Review: Miitopia for Nintendo Switch

The Miis are back. Assaulting the Dark Lord’s Castle in Miitopia, you are a group of bright and cheerful characters. From Sonic the Hedgehog to Mario, Luigi, Darth Vader and Mr. Pringles, they’re all set to deliver an exuberant RPG adventure. But how does the Switch remaster fare compared to the original 3DS game? Well, they say the grass is always greener on the other side.

Four years have passed since we wrote our original Miitopia review for Nintendo 3DS. In the grand scheme of life, four years is tiny. But this year has seemed so long. At this point we are all exhausted, tired, fed up. No one feels refreshed. That’s unless you’re a Mii, of course. A whiff of curried chicken or sautéed mushrooms, a funky costume, a new helmet or a new weapon and you’re all set. Rock and roll, you say? Awesome. Hold my beer while I collect my moshing wig for a ‘new look’. Oh, wait a minute. Did you want to go on an “outing” instead? No problem. I’ll get my jacket and we can go to the movies or eat inside at a cafe. Sadly, we’re living our best Mii lives right now, on Miitopia, with a Dark Lord whispering up our necks. Is this jealousy bubbling inside?

Jealousy aside, the remastered version of Miitopia brought some great improvements. From changes to its user interface to the inclusion of a traveling companion on horseback, the title now has a bit more substance. No more frustrating quizzes in the game at start-up. Now they are replaced by letters from the residents of Miitopia which contain match tickets. The upgraded graphics look crisp and clean, courtesy of developer Grezzo (The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening), and miis can now team up for fabulous outings to elevate their relationship quickly. In fact, the game just feels smoother, faster, and more polished – due to those extra features – than its predecessor.

Speaking of subtle changes, the revamped mii maker with wigs and makeup is perhaps the best aesthetic enhancement in the game. Having already taken the internet by storm, Miitopia’s wigs and makeup feature has given Switch players a gift. ‘an impressive avatar creation tool. The level of depth it brings allows the creators of mii to identically create the main characters of pop culture across all types of media, arts and entertainment. In fact, we borrowed a few characters for our own adventure – namely Sonic, Mario, and Luigi – from a few superstars of the creators mii. Here, instead of QR codes, creators can now share their passkey code, where you can download a selection of miis from their own character seat. It’s wonderfully inclusive, fun, and as popular as it was when the Wii started.

While adding wigs and makeup are great features, there are still a few downsides to Miitopia. Unfortunately, the touchscreen functionality that was present on the lower 3DS touchscreen has been removed. It’s a shame that Grezzo couldn’t reproduce this on the Switch touchscreen, although it might have required some extra work in the game’s coding. added extras, Miitopia – as an adventure RPG – remains unchanged. So if you were a fan of the original storyline, the original Mii interactions, job classes, identical mini-games, and more, you’ll be quite right at home here.

In our initial revision, we explained how the game lacks strategy due to its automatic combat mechanics and gets more and more repetitive over the course of the 30+ hour main story. Unfortunately, not much has changed on this front. The horse, however, creates more excitement in battles when you can select it. It has several offensive attacks, including a mounted assault, fire-breathing snort, and some fun “overlap” antics that depend a lot on your job, as well as passive abilities when your characters are in a safe place. Yet other than adding to the cute charm of the game and providing you with a faster way to take down enemies, it doesn’t give players the change of pace needed to keep battles engaged.

This is where Miitopia’s inherent flaw lies, its gameplay is indistinguishable from the 3DS version. No new hidden roads, Easter eggs or chests with surprising enemies. In fact, we played the same course in Peculia on 3DS and Switch to test this theory. Other than the horse shaving for a few seconds, which is entirely random and uncontrollable by the player, every battle and interaction between Miis (yes, even the travel sequence) was the same.

Given the care taken in the aesthetic features of the game, was there a reason why its core gameplay was not changed? Some new abilities or personality quirks couldn’t have gone wrong, Traveller’s Hub quests could have been unlocked earlier, the “keep playing” segment could have been an optional child lock feature, new interactions between miis could have been added to the. There was so much potential for exploration here, but you feel lost. Maybe Skull Kid picked up his old stuff.

Yet despite its unexplored potential and repetitive gameplay, Miitopia remains a fun game to pick up and play. If you missed it the first time around and enjoyed the Switch demo, the extra features certainly give this game a new coat of paint. Plus, mii interactions are certainly worth their weight in gold. Now where is Tomodachi Life 2? Because I think I would like a new hat. Oh, and I want my bear back.

7/10

A review copy of Miitopia has been provided to My Nintendo News by Nintendo UK.