Nintendo almost ruined its iconic Mii in an upcoming Switch game

The iconic Nintendo avatars are known for their simplicity, but a new game can also be an opportunity to modernize visual elements

In the 20 years since the Nintendo Wii introduced the world to Mii, Nintendo's signature avatars haven't changed much. Even after multiple generations of consoles with better processing power, Mii are still minimalist cartoons. But according to Nintendo, the folks working on Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream did experiment with more graphically sophisticated Mii.

In the upcoming Switch sim Tomodachi Life, players design and manage an island full of customized residents. These residents interact with one another and live out kooky situations meant to make the player laugh. The last Tomodachi Life game was on the 3DS, which means that a Switch game presented Nintendo with an opportunity to modernize Mii.

"But after adding all sorts of new elements to the Mii characters, something began to feel ... off," Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream director Ryutaro Takahashi said in a recent Nintendo Asks Q&A.

According to art director Daisuke Kageyama, the developers recognized that Mii holds a special place in the hearts of Nintendo fans. Some Nintendo players might still be using their Mii avatars from decades ago, or might recreate their loved ones with each new hardware release.

"Since the characters are filled with the emotions of many people, I didn't think we should randomly alter their design just because the resolution had increased," Kageyama said.

Apparently, Nintendo considered tweaking aspects like Mii facial features, their movements, and limb shapes. Nintendo also experimented with programming more capable and mature Mii. The question of realism additionally reappeared as Nintendo iterated on new Mii voices, which could theoretically leverage the Switch's text-to-speech engine.

"However, if we express that realism too directly, it doesn’t sound like a Mii character anymore," said sound director Toru Minegishi. "So, I intentionally processed the voices to sound robotic."

Similarly, the more human-like the avatars' movements or behavior became, the less they felt like Mii. The Japanese developer ended up exaggerating Mii animations to prevent them from looking too smooth. In this way, Mii retained a critical cutesy element that defines them as avatars.

Besides offering more customization options, the most noticeable differences are smaller details. These Mii might not be computationally intensive, but they do a better job of capturing the spirit of the original series artwork.

"We updated their appearance based on a simple, anime-inspired toon-style, allowing players to immerse themselves in the drama between Mii characters in cutscenes, for example," Kageyama said. "As we were reviewing the toon-style, I heard that the direction matched what Sakamoto-san had envisaged for the first Tomodachi Life game ... the Mii characters on the packaging of the first game have more of a toon-style design, unlike how they look in the game."

Just because they aren't realistic doesn't mean the player should expect to treat Mii like toys that will do whatever the player wants, though.

"The whole appeal of the game is that Mii characters act of their own accord, resulting in outcomes the player doesn't expect," Takahashi said. "If the player forces a relationship, the game loses the element of genuine surprise, which is the series' true charm."