“Miitomo” succeeds in bringing the wackiness of Nintendo’s “Tomodachi Life” to smartphones, but without scores of actively playing friends, the gameplay gradually loses its appeal.

The app, which is free-to-play on mobile devices, firsts asks players to create a Mii “lookalike,” complete with adjusting the pitch and cadence of the its funny little text-to-speech voice. After that, it’s as simple as plugging the app into Facebook and Twitter to find friends. The surprising thing about “Miitomo” is that it functions less like a game and more like a bizarro little social network. Its daily gameplay is mainly answering questions such as “What did you do last weekend?” and “What can’t money buy?” In turn, the game asks you to comment on friends’ answers and photos. It also encourages buying clothes and playing a game of chance called “Miitomo Drop” for special theme items.

The concept may seem basic at first, but the Mii lookalikes really make the game. Their programming is clever. The Miis read out comment chains like conversations and will react to certain keywords, such as going comically wide-eyed with surprise while saying “OMG!” Also, there’s something in our brains’ reward centers that makes sparkly casino games irresistible, and “Miitomo Drop” gets its hooks into that grey matter. Fortunately, daily rewards mean that it’s possible to play without spending actual currency.

Considering Nintendo’s reputation for heavy filtering in many of its online titles, I wondered whether “Miitomo” would face some limitations in the interest of protecting kids (the company once discontinued a popular 3DS messaging feature called “Swapnote” due to safety concerns.) To my shock, “Miitomo” has practically no built-in censorship (other than a block button.) With the shift to mobile, it seems, anything goes. In a way, it makes perfect se-

nse; you can only view your friends’ answers and vice versa — but it’s still an interesting choice on Nintendo’s part, as well as an astute realization that there’s nothing sacred on the Internet. To anyone getting Miitomo, though, I’d recommend either A. being careful about what you post, just as you (hopefully) would on any other social network or B. being very careful about who you add.

I think this is yet another recent example of Nintendo dipping their toes into the brave new world of mobile. Sadly, it faces the same staling problem that caused my investment in “Tomodachi Life” to ebb after a couple of weeks. I’m still glad I gave both of them a go. Besides — and this is the important thing — the main goal of “Miitomo” seems to be connecting with friends in a unique way. Its lighthearted questions encourage a social media experience that is refreshingly positive, with no drama, and a focus on words instead of appearances. That’s an achievement in itself.