Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream will be releasingApril 16th, 2026!

Mii Maker, also known asMii Channel, is an application found on theWii,Wii U,Nintendo 3DS, andNintendo Switch systems that can be used to createMiis. There are some games that include their own Mii Makers (some out of necessity, likeTomodachi Collection, and some for extra features, likeMiitopia). In addition, the officialNintendo website has a feature known asMii Studio that allows the user to create and edit Miis online, including retrieving/copying them from a Nintendo Network ID.^[1]

Mii Channel

The Mii Channel on theWii is the first Mii creation software. The Mii Plaza is a large, empty plaza where a maximum of 100 Miis can be stored. Pressing while hovering over a Mii with the cursor will display its name and creator name and enlarge its face. Miis can be grabbed by holding and and can be dragged into the different menus. There are options on the menu such as creating, editing, or erasing a Mii, with other options like linking aNintendo DS orNintendo 3DS, or importing Miis in and out of a Wii Remote. Miis can be organized by blowing the whistle icon in the Mii Plaza, which sorts the Miis by name, color, gender, or favorite Miis. TheWii U, being backwards compatible with the Wii, has its own Mii Channel accessible through the Wii Menu. Every feature returns in this version of the Mii Channel except for the Mii Parade and importing Miis in and out of Wii Remotes. In theCheck Mii Out Channel (or Mii Contest Channel), the player can connect their Miis from the Mii Channel to enter in contests and import Miis made by other users to their Mii Channel.

Due to it being the first Mii Maker, the Mii Channel has the smallest amount of Mii customization options, but set the standard for all future Mii Maker applications.

Mii Parade

The Mii Parade is a section of the Mii Channel where the player can use their cursor to drag a Mii into a parade. Up to 10,000 Miis can be placed in the parade and taken back into the Mii Plaza at any time if there is enough space. Miis will walk or run down in a straight line depending on the speed menu toggle. Sending a Mii to the Mii Parade will erase its data, with the exception of its name; this includes any saved game data, its birth date, and its creator name. In the Travel Settings, the player can enable traveling mode, which allows Miis from other users with the mingling toggle enabled to appear in their Mii Parade. Additionally, if the player faces a Wi-Fi opponent in a game featuring Miis, that user's Mii will appear in their Mii Parade. Due to the Mii Parade being absent on Wii U, Miis saved in the Mii Parade will be deleted when using the Wii U Transfer Tool on Wii and the Wii System Transfer on Wii U.

Mii Maker (Nintendo 3DS and Wii U)

The Mii Maker onNintendo 3DS andWii U has a lot of similarities to the Mii Channel, but the 3DS Mii Maker is split into ten rooms with ten Miis at a time in each one, while the Wii U organizes them on a shelf in horizontal rows. This Mii Maker also introduced the Personal Mii, a Mii that cannot be removed from favorites and is the default Mii automatically selected in some games and apps. Also, players now have more Mii parts to work with, such as more hair styles, eyes, and mouths. A new feature was added to the Mii Maker: players are able to take a photo of themselves and generate a Mii from it. Players can also import Miis from a QR code, and on the Wii U, players can import Miis from the Wii's Mii Channel.

Mii Maker (Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2)

TheNintendo Switch Mii Maker (referred to internally asmiiEdit) retains all the customization options from the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, adding the non-natural colors fromMiitopia in a simplified menu. The menus for customizable parts, height and weight, favorite color, and name are contained on one menu, with sub-menus for each section. However, the ability to add a birthday and creator name to a Mii has been removed. It also allows the user to import a Mii from anamiibo. This Mii Maker can be accessed from the Nintendo Switch system settings on the home menu. It can also be found when the user is creating a profile picture, at the bottom of the list of selectable icons. Unlike the other console Mii Maker software, the Nintendo Switch application contains no background music, home menu application, or any form of plaza for displaying the player's Miis. Miis are instead displayed as icons, of which up to 100 can be created on the system.

OnNintendo Switch 2, the Mii Maker returns and remains mostly the same from its previous appearance. When creating a Mii, the player is asked to select a style rather than select a gender, with a footnote detailing that certain software may still refer to the two Mii styles as either male or female. The render of the Mii has been moved to the left side of the screen during the creation process, whereas the menu options are contained on the right side. The “Choose a Look-Alike” option has been renamed to “Create from Likeness” in some regions. The menu has also changed slightly, with the menu options having rounded edges and an accented blue/purple gradient that has similarly been applied to most of the Nintendo Switch 2 menu navigation. The background is now a solid color, removing the particles present in the background on the Nintendo Switch. Additionally, the console includes several new poses for Miis on Nintendo Switch 2 profile icons.

Mii Studio

Mii Studio is a web-based Mii Maker originally created for theMy Nintendo website. The website first launched on May 24, 2018.^[2] In Mii Studio, the user can create up to six Miis on their account, with only one Mii representing their profile for their Nintendo Account. The website contains a functionally similar Mii Maker to the one used on Nintendo Switch, with a few minor differences: body part "types" are renamed to "features", "mole" is renamed to "beauty mark", the "facial hair" option is renamed to "beard", and the "beard" sub-category is renamed to "goatee". For positioning, the undo button is no longer included, and is instead replaced by a reset button. Most of the Mii customization options were imported directly fromMiitomo.

