Miitopia and memes
When we reviewed it at the time, the game left us quite satisfied; it is a simple adventure, with archetypes and mechanics drawn from classic Japanese RPGs. The Nintendo Switch edition seems to be the work of Grezzo, an artistically competent team, which in the past has taken care of the remakes of various The Legend of Zelda: among these, also the recent Link's Awakening (2019) for Switch, which had some slowdown of too much - several slowdowns too many - but it was still great to watch. The company has also developed original IPs, such as Ever Oasis, and is hiring for the realization of a project with medieval tones for the Nintendo Switch. Between Link's Awakening and this futuristic new adventure, the team has dedicated itself to the high definition makeover of Miitopia.
Waiting - in just over a month - to test the final version, we have downloaded the free demo, and did some tests with the Mii editor. An editor that is more complex than in the original game, and much more complex than the one inserted, basically, inside the console. We decided to try it because on the net, even if at the moment there is only the demo version, several memes related to Mii have appeared: we suspect that, at least in part, Miitopia can act as a bridge between consoles and social networks.
Miis and social networks
Miis appeared for the first time on Nintendo Wii: while aesthetically basic - and, to tell the truth, not particularly pleasant - they proved to be an extremely instrument functional and popular. This is because they are iconic, unrealistic or detailed figures, and allow anyone, even those with no particular graphic skills, to create an avatar resembling their person: and not only their own person, but also famous people.Wii was a tremendous success right from its launch; the same can be said of Wii Sports, and also of Miis (and their editor). Everyone enjoyed recreating themselves, but above all famous people and / or situations: Berlusconi's Mii, other political figures, footballers, sportsmen, singers, fictional heroes like Harry Potter (who writes, made a tragicomic one by Saddam Hussein, called Saddamii).
It was 2006, and Facebook already existed, but it wasn't as widespread as it is now: in short, to see the creations of others you had to play multiplayer, download them randomly online, exchange them after becoming friends with endless friend codes. Sharing in general, and sharing images in particular, was incredibly more difficult than it is now: if Facebook had been in common use as it is now, or as it was simply in 2010, Miis would have been everywhere.
When Miitopia was released on 3DS, the world of social networks was totally ready to welcome the creations of users: at that point, however, it was Nintendo that, again, refused to embrace the technological contemporaneity, preferring a closed, protected and controlled system like Miiverse.
Miitopia and memes
Nintendo Switch is much more integrated with social networks than the previous consoles of the Kyotese company: it is not immediate to load content like from mobile devices, but it cannot be said that be complicated. If Miitopia is successful - and it is not an "if" recently - we would be ready to bet that the Miis, for the first time, will tumultuously invade Twitter and company.As we said before, there are already several examples that exemplify the potential of this editor, and all thanks to the free demo. Here you can see a perfect (maybe a little fattened) Mister Clean (Mastro Lindo). Here you find Geno from Super Mario RPG. Here Garfield, Midna and ... the Mona Lisa, made in a truly exceptional way. There is also SpongeBob. And Dedede, Spider-Man, Sidon. Not only that: these Miis will be exportable (provided you have Nintendo Switch Online) and share them, as well as on social networks, even between consoles and consoles.
The basic Mii editor is very simple: as we said, as far as possible, a graphic composition software suitable for everyone. You select the gender, skin color, shape and position of eyes, nose and mouth, without having "too many" possibilities, so as to simplify the operations - put simply, a Mii that looks a lot like you, will look like you. at the same time also to various people who, in reality, would have little to do with you. Even for Miitopia, the creation of the characters starts from the basic editor.
Once this is done, however, many possibilities open up. Once a Mii has been spawned, it can layer and expand its appearance through many new features: makeup, cheeks, hair, braids, pigtails. Introductions that allow you to deepen the image in and of itself, but that generate dozens of possibilities if used creatively. We explain ourselves better. Let's say you select a hollow cheek, which implies a poor opacity of the tone; well, you can alter the color, shape and position of the same. Which, in essence, if positioned in the right place, it could become an eyeshadow, a shade (as in the Mona Lisa mentioned above) and who knows what else.
This possibility includes two unwanted side effects, if we so wish call them. The first is that, if the makeup management allows you to create much more detailed images than the traditional editor, it is equally true that they are not functional solutions to Miis in the game: you can put eyebrows that act as a mustache, but Miitopia will not understand this. So, when you go to use that particular Mii in the adventure, when it comes to expressing an emotion, it may curl a mustache that you have placed on your head. Secondly, elaborating such complex Miis is not at all easy: unlike the basic editor, using these tools creatively will not be within everyone's reach.
How much and how these new Miis will be used and spread, on millions of Switches and on social networks, we will only know with the release of Miitopia. We will undertake to create an editorial Voldemort, perhaps starting from Pierpaolo's Mii.
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