Nintendo’s first mobile app hits Japan on March 17

Nintendo has been a curious company. Sometimes they’re innovative in bold and unexpected ways, such as the Nintendo Wii, and other times they seem very hesitant to dip their toes into new territory, such as the gaming company’s strange and lingering absence in the mobile gaming world. However, it looks like the sometimes-timid, sometimes-brash Japanese electronics entertainment company is finally taking their first strides to the mobile market with Miitomo next week.

It’s not a game, but rather a kind of animated chat program. The “free-to-start” messaging application lets you create a little avatar in the style of Nintendo’s trademark Mii figures – you can even use the front camera to attempt to generate one that looks like you. From here, you can use the in-app currency Miitomo Coins to customize your character with clothing, hairstyles, and accessories. There are ways to earn these coins in the app, but you can also pay for them with cash if you’d prefer.

If you’re in Japan, the app will be available for pre-order on both Android and iOS until March 17 when the app goes live. From here, Nintendo plans to gradually roll the app out to other locales, but we don’t have any specific dates on these expansions yet.

The release date was announced via Twitter this morning, but we’ll need to wait until the world starts using it before we can tell if it will find the audience base it’s looking for. In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Miitomo? Waste of storage space or an innovation in messaging? Let us know in the comments below.