THERE’S something a little bit brain dead in viewing Nintendo as a plucky underdog.

They are, after all, a corporate behemoth and a cultural giant of many decades’ standing. Even if you’re not into video games, you’ve probably heard of Super Mario’s endless quest to maintain the monarchy by rescuing the princess from various unfortunate situations.

There’s also Donkey Kong’s love of barrels, gorgeous adventure series The Legend of Zelda, dashing space pilot Starfox and many other compelling hits.

In a big-league gaming world dominated by first-person shooters, often reflecting a fairly dubious US-centric worldview, Nintendo’s dedication to family-friendly games of fiendish playability is something to be cherished.

In the late noughties they were still slaying everyone in sight with the Nintendo Wii, the console that brought motion controllers and the consequent chance of accidentally smashing a lamp while playing virtual bowling into living rooms around the world.

But a lot of those Wiis will be gathering dust by now and its successor, the Wii U, sold poorly as the idiosyncratic Japanese company was left behind by rivals Sony and Microsoft, with their seemingly endless series of play stations and xbox consoles.

Now Nintendo, famed for its determination to keep games in-house and available only on their own platforms, have made their first foray into the smartphone app market.

But rather than allow a Mario or a Zelda title to be accessed by the thumbing and swiping masses, instead they’ve come up with Miimoto, a social media platform that feels like a cute parody of social media platforms.

Within its walled garden, you are represented by your Mii, the anime-style avatar familiar to anyone who has played a Wii game.

Once you’ve got the thing set up, there isn’t a huge amount that you can do. You can dress up your character in a variety of preposterous costumes. Currently, my alter ego is dressed as a Goth Lolita with unmatching bread hat.

You can tickle your Mii in the face until flowers burst out of it. Your character talks in a disturbing robotic voice, while never-endingly cheery muzak plays in the background.

Other than dressing up and indulging in inappropriate touching, the app will live or die on the enjoyment and ease of interaction with your friends, which I’ve heard you can technically do in something called “real life.”

Your character gets visits from your friends’ miis. They then proceed to ask you a variety of fairly banal questions: “Where would you like to live in the future?” (Underwater cities or slime caves), “What do you think you were in a past life?” (Glenn Hoddle) or “What do you think friendship is all about?” (Fear, regret, disappointment and betrayal).

Your friends can then comment on your answers or, if they prefer, leave pictures featuring miis which, in my friendship circle’s case, appears to have become a competition to put characters in the most compromising positions possible.

Part of this is the glee of finally being able to put Nintendo’s cutesy aesthetic into naughty situations and, unlike much of the company’s content, comments and pictures are blissfully unmoderated.

It feels more intimate than using Twitter or Facebook and, as it’s private, memes, in-jokes and weirdness can all flourish without worrying about offending your mum or your boss.

The app’s problem might be longevity. The relentless nature of the questions gives the impression that you’re taking part in the world’s most pointless survey or, worse, you’re stuck in a dating app.

Unless you have lots of Nintendo-related friends, it can feel a lot like shouting nonsense into the void.

And there are plenty of places for that on the internet already.