It's not just Super Smash Bros. for Wii U that's arriving as a big-name release on Nintendo's home console on 21st November in North America, but also the first amiibo range. Designed and branded for Smash Bros. — though with confirmed functionality in some other games — they'll jostle for shelf space while calling out to the collectors among us.
Through the course of this week Nintendo's been going out of its way to raise awareness and understanding of the toys, culminating in a Q & A session with Nintendo of America's Bill Trinen over on the company's official Twitter account. In general the answers provided will be familiar to those that have been following amiibo closely, but Trinen did confirm what we've certainly been expecting — there'll be more ranges of amiibo in future to tie into other games or franchise.
There are many possibilities, with smaller potential sets for releases such as The Legend of Zelda on Wii U seeming realistic, while the family-centric Mario Party 10 may also be a reasonable bet, despite the support of the Smash Bros. range. Once amiibo is compatible with 3DS in 2015 Pokémon will naturally be heavily rumoured and expected.
Trinen certainly showed some humour in his answers, with the following outlining the meaning of amiibo and addressing whether Captain Falcon is, indeed, 'awesome'.
In other answers it's reiterated that amiibo can't be scanned through packaging — sorry, collectors — and various other tidbits. Check out the full thread of tweets for the full lowdown.
When reading this Q & A we couldn't help but think back to Trinen's opening to his E3 amiibo video, below. Admit it, you'll be doing the same once you get hold of some amiibo.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 55
I don't know what they'd use them for, but I'd buy an amiibo of the Link in the Zelda U trailer from E3.
How about an F Zero game? Ha, Nintendo!
I would guess Animal Crossing and Pokémon would be the most logical series to produce as Amiibos. I guess there are certain Zelda characters.
That and the Wonderful 101, Bayonetta, and Captain Toad. I don't care what they do, I just want 'em.
"Plus he has muscular thighs."
Yes he does.
This is getting way out of hand!
@gage_wolf What about her?
MARIO MAKER!!
What they need is a game that focuses on them.
0:44 Isabelle, Tom Nook, Pikmin, Toad, and 8-bit Mario Amiibo confirmed? Either way, I call it.
@King47 indeed!
Good thing I have the Cap'n preordered.
Like Animal Crossing ones? 0.o I'd buy those!
@King47
Every now and then, I get the feeling that Nintendo shoe-horned Excite Bike and F-Zero into Mario Kart as if to say "here's that crap you sort of wanted. Now stop asking for it. We aren't making those games."
The F-Zero track just highlights that the series has been dead since the GameCube.
I hope we get a Nintendo World open-world adventure game of sorts, with Skylanders-like Amiibo implementation. That would rock so hard.
Gotta catch'em all? I think I'll buy as much amiibos as I can afford, even though in México they're selling them at $20~. And btw "amiibo" also comes from "amigo" wich means friend in spanish.
Tektite amiibo, Dark Nut amiibo, Octorok amiibo, gibdo amiibo! I want a line of LoZ common enemy amiibo from the new game next year!
@ricklongo
Nintendo Land 2 springs to mind, but I'd like to see an MMO-style experience, where it's more like "Nintendo World" with themes and mini-games and quests based on their huge history.
I suppose, take your idea, and splice it with Nintendo Land on a global, MMO scale.
@Peach64 I'm loving the look of the new Link, too.
You got me thinking that it could an interesting experiment to pre-advertise upcoming games with a few special amiibos. Something to get you curious about the characters before you see them in the real game. They could even be relatively obscure. Maybe new Link and a new side character from that game we've seen nothing about. Maybe Fox McCloud and a new character from the follow up. I know I'd be a huge sucker for that type of promotion. Not sure who else would be though.
On a related note, I'm finding that I'd like to have a Toadette Amiibo. Would it make sense for a later series to feature games that were released long ago to breath life back into the game with a new feature or something? Hmm...
@ricklongo @Quarthon
Very cool.
I've always imagined a sort of Toy Box for Nintendo where the building blocks would be famous elements of the individual games, so traps and blocks and torches from Zelda games, ? blocks, P blocks, mushrooms from Mario, Creatures, weapons, visors from Metroid, maybe even vehicle elements from F-zero and Mario Kart and keep all the tight controls in each style, but allow characters from all places to sort of play together in player created arenas, levels, worlds.
Sort of a LBP or DI Toybox but from Nintendo concentrating on its strengths.
I'm kinda glad they blocked package scanning. IMO buying a game or figurine just to keep in the sealed box is lame. Bust 'em out, put 'em on display and most importantly, use 'em...
