Me and Miis

Mii characters and their games are a big special interest of mine! I've been into them ever since I got a Wii with Wii Fit and Wii Sports as a present. I was an active user of Miiverse and Miitomo through their entire runs (the former of which I made many longtime friends on), I've had plaza populations into the thousands in StreetPass Mii Plaza (though sadly not anymore, and probably never again), and I'm somewhat active in online communities surrounding them to this day, despite (or perhaps because of) their smaller presence in the Nintendo Switch generation. In addition to simply being nostalgic and cute, Miis have long been a way for me to express myself and connect with others! This page will be a place to organize my thoughts and some knowledge on Miis and the games they appear in.

Here's my Mii as it currently looks, from the Switch's Mii Studio!

I also have a picture of my Mii as it was around the beginning of the Wii U generation. Unchanged from the Wii, as far as I can tell.

I grew up, got a better understanding of what I look like, my hair darkened, and new features were added.

Now, as for my favorite Mii-focused games...I've got a few. I have fond memories with the Wii series in general, but I think the Wii Fit series in particular is my favorite branch. Since they're more iterative mostly just building on what was there previously, I guess you could say my favorite entry is Wii Fit U, but I still wish it didn't cut Rhythm Parade. The original Wii Party was also great fun with friends!

I know a lot of people didn't get much use out of it, but StreetPass Mii Plaza was a major highlight of the 3DS for me. I thought it was a very cute sort of social experience, and fun to fill your plaza with people you pass by on your travels. The games within the app were quite substantial, too. I think my favorite was Battleground Z, an action game where the weapons you get are based on what tagged players set as their hobby. Sure, a lot of people understandably just gave you the Wii Remote that turns into a sword, but most of the weapons were creative and it's a fun way to show off everyone's differences.

Now for the Tomodachi series and its spinoffs. Tomodachi Life was fun back then, and still has a charming personality, but I found it hard to go back to actually playing for a couple of reasons. I think it's a combination of the game's cisheteronormativity (not just the lack of gay relationships, but stuff like islanders tending to not like clothes the game thinks aren't fit for their gender), and the Mii Maker being more limited compared to what we've seen since. All of that can be fixed in a new game, though. On the other hand, I loved Miitomo, unlike a lot of people. From StreetPass to Miiverse, I've always loved when Miis are used for social features, so I found that pretty fun here, but the real highlight for me was the expanded dressup options. I had a lot of fun collecting clothes and taking silly Miifotos to express myself, so it didn't even bother me that much when the userbase went down later in the app's run.

This spinoff is notable enough for its own paragraph. I love Miitopia! As a fan of RPGs in theory, who usually has trouble finishing them, it was fun as a more casual experience with some Tomodachi elements mixed in. I played the game using Miis of my online friends as my party members, which made it pretty personal and fun to post about. And although the nature of Miis' relationships are more vague this time (which I'd argue has its own benefits), the ability to read them as queer when at a high enough level made for a lot of enjoyable interactions with the Mii of my boyfriend at the time. Oh, and the music is really good too, but I'm not sure I wanna spoil it. Unlike most Mii games, this is available in Nintendo's current ecosystem on the Switch, so I give it a strong recommendation.

Mii Resources

Here are some other sites that are useful for information about Miis and their games!

• Mii Library, thorough documentation of official and some famous Miis, including QR Codes and download links.
• MiiWiki, an independent wiki about Miis and the games they appear in. (I edit on it!)
• Kaeru Team, makers of a Miitomo revival service called Kaerutomo. (Work in progress, requires you to have downloaded the app legitimately during its run.)