Cold talk about Miitomo and Nintendo on mobile.
Very recently, Nintendo held its first shareholders’ meeting since the election of the new president. In this meeting, apart from announcing the new system that will replace the late Club Nintendo, the first mobile game developed entirely by Nintendo and DeNa, Miitomo, was revealed to us. As you would expect from the internet at this point, the networks exploded with rage, fury and insults because Nintendo had announced a game that people were not looking for and that is based on a casual franchise and oh, my dear Nintendo, how low have you fallen, I hope you return to greatness and other ignorant nonsense.
So well, just like with the Metroid Prime Federation Force scandal, today I have to go to the fore to talk about this new title, Miitomo. For those who have not yet found out what this incursion into the mobile market by the lords of Kyoto is, Miitomo is a Free to Play title in which we will create our own mii, which will ask us questions from time to time that when we respond, it can serve to create new conversations with other people who are friends of ours. Besides, the game also has a few features with the mii to make him happy, like talking to him, or buying him special clothes through microtransactions.
This really doesn’t look like it’s going to make for a good game.
But Miitomo is not a game.
Is an application.
Nintendo had previously said that many of its mobile games will be very different from those that come out on console, and with good reason. Nintendo can’t get to release a traditional Mario Kart for mobiles, because if not, today’s children won’t be interested in getting hold of the new consoles to play the real Mario Karts. Nintendo knows this, and for that it has brought us something completely different, an application that seems to be very similar to WhatsApp.
I know that at first it may seem crap and nonsense, many people have Whatsapp, why would they switch to this new service? Well, if you look at the most downloaded applications of all in, for example, the App Store, you can see that other secondary chat applications such as Line also have many downloads. In addition, Miitomo has the added bonus of having the charm of miis, being able to create them with a very extensive editor and being asked questions. Besides, it’s completely free, it doesn’t cost you sixty cents a year (A pasture, but there are people who don’t know how to import money to buy games digitally or are simply outraged at having to pay so much for a service that according to them should be free), here the only thing you can spend money on is some kind of cool clothes for your mii, something that won’t make much difference here, but in the country of the rising sun, where the concept of fashion can become very aggressive and much more prominent.
Come on, for what Nintendo is, at least in the land of the Rising Sun, this game will surely bring great benefits. Not only that, it turns out that Miitomo is not the only Nintendo game that is going to be released for mobile. I feel that this is something that people forget a lot, it seems as if this game was the only thing that could decide the success of Nintendo in its foray into this new market and that is not true, Nintendo has already said that it will at least four more games and from different sagas, so it is likely that we will see some more moving things in the coming months. Not only can this game guarantee enough profits for Nintendo, but it is not the only title they are going to release, so if it fails (Something I can’t know if it will happen or not, there is still a long way to go).
Miitomo may not seem like a good decision at first glance, but this is something common with Nintendo throughout its history, announcing something that seems like a bad decision and that generates a very negative reaction so that later it becomes a good game, It happened with Zelda: Wind Waker and I think something very similar will happen with Federation Force. I would say that it is already a tradition or a vicious circle in the company.
Has Nintendo betrayed itself by publishing its games on other consoles, and on top of that, such casual games? Well, the topic of chance is one that I’d like to deal with at another time, but for now I’ll say that it’s okay to offer options for novice players as long as these options can be dispensed with or if the game is of quality and can be enjoyed by all. Regarding the first question, about whether it is betraying the sacred code of the company… I would say no. Mobile is not a console per se, it’s something very different, with games that are almost opposite to those that come out on console, simpler, more based on mechanics that are addictive… it’s not a great title with planned level design to the millimeter, a great story or an orchestrated band, of course there are always exceptions, but the usual rule is not this.
Isn’t Nintendo the same as before for breaking its pact not to take out its licenses in other places apart from its console? Well, we have some cases like when Nintendo itself ported educational Mario games to PC or the Philips-CDI demon, but if we forget about those… I would say that Nintendo is just trying to open up to new horizons as a company, try make more money by making quality products that have that magic touch. And if you think that Nintendo is no longer what it used to be and that it sucks for breaking that imaginary pact that many believed existed, then I expect from you the same treatment of companies like Sony or Micro, which also have their games on mobile phones. , and well before Nintendo.
Miitomo is an experiment, a test of the terrain for Nintendo, an original way to start that does not want to give the usual, but something new, as people supposedly want to see from the company. Yes, it’s not a game, it’s an application, but even something like that can be full of care and care, it can give you unique moments, if, as with anything, you use it in the best possible way. It’s going to be a bit of a bumpy ride for Nintendo to break into the market, but still, I hope people give it a try, if only for the name of the house. As I said with Metroid Prime Federation Force, all this anger and all this anger the only good thing about it is that when the game comes out, we will have a very pleasant surprise.