Slightly sad from a collector perspective but I'm honestly a terrible collector. I have to touch the stuff i own. Except my sailor moon statues. I'm afraid to touch those without gloves.
@Peach64 Maybe a Zelda U themed Link costume in Smash?
Still hoping for a Toadette amiibo to be released once Captain Toad has amiibo support.
@Yorumi I believe the different versions of a character are interchangeable, such as the Smash Mario and the standard Mario amiibos would work the same in the games they support. A bit like Link and Cartoon Link functioning in the same way in Hyrule Warriors.
You can't outline Captain Falcon's awesomeness. If his muscles don't rip through, his punches will.
And it's getting hard to limit the Amiibo's I want... First, I need everything Legend of Zelda.
Really curious how they would use amiibos in Pokémon games... I guess they could have Pikachu, starters, and some other favorites, but how could they possibly get used? There's no way they would make an amiibo for all 719 of them (though that would be amazing )
Maybe they will use the card amiibos for Pokémon instead. They could make a lot more cards of the Pokémon than figures, and these could be used like the TCG, affecting the battles in some fashion.
@Squid
Do you realize how brilliant that sounds?
@Squid I'm ok with cards but if they do figures...I'm out.
I already knew Captai Falcon was awesome. Anyways, can't wait to see what future sets might hold.
It was already confirmed at E3 that Mario Party 10 is one of the Amiibo titles and we have seen teases of new figures like on the Amiibo bag we just learned about. I find it very likely we might be seeing a Disney Infinity crossover, it just makes a lot of sense (same with Skylanders) i doubt we'll be seeing Amiibo support for 3rd party games of the hardcore market but i guess we'll see what happens these years
@Porky I called 8-bt Mario way before you bro.
But anyway, I;m extremely curious as to how this figures will work with "Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker" and "Kirby Canvas Curse 2".
@baba_944 Dibs on toad at least : p.
@jariw - Well that would be nice. I actually like the happy hand waving Mario - reminds me of Mickey Mouse - over the fireball one. I just dont think fireball when I think Mario.
Basically the same toys but different skins. I can live w/ that. Skylanders has been reposing select figures every gen. We even have a couple, Trigger Happy riding a giant easter egg like Dr. Strangeglove was just too cute to pass up.
@aaronsullivan - Did you get Toy Box 2.0 or the whole Marvel shebang? Im thinking of getting 2.0 just to let my kids create stuff.
"Oh! I see you caught me playing with my toys." -Bill Trinen
Everything around F zero universe is awesome :3 ... can't wait to buy Captain Falcon, i already preordered samus and link to arrive with my copy of super smash bros for Wii U
Cool, Bill seems like a good spokesperson for Nintendo of America.
Is it weird that I'm preordering Captain Falcon just for the Mii costume in MK8?
Speaking of the figures being scanned through packaging, I remember back when Pokemon Rumble U was released I read a thread on GameFaqs of kids buying entire boxes of the the figures, taking them home, scanning them through the packaging, and returning what they didn't want. One person even said he took his Wii U into the GameStop to scan them there and got kicked out.
I uh... I bought a few and let lady luck decide what I got.
Poor Pokemon Rumble U... Those figures were a good idea, but needed some form of security... I don't know a soul who has the figures and plays the game.
@allav866 Unhealthy? Yes. Weird? Not really.
Didn't anyone else think "amigo"? I refuse to believe I'm the only one.
Uhh
@Porky don't forget a triforce then the rare lorule triforce
Great about no scanning through the box. This can, even significantly, lower the number of factory sealed Amiibos that will eventually be floating around online(sites like eBay, Amazon, etc.), & even used game outlets(Gamestop for example). Original purchasers will have to chose, keep it factory sealed (possibly, & most likely through the years) for Collector resale (value), or open it, use it, enjoy it, & if it gets sold later, for less value, than if it were factory sealed.
Right now, though, I'm interested in my favs. Nice that Nintendo is reiterating different sets, for those that didn't know earlier.
@jariw: Toon Link, CDi Link, DIC(cartoon) Link, what do you mean "Cartoon Link"? You've piqued my curiosity.
@Capt_N Based on the context I believe he means Toon Link.
If they do this for Pokemon....... I'd only buy Pancham/Pangoro, but those poor collector's wallets.....
@3MonthBeef I think there will be some new characters, and new versions of ones with amiibos already. Maybe a Link without the pee stick. I'm sure Nintendo is kicking itself when it got nicknamed that.
