Nintendo turning on Check Mii Out

Engendering Shigeru Miyamoto's wife to gaming has been a primary launching point for Nintendo's outreach to the nontraditional gamer. During his keynote address at this year's Game Developers Conference, Miyamoto referenced this benchmark as inspiration for several unique Wii Channels, such as Everybody Votes. On that occasion, the Mario mastermind also hinted at a new project involving Mii popularity contests, which he expected to score quite high on his proprietary "Wife-O-Meter."

At its press briefing at the E3 Media & Business Summit, Nintendo dubbed the channel Check Mii Out and set its launch for this year. As promised, Nintendo announced today that the service will launch on Sunday, November 11. And true to Miyamoto's concept, Check Mii Out lets Wii owners upload their created Miis and view others' submissions from around the world. The posting plaza lets users browse a random selection of shared Miis and tag their favorites or download them to their own consoles. Miis can also be browsed by creator or an avatar-specific number.

Nintendo will also host Mii-themed contests, in which Wii owners will be tasked with re-creating the likeness of a famous character or person. Similar to the Everybody Votes channel, Wii owners will then be able to vote on their favorites. Nintendo expects each contest to play out over a two-week period, with the first week allotted to creating the Mii and the second to voting.

Check Mii Out is a free channel and can be downloaded from the WiiWare portion of the Wii Shop channel.