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Wii Warm Up: Mii or Meh
Mii making was great fun in the early days of the Wii. Somehow, I found myself engrossed in the process of creating big-headed caricatures of me, my family, celebrities, and such. My interest was renewed for a while with the addition of the Check Mii Out Channel. But I got over my Mii mania, mostly. I have a stable of go-to Miis for use in games that support them, and that's it. I rarely look at the parade or the Check Mii Out Channel anymore. I'm glad I have the Miis I have, but I don't really feel like putting time into Mii creation for fun anymore. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the point is to make avatars, and I've done that and now I have avatars.What about you? Have you continued honing your Mii-making craft? Have you become an artisan working in the medium of fake cartoon heads?
Barack rocks the Check Mii Out channel
Not only does Barack Obama appear on an occasional DS system and fight John McCain in Pokémon-like battles, but apparently his Mii is quite the popular avatar. On the Check Mii Out channel, it's one of the top fifty most popular, proudly standing next to Batman. The Mii's skill, aptly enough, is listed as "Speeches."Unfortunately, thanks to the oft unkind initialing system on the Check Mii Out channel, Obama is designated as "B.O." So, fess up -- how many of you have B.O. on your Wiis?[Via Game Politics]
Check out your channel updates
If your Wii was -- or still is -- all aglow with the soft blue light of hope, it's probably because the Check Mii Out channel has been spifferized and updates are available for download. It's nothing huge, alas; this update is designed to streamline the channel for a better user experience (and a safer one for parents), but if you're a fan of the Mii contests, it's like a little ray of sunshine just for you.So what's changed? It's now easier to find Miis you've put up in the Posting Plaza. When viewing a particular Mii Artisan's profile, there is now an option to show all Miis posted by that Artisan. If you leave in the middle of judging a contest, upon your return, the Miis you selected previously will be retained. Parental Controls are now fully supported in the channel. Users may choose to block the exchange of "user-generated content" from t he main system settings, and when this function is engaged, the Parental Controls PIN will be required to access the channel. You can now view 500 popular Miis at a time in the Posting Plaza instead of only 50. When searching for a particular Mii, the number entered is not lost if no results are returned, which makes it easier to re-enter or correct mistakes prior to a second search. If this all sounds great, go forth and get your download from the Wii Ware section of the shop channel![Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Check Mii Out -- I've got a panda for a face!
Siliconera posted a video of some popular Japanese Miis, taken from that region's Check Mii Out Channel. Of course it's interesting to see a Japanese take on the ubiquitous Michael Jackson Mii, and we are probably going to go make our own Oshiri Kajiri Mushi Mii now, but we were taken by this Mii, called P.D. His hobby is eating. We are humbled and embarrassed now that none of our Miis have face-panda.We'd be remiss if we didn't mention the exceptional Doraemon, Snoopy, and Diddy Kong Miis as artistic achievements in the field of Mii, but we know who the new star of the Check Mii Out Channel is. It's that Mii's face.
Cold chillin to 'Check Mii Out' music
While many disregard the Check Mii Out Channel for providing little more than a few minutes of entertainment, the promise of new channel tunes kept us excited about its release. We watched anxiously last ngiht as the software downloaded and Mario ran to collect our coins, babbling to ourselves, "Oh boy oh boy oh boy."We've been fans of the Wii's different system music for some time now, so we were pleased to see that someone has already ripped the new channel's tracks and posted them as downloadable MP3s. You can grab them yourself by clicking the "Read" link below. We're quite fond of the new "Mii Parade" song; it's just so .... funky.See also: Wii Music (Remix) ft. ROBOTOBOTS[Via Galbadia Hotel]
Check Mii Out (sorta) borks Mii sharing
Users who've downloaded Miis from the Check Mii Out Channel will likely run into the same bug detailed in the video embedded above -- any attempts to send a Mii out to one of your friends will be stymied by the system's insistence in listing Nintendo as the receiver. We're pretty sure that Nintendo doesn't want all those Star Wars-themed Miis you've accumulated!We tried this out ourselves, and we found that while Nintendo is listed as the recipient, your friend should still receive your Mii package. Also, exiting and reentering the Mii Channel fixes the glitch, blocking Nintendo out of the transfer. Looks like there's no need to draft any angry letters or petitions about how Nintendo is taking away your God-given right to harass your friends with Greedo Miis! Expect Nintendo to fix this minor bug up with a future firmware update. [Via Go Nintendo]
Check Mii Out now lighting up Wiis
var digg_url='http://digg.com/nintendo_wii/Check_Mii_Out_Channel_now_live_PICS'; It's Sunday, and as promised, the Check Mii Out Channel is now available for download on Wiis everywhere. It's pretty straightforward from first glance: you choose a Mii to represent your Wii, and it will be labeled your "Mii Artisan." It looks like you can only choose one Mii Artisan per console, so families who do a lot of Mii creation might have to fight it out (may we recommend a steel cage match?). Once you've designated the Mii who is in charge, you can get rolling with the real meat of the channel.There's the regular submission process, in which you can select any of your Miis for upload and critique. You assign them initials, as well as a "specialty," which can include anything from cooking to comedy, or our personal favorite, writing. They join a parade (viewing options include regional and worldwide) of other Miis. When viewing Miis already submitted, you can choose to see them in motion, with a variety of silly poses (some of which we've captured for you after the break), or you can scroll through columns of static Miis.
Check Mii Out Channel drops November 11th
Finally, I'll be able to share my menagerie of rapper Miis with the entire world! Nintendo announced today that it will launch its Check Tupac Mii Out Channel this Sunday, November 11th, rewarding your "creative spirit" by making the new feature available for free in the Wii Shop Channel's WiiWare category.The Posting Plaza section of the Check Mii Out channel enables you to post, trade, or browse through different Miis. You can tag your favorites or kidnap them and raise the Miis as your own. In addition to listings for current/all-time favorites and a searchable database, a random selection of 1,000 Miis will be available for you to look through.The channel will also offer a contest section in which you can try to match your Mii to a specific character or theme (e.g. rappers, dead rappers, rappers with "Young" or "Lil" in their stages names, etc.). You'll have a week to create and enter your Mii, and users will spend the week after voting on the best submissions.Which of your prized Miis are you going to upload first?
Mii Spotlight: A look ahead
We're taking a break this week from our usual Mii Spotlight format to discuss the future of Miis, including the forthcoming Mii-focused channel, and what we would like to see in the way of updates to the Mii creation process. We hope you don't mind ... and anyway, we're short on Miis! We can only guess you guys were far too busy immersing yourselves bodily in E3 videos and news to create any new little people this week.But no worries! Not only will we have new and interesting ways in which to wield our Miis in the near future, games like MySims seem to be running with the super-cute avatar idea, and soon we'll be able to expand our tiny armies of near-lookalikes to epic proportions. Miis even turn up in Wii Fit, though there it seems they must do battle with faceless VR mannequins who threaten to take over our exercise plans. Actually, Miis v. Mannequins could be an excellent game inside Wii Fit. Too bad we're mostly sure it isn't included. We do love our cartoon violence ... perhaps a little too much.