Bill Trinen Confirmed!
@rjejr
I probably shouldn't have jumped on the Marvel launch deals, even though they were okay. My kids just aren't very energized about those comic book heroes.
This morning I was looking over the originals figures in the store and I know they'd be much more excited about them, but, whoops! none of the larger game sets involve them. So they'd be Toy Box only, which is okay, but lessens the value.
I never bought a Disney Infinity item without a significant deal attached but I'm feeling fatigue at finding good sales.
Here's the craziest part: I bought the digital version, too. Hopefully getting the game discs that come in the Originals Starter Pack for free (but that deal gives NO confirmation about whether you qualified and only the first 10,000 get it).
So, now I've got a bunch of stuff and want to exchange a bunch of it and it's annoying. I'm tired of looking for the deals. At least with Target we get 5% off everything and the figure costs are not 5% higher but actually the regular price (and even a dollar cheaper if you compare to Toys R Us).
So, today, at Target, I just bought up 3 Amiibos along with my pre-order for Super Smash Bros. ($5 gift card and 5% off is not bad). There's a better Amiibo deal at Toys R Us but it's farther away and right now I just don't care.
I posted my Amiibo impressions over in the "Out Now" story.
I'm guessing Mario Party 10 might get its own maybe?
@aaronsullivan - Man, are you a father after my own heart. Looking for deals is my full time job. I hope you use CAG:
https://www.cheapassgamer.com/topic/327877-disney-infinity-deals-compilation-thread-mk-ii-marvel-super-heroes-20-drops-on-923/page-76
Amazon is running a sale if you have an Amazon Visa card, some DI stuff is included though it sounds a bit late for you at this point.
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=cbcc_tys_so?ie=UTF8&node=10111219011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=special-offers-1&pf_rd_r=0BAT98MCBYYA7SA2P3YH&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1970088962&pf_rd_i=B00KWHJ2JQ
I'm probably going to buy SSBU at Target this afternoon, there was a 10% off coupon in the holiday ad, plus my kids will be getting $5 GC w/ their respective Pokemon purchases, it's a family purchase.
So have your kids actually played DI 2.0 yet or is all this stuff still in Santa's sack? I know the "originals" don't have story modes, but my kids already played all that stuff fin Lego Marvel anyway, and Skylanders is coming (I swear I LOL every time I'm in Target and hear Chaos voice coming out of that trap) so I really just want the $20 DL "toy box" from 2.0 and find the original set cheap to go w/ our free DL of that game so my kids can mess around building stuff. The stage builder still seems gimped in SSBU and who knows when Mario Maker is coming out?
My kids are older - 9 and 12 - and amiibo really aren't even on their radar but I'll go see what you have to say, you're a good judge.
Now I need to go back to buying a new range hood, mine's too disgusting to clean, I'm getting tennis elbow from trying.
@rjejr
Wow. Amazon deal is kinda crazy for the Marvel stuff... maybe I'll try and take all that Target Marvel starter set back for a big Target gift card ( it's past regular return time)
My kids haven't played DI 2.0 yet, it's all "in the sack". It's been pretty easy, actually. We are into Minecraft right now and we have a backlog of games on the Wii U we haven't finished.
@aaronsullivan - No escaping Minecraft. My kid bought a $6 handbook yesterday at a school book fair for how to use redstone.
I'm kind of sick of it myself, but my kid has learned alot about computers downloading and installing mods and moving them around inside Win Explorer. He's running 3 versions and the mods only seem able to run in 1 so he's constantly switching stuff into and out of the mod folder, or renaming them, actually I'm not quite sure what he's doing anymore. My wife's afraid he's going to become a criminal. (Probably already is if you asked Microsoft). When I was 9 we had a black and white tv.
Well since I know DI 2.0 is for Christmas I'll stop asking you if your kids like it.
Oh, besides spending all my time looking for deals, I also spend my time looking for deals for my mom and 2 sisters to buy my kids gifts, so maybe 1 of them can get the kids Disney 2.0 toy box. I got the range hood clean enough, just saved $50
@aaronsullivan - Just bought the Wii version of Skyalnders Trap team for $49.99 - 25% so $37.49, and I had a $10 GC from my electric company for going paperless. Now I just have to hope my extral HDD holds out for the DL Wii U version - 2 games for 1 (Wii is in my sons room, they can get exercise carrying the portal up and down stairs). My accomplishment for the day. I'll stop annoying you know - time to go to Target anyway, and I can't shop while the kids are home.
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