Check Mii out channel.

I wanted to download some Wii Ware today, but I didn't realize Nintendo wasn't using a demo/try before you buy strategy, so I want to do more research before I actually purchase something.

However, I did download the Check Mii Out Channel, which is a free social utility where people can exchange their Mii creations to other Wii owners. It's pretty cool in that it allows you to have as little or as much involvement as you want (you can browse Mii's or see the results of contests; you can "rate" other people's Mii's to give them kudos; you can grab Mii's you like and copy them to your own Wii, you can participate in contests by creating Mii's and uploading them).

The contests themselves are cool. There's a subject line (e.g., "Mii's that look like Juliet") and then you can view contestants and vote on your favorites. Results are tallied and the winners receive kudos points (their Mii Artisans gain recognition) and their creations dance around in parades. It's light hearted fun and certainly makes the whole Mii creation process much more social in nature. It's cool to have some strange Japanese kid's creation hanging out with the Mii's that I created with my own friends.

Some of the filter/search/sort options are lacking right now (making it hard to skim through lots of Mii's efficiently), but there's enough meat in there to make me want to check it out more often. Hopefully it also makes good use of notifications so that I know when contests I'm interested in ended and I can make sure I check back.