Games with built-in Mii Makers

Nintendo DS games

The gamesTomodachi Collection,Yosuke Ide no Kenkou Mahjong DSi, andKuruma de DS feature their own Mii Makers, which can be seen as precursors to theNintendo 3DS version.Personal Trainer: Walking uses the same Mii Maker asTomodachi Collection.

During development of the Nintendo DS, the Mii Maker was originally going to debut on the console.^[3][4]

Tomodachi Life series Mii Maker

In theTomodachi Life series, the Mii Maker can be accessed from theTown Hall after the player creates their look-alike Mii. Miis from the system can be transferred to the game, but all Miis need to be completed with the in-game Mii Maker. On the Mii Appearance screen, the Mii Maker does not add any additional body features. Instead, the game adds more personal features that are completed after creating the Mii's physical appearance.

On the Mii Profile screen, the player has the ability to add a first and last name, as well as a nickname that other Miis on theisland will call them. Furthermore, if any name for a Mii is difficult for the game to pronounce,Tomodachi Life adds a way to type out the pronunciation for the first name, last name, and nickname. This feature is not present in the Japanese version. A section for "Relation to Real You" is present that allows the player to set the new Mii as their spouse, parent, kid (called a "child" inTomodachi Life), sibling, or other relative, with an added option inTomodachi Life to make the Mii not related. Not related is the default setting. When creating the look-alike Mii, this section is set to "self" and cannot be changed. Additionally, the player must choose if their Mii is a grown-up or a kid. As a kid, they are not allowed to have romanticrelationships, but they will eventually turn into a grown-up over time. Children will become grown-ups once they are above the age of 18 in English-speaking regions, above age 19 in the Korean version, or above age 20 in the Japanese version. Blood type is an exclusive option to Japanese and Korean versions, and contributes to a Mii'spersonality based on theblood type personality theory. In "Other Settings", the player can choose if they want to enable copying and sharing for their Mii.

On the Mii Voice screen, the player can choose the voice for their Mii character. There are six preset voices made to sound like a different gender and age group, an option for a random voice, and an option to customize the Mii's voice. The player can adjust five sliders for pitch (low to high), speed (slow to fast), quality (low to high clarity), tone (low to high pitch when starting a sentence), and accent (high to low pitch when ending a sentence). They can also choose one of four intonations: option 1 is normal, option 2 ends sentences at a higher pitch, option 3 goes from high to low intervals, and option 4 has completely consistent intonation.

On theMii Personality screen, the player is given five options that determine how the Mii will act in-game. For the five options, the player selects one of eight boxes in the column to determine which option best represents the Mii. Four boxes on one half will relate to the first option while the remaining four boxes relate to the second option. The player can choose options for their Mii that are "a little", "pretty", "very", and "extremely" representative of them. InTomodachi Collection, the five options are "Action" (slow to quick), "Speech" (mild to straight), "Look" (cool to emotive), "Mindset" (negative to positive), and "Overall" (weird to normal). InTomodachi Life, the five options are "Movement" (slow to quick), "Speech" (polite to direct, or caring to direct in the European version), "Expressiveness" (flat to varied), "Attitude" (serious to relaxed, or serious to light in the European version), and "Overall" (quirky to normal, or unique to normal in the European version).

If a Mii is aged up with theAge-O-Matic, their height will increase. Additionally, if a kid is given an Age-O-Matic, they cannot have a birthday that would make them a grown-up, and a grown-up cannot be given aKid-O-Matic if they have a birthday that would make them a child. If these goods are used under these circumstances, the Mii's birthday would have to be changed.

Miitomo Mii Maker (iOS/Android)

A Mii Maker was a feature of the iOS and Android applicationMiitomo. Players could either create a Mii from scratch or import one fromMy Nintendo or a QR Code (fromNintendo 3DS orWii U). A camera function also allowed users to select a hairstyle before auto-completing the Mii based on the photo. The player could then choose from however many Miis were generated and optionally edit one of the selected Miis.^[5] The voice functionality and voice presets return as options from theTomodachi Life series. A new voice toggle in the form of a pentagon has options to change the pitch, depth, energy, accent, and speed of the voice. Additionally, nicknames and the pronunciation of names have been added to the game. Finally, a second pentagon for the Mii's personality can be customized, adjusting their movement, individuality, expression, attitude, and manners. Despite the new formatting, all of the Miipersonalities are the same as those from theTomodachi Life series.

After the online service was discontinued on May 9, 2018, the website "Mii Studio" launched on May 24, 2018. This served as a replacement for the now defunct Mii Maker present inMiitomo.

