lonk, an intentional misspelling of “Link,” is a Nintendo Mii avatar based on the protagonist character from the video game series The Legend of Zelda. Lonk can be seen as a fan-made alter ego of the officially licensed character, in a similar fashion to other corrupted versions of iconic video game and cartoon characters like Sanic (Sonic the Hedgehog), Mayro (Mario) and Dolan (Donald Duck).

Tomodachi Life Concert Hall Parodies

Tomodachi Life Concert Hall Parodies are a series of videos in which users alter lyrics in the "Concert Hall" feature of Nintendo's Tomodachi Life to make humorous content.

One of the earliest known videos to use the Concert Hall for humor was uploaded by Jeffrey Grubb on June 5th, 2014, with the title "Tomodachi Life -- Techno song -- "I don't like pants on my leggies."

Mii Channel Theme Remixes

Mii Channel Theme Remixes refers to a series of remixes and fan-made versions of the score for the Nintendo Wii Mii Channel.

Search interest

External References