Nintendo's first smartphone app, Miitomo, arrives March 2016

Nintendo always does things a little differently than people expect. Their first smartphone app, Miitomo, is a great example. Instead of a Mario Flappy Bird clone or an exploitative pay-to-win Zelda mobile game, Nintendo is producing a charming app to facilitate social interaction.

Miitomo is a social app that will link to your Nintendo Account and the people on your friends list. It asks you to construct a Mii and then answer a number of personal questions about your hobbies, aspirations and feelings. It will only share this information with people you've trusted to add to your friends list. According to Nintendo, the idea is to make it easier for shy or socially awkward people to get to know each other better in a safe environment.

I think this is a great idea and it is quintessentially Nintendo; that is to say, Japanese. Japan is facing a rising issue of young people who are turning on, tuning in and dropping out, as it were. The Japanese term is "hikikomori"--teens and young adults who feel so pressured and anxious about cultural and social expectations that they are literally locking themselves in their rooms.

Miitomo sounds like a fun little app that will help Nintendo fans keep in touch. However, and at the risk of sounding pretentious, it might by Nintendo's way of helping Japanese youth connect with each other in a controlled environment, when face-to-face interaction is just too vexing. We will find out when the app launches next March.

Source: Nintendolife