Miitopia Mii Maker

TheMiitopia Mii Maker added the ability to add non-natural colors to some Mii parts, like bright red and teal. If a Mii is imported fromMiitopia to the Mii Maker, the colors would be changed to default colors. SinceMiitopia released in Japan on December 8, 2016, this is the first Mii Maker to feature non-natural colors for hair, eyebrows, and eyes before their introduction in the Mii Maker for Nintendo Switch. In other regions, the game released on July 28, 2017, after the launch of the Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Switch port ofMiitopia allows the player to applymakeup and awig to a Mii, allowing for greater customization. These are not retained when a Mii is imported fromMiitopia to the system.

Pants colors

There are a few colors aMii's pants can be, all having different meanings. Gray pants indicate that the Mii was made by the player, and are the default pants color. Red pants indicate that the Mii is marked as a favorite. White pants indicate that the Mii is participating in the Mii Parade. Blue pants indicate that it is an imported Mii, such as from a QR code or from another console. Orange pants are exclusive to theCheck Mii Out Channel, and appear when the player likes another user's Mii.Special Miis are marked with gold pants, and are often based on Nintendo's staff members. These Miis can be taken into theStreetPass Mii Plaza for other people the player meets viaStreetPass to obtain.

Early content

Multiple elements for Miis are known to have existed in development builds of the Mii Channel, but are not present in the released version.^[6]

Unreleased precursors to the Mii Maker

During the Game Developers Conference in 2007,Shigeru Miyamoto revealed information during a keynote speech concerning the long set of ideas and development that led to the current Mii design. Amongst these ideas was a prototype made for theFamicom Disk System that was never released due to not being a idea that could be implemented in a game at the time.

Legacy

The Mii creation system has been recognized as one of Nintendo's most influential and accessible ideas since its debut on the Wii console in 2006 due to its simple user interface and limited yet flexible set of customization options appealing to audiences beyond core gamers. Research conducted by Nintendo of Europe in December 2011 reported that more than 213.8 million Miis had been created across Wii and Nintendo 3DS systems.^[7]

The creation system’s design has also influenced other companies to develop comparable avatar editors that can be used within software and hardware. Microsoft introduced Xbox Avatars designed by the game developer Rare on the Xbox 360 shortly after the Wii's release, while Sony implemented customizable avatars within PlayStation Home, with a Nintendo representative referring to the latter concept as a “Mii-too” strategy due to its similarities to the Mii system.^[8] Upon the reveal of Microsoft and Rare’s Xbox Avatars, the system drew frequent comparisons to Miis and their editor, though Rare’s head of artwork, Lee Musgrave, publicly rejected claims that the design was derivative.^[9] On Nintendo platforms, various third-party titles incorporated avatar editors resembling the Mii Channel editor, often due to restrictions on the use of Nintendo’s official Mii facial library or to provide avatars that could coexist with Miis in line with a rule within the company’s Mii usage guidelines for third-party developers.

Numerous fan-made recreations of the Mii creation tool have appeared even before the launch of the Mii Channel, with an Adobe Flash-based editor released by gaming blog Joystiq in October 2006 being a notable example. Its online accessibility and popularity led to Mii assets from the application being used in several licensed third-party titles with Mii support, such asHasbro Family Game Night 3,Family Fortunes,Family Fun Football, andMadden NFL 09 All-Play. My Avatar Editor, another unofficial Adobe Flash-based Mii editor, also has its assets present in other third-party titles; notably the Mii's main renders inSonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.

The music featured in Mii creation software has also achieved cultural recognition, notably the Mii Plaza theme from the Mii Channel where it is often incorrectly referred to as the “Wii theme”. The music became widespread in other media a decade after the Wii's launch through its use as background audio in social media content on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with reuploads of the track having accumulated over tens of millions of views.^[10]

Music

The music for Mii Maker software, particularly that of the Mii Channel, has gained notoriety and recognition. The song features a simple calming melody using a combination of piano keys and string instruments. Song variations for the Mii Maker usually add drums for additional instrumentation. Subsequent Mii Maker themes feature similar instruments, tempo, and chord progression to the Mii Channel, with most not including drums in their main theme. The Mii Maker forNintendo Switch is notable for featuring no music, similar to other system software on the console.

Mii Channel (Wii)

Mii Maker (3DS/Wii U)

Game-specific Mii Maker music

Gallery

Main article:Mii Maker/gallery

• 
  A screenshot of the early version of the Mii Channel.
• 
  Another screenshot of the early version of the Mii Channel.
• 
  A Wii promotional Mii being created in the Mii Channel.
• 
  A man with his created Mii using the Nintendo 3DS camera.
• 
  A screenshot of the Mii Maker on Wii U.
• 
  The personal info section all Mii Makers have from theNintendo 3DS onward (except theNintendo Switch).
• 
  The hair color selectionMiitopia and later Mii Makers have.
• 
  The Mii Maker on the Nintendo Switch.
• 
  The Mii Maker on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Names in other languages

References

• Software
• Nintendo 3DS

• Articles which list non-English names