Summary
A true modern-day tragedy has beenNintendo’s slow withdrawal of Miis over the last few console generations. Once a key selling point and core part of the Wii’s identity, Miis have been relegated to a hidden customization feature buried within the system settings on the Switch.
While it’s tempting to commiserate over the gradual decline of the slightly uncanny avatar’s relevance, it’s more uplifting to look at some of the more creative ways they’ve been used since their inception. Occasionally, just used to a save file icon, there are some much more creative ways these multi-faced icons have been implemented over the years.
The Pilotwings series was assumed to have been long gone afterdecades of no new entries, and that’s why it was such a surprise that Nintendo released a new Pilotwings game with the launch of the 3DS.
Acting as a middle ground between the original Pilotwings games and the new (at the time) Wii Sports Resort setting, the game lets you take to the skies, controlling whichever Mii you desire. It’s now been years since the release of Pilotwings Resort, so hopefully Nintendo will once again remember about this series.
While Miis have begun to fade into semi-obscurity with the Switch generation, the one game that has consistently provided support for these avatars is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Every mainline Mario Kart since the Wii has allowed you to play as a Mii, but 8 brought it up a notch with more customization options.
The original Mario Kart 8 had the option for Nintendo-themed Mii costumes unlocked with amiibos, but 8 Deluxe, in one of itslast waves of DLC,added even more costumes to add some extra flair to your Miis. A little-known Easter egg about these costumes is that some of them will change the poses your Miis make when you do a trick.
6Miitomo
Gone, And Mostly Forgotten
At the height of Nintendo’s awkward dark years (2015-16) when the Wii U was prematurely winding down support, but the Switch wasn’t out yet, Nintendo announced it would start releasing mobile games.
While some of these were quite successful, Nintendo’s first effort was perhaps its most awkward. Miitomo, as the name suggests, starred the Miis, and was a social ‘game’, where you’d take photos, answer questions, and occasionally visit friends. It was a strange experiment, and has since been discontinued, but it lives on in the hearts of its few dedicated fans.
Even though Miis were planned to be added to Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii, it wasn’t until the fourth entry in the fighting game series on the 3DS and Wii U that the Miis finally joined the roster.
The Mii Fighters were announced alongside the custom moves mechanic, and were the perfect template to display how you could customise each of the characters' specials.
Because they were added here, they necessitated beingported into Smash Ultimate(everyone was invited after all, even the Miis), and with them came the custom moves feature, this time a little more hidden within a few layers of menus. While the Mii Fighters are well-liked by some, they’re also a little notorious, since Mii Fighter costumes were often added as an alternative to potential new characters, instead of being an actual fighter, much to the dismay of hungry fans (Geno Mii Fighter just isn’t the same).
While the Wii U era wasn’t Nintendo’s most successful, it’s remembered fondly by those who saw Nintendo’s vision. While it didn’t recapture the phenonmenon that was Wii Sports, Nintendo Land is arguably a better launch title to return to.
The collection of 12 minigames themed around classic Nintendo properties to display everything that was possible with the Wii U was a great idea, and even better, every minigame was played with Miis. While it’s unlikely now, hopefully the theme-park style minigame collection is used again by Nintendo in the future.
While it feels like the original Wii Sports would be the most obvious choice for a celebration of Miis, and while it was definitely the first, the sequel, Wii Sports Resort, feels like a much better example of what Miis were capable of.
With a better selection of sports and different modes to keep you busy, Wii Sports Resort just has a lot more to sink your teeth into. The addition of Mii Champions for each of the different sports (including the infamous Matt), also gave certain Miis a bit more personality than they had before.
Even though the Wii is where Nintendo introduced the Miis, it feels like the 3DS is where it had the most fun with them. One of the top examples of this is Miitopia, a wholly Mii-centric RPG, that added even more of that uncanny sense of humour that comes with Miis.
While the RPG elements weren’t anything mindblowing, the level of customization and life-sim elements ensured the game grew a cult following. While it wasn’t particularly successful on the 3DS, coming quite late in the handheld’s lifespan, it was given a new lease on life with the 2021 Switch remaster.
Perhaps one of the strangest games to gain a loyal fanbase from the 3DS era is Tomodachi Life. In spite of being a pretty hard-to-describe life-sim game, it ended up being one of the best-selling games on the 3DS.
Well-known for somehow managing to make the Miis even more strange by giving each of them a customizable voice, Tomodachi Life has plenty for you to do, even if none of it feels like a traditional game. Tomodachi Life is a strange, but in the end, successful experiment.
