Nintendo's first Android app, Miitomo, is awesome

Nintendo makes excellent games

The struggle of Nintendo since the nineties has been its platform. Nintendo has always made quality games, which is why it’s still around. The Nintendo systems of the last decade were not all that popular, but they were always bolstered by the fantastic yet simple games it produced. 

Android provides Nintendo the opportunity to make mobile games without worrying whether players will have access to them. The entry price into its games won’t be so high. They won’t have to play a couple hundred bucks just to start playing one game. These games will be available on Android and everyone will already have access to them.

The company resisted this push towards mobile gaming for a long time. In hopes to continually revive its systems it kept out of the mix, making Nintendo games exclusively for console. This hesitance might have given it a leg up. Its late entry into mobile gaming has allowed it to look for a gap, and it seems Nintendo has found it and exploited it. 

Miitomo is social media combined with gaming

Fully integrated into a gaming platform on mobile devices is something we haven't seen yet. This changes the way we interact with the mobile games we currently play. Sure, there are ways you can be social on other games but none are as intricate and customizable as what Miitomo is.

Players have their own avatars who represent them or 'Mii'. You custom make these to have your own hairstyle, outfits, accessories, facial features and even your own particular set of facial expressions. This can be done by using a picture from your gallery or choosing from Nintendo's library. You also get to choose a nickname and what kind of personality your Mii will have. 

Your Mii acts as a social go-between for your friends. You can visit them and ask questions about what they've been up to. Most importantly, you will be able to play games with them. The only game set to be released in the US with the initial push is Miitomo Drop, where you will be able to earn valuable items that will help you in Miitomo in the future. 

Miitomo uses a unique freemium model

Nintendo indicating that it's taking a different approach to its mobile gaming profit model with the Miitomo. Rather than using the normal freemium method of getting only very few players to fork over tons of money, it will go for small amounts of money from lots of players. With a new approach, Nintendo is looking to change freemium gaming in general.

The freemium model has frustrated a lot of mobile gamers due to games pestering them about buying unnecessary digital goods. Very few players actually buy these items. Instead, a few who probably would have paid anyways just end up subsidizing everyone else. That means that most are annoyed and few actually pay, an unsustainable and backwards system.

Nintendo has seen the problems plaguing freemium gaming and has sought to avoid them by making it important to spend a couple of bucks here and there, but not in annoying way. Miitomo coins will be used as currency in the app and you can spend a little to get them or get them for free in games like Miitomo Drop. Future Nintendo apps could use the same currency. 

What do you think about Miitomo? Let us know in the comments.