Mii Channel
The Mii (pronounced “me”) Channel is an avatar creator, where users can design 3D caricatures of people (Miis) by selecting from a group of facial and bodily features. At the Game Developers Conference 2007, Shigeru Miyamoto explained that the look and design of the Mii characters are based on Kokeshi, a form of Japanese doll used as souvenir gifts in Japan.A Wired News interview of Katsuya Eguchi (producer of Animal Crossing and Wii Sports) held in 2006 confirmed that the custom player avatar feature shown at Nintendo’s E3 Media Briefing would be included in the hardware. The feature was described as part of a “Profile” system that contains the caricature and other pertinent player information.This application was officially unveiled by Nintendo in September 2006. It is incorporated into Wii’s operating system interface as the “Mii Channel”. Users can select from pre-made caricatures or create their own by choosing custom facial shapes, colors, and positioning. In certain games (including Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Mario Party 8, and Mario Strikers Charged) each player’s caricature will serve as the character he/she controls in some/all forms of gameplay. Miis can interact with other Wii users by showing up on their Wii consoles through the WiiConnect24 feature or by talking with other Miis created by Wii owners all over the world. This feature is called Mii Parade. Early-created Miis as well as those encountered in Mii Parades may show up as spectators in some games.Miis can be stored on Wii Remotes and taken to other Wii consoles. The remote can hold up to a maximum amount of 10 Miis. The Wii itself can hold 100 Miis.