Crillan

You can buy those bundles from GameStop and then return the individual items. We got a Switch this way and returned the extras we didn't want.

So it's basically exactly like every mobile device out there now? My phone powers off completely by doing the exact same thing. There's no real reason to fully power it off anyway on a daily basis if you're docking it. When taking it mobile, then sure. But turning it off is so simple.

Physical copies all the way man. All you need is enough space for DLC and updates.

@Lord It was stated that you don't need to use motion controls in the Tree House presentation. I think you can assume that a pro controller will work.

I just dealt with WiiU storage recently. I discovered that the SD card slot CAN'T be used for external storage, like on the Wii. The SD card on WiiU is mostly used for the Wii mode and to save Mii data. It's on the official site. I found out, though, that you can plug in any USB thumb drive in the back and it will work just fine for external storage. I only put in 8GB, but it was enough for what I'll use until I get the Switch.

@3MonthBeef Thanks for the reply, but I don't see any source in that article. Maybe I'm just not seeing it on mobile.

@JaxonH Source? I've been following Switch every day and haven't seen or heard any verified specs. They mentioned the capacitive touch, but not the resolution, from what I've seen.

I must have missed it somewhere. Was it confirmed that the tablet screen is 720p? I've only seen rumors so far and it wasn't mentioned in the presentation.

@PlywoodStick It clearly states that you can try the boss level for only 20 seconds BEFORE you start it. What else did you expect to happen when time is up? Let you play the rest of the level? And it basically says exactly what you're suggesting. It just does it at the end of 1-3, not 1-4.

The messaging on the cost is perfectly fine. If you need help understanding it, then you should probably get an adult to explain it to you. This whole argument is stupid.

I call BS on the bad messaging. I got to the end of the free play and the message was very clear to me. It clearly states that "world 1-4 and beyond must be purchased to be played". Then when you go to the purchase screen, it clearly says "Purchase All 6 Worlds" and shows $9.99. If this is confusing to people, they need to get an adult to help.

I purchased it and it's actually a pretty fun game. I plan on purchasing it again for my phone, once it goes to Android.

One thing the writer lists as a con I feel is actually a pro. Being unable to set expectations is a good thing in my opinion. I've observed so many people not even buy or play a game because the expectations they created 3 years before it was released weren't met to a T. I say screw those people and just let game creators create, and then we can judge the game for ourselves by actually playing it. I'm so tired of internet gaming community members getting on hype trains and drawing lines in the sand about what a game or console needs to be, and then calling it a failure when it doesn't happen. The shorter the time between reveal and release, the better.

This is definitely going to make everyone that's lost their favorite villager happy. Just have an open slot in town and have them visit. Repeat until they offer to move in!

One suggestion that was made to me was, after renaming your Eevee, exit the game and restart. This way, you can confirm the name was saved and uploaded to the servers before evolving it. If the rename wasn't saved, then you'll just get the random evolution.

@Bolt_Strike Other consoles are more expensive outright partially because they include large storage. Nintendo makes it optional and saves you money. Especially if you're like me and always get physical copies, then I don't waste money on large storage I'm not using. And as another person replied, he saved by buying a 1TB drive on his own because if Nintendo included large storage, it would definitely cost more per GB than buying it 3rd party. Nintendo is actually doing you a favor and you don't recognize it.

If you guys don't know Wil Wheaton from any of his acting roles, you should check out his show on YouTube called TableTop. It's all about board games played by celebrity guests and it's pretty awesome. I think most people here will appreciate that show since it's about more complicated and fun board games for adults, not things like Sorry and Monopoly.

@Dreamcaster-X Don't forget Little Mac!

It's already been reported elsewhere that this is in fact a TRU issue that they're correcting, and people's orders will be fulfilled. Stop with all the butt hurt against Nintendo, the false theories and BS.

This is actually pretty cool, but I stopped buying Skylanders after the 2nd game. It's just too much stuff to collect for one series =/

This article is a lot of noise. There are still plenty of Amiibo on the shelves wherever I go and you can still order them online in several places. Such a long read about nothing.

I personally love using my Amiibo every day on Hyrule Warriors. I've been getting some kick ass weapons from it. I still get the odd 1 rupee here and there, but it's worth it to get the great weapons and some extra materials and rupees. Most of the time for rupees, I get something like 50k, so it's not as bad as some people have suggested.

@HeroOfCybertron Nice!

@HeroOfCybertron The rep told us the coupon would only work at the two stores that were having the event in our area, so I'm guessing it won't work at all stores =/

@HeroOfCybertron The Nintendo rep had some already printed off at my store. Maybe you can get one from them? Otherwise just try to print it off better. You can also bring your 3DS if you have it and show them the Miiverse post. Nice name and avatar btw!

Just came back from the local event and the event itself was a little weak. I don't think they advertised it really. It was just a Nintendo rep standing at the Geek Squad counter with Captain Toad to play on the TV, Pokémon to play on 3DS XL, and the Pokémon Art Academy to play on a 2DS. Lots of free stickers, booklets and other items that were pretty cool. I got a Majora's Mask 3DS 2015 poster that you can peel off and stick on walls and counters that you can peel off and reuse. Oh, I picked up Captain Toad for $5 off as a gift for family.
@ericwithcheese2 The Captain Toad puzzle was pretty cool.

@DESS-M-8 So then you understand what the point is. You may not like the point, but you know what it is and that they're not pointless.

As for what they offer and what value it is to customers, that's clearly subjective and many people have expressed how much they like them. While they may not offer much value to you, they do to many people. Loot Crate selling out and store displays all over being picked over proves that.

Not that it matters, but I'm a software engineer and I've been playing Nintendo since the NES was released and gaming since before then, so I too understand the concept of toys connected to video games. I've collected every Skylander for Spyro's Adventure and Giants and leveled them all to 15. I'm looking forward to leveling up my Amiibo much more than I did for Skylanders.

Watch Dogs is a really good game regardless of what you might see on the internet. I really enjoyed it on PC since I didn't want to wait for Ubisoft to get it together for WiiU.

I'm in the middle of Lego City: Undercover for WiiU as we speak and besides the long loading times that someone else mentioned, it is a really good open world game like GTA and Watch Dogs, but it has that Lego charm and humor which makes it really good for me. Definitely worth picking up.

@luigifan2000 I think you're looking at the normal subscription prices. This is a special set of crates with a different pricing scheme.

It's basically $25 for the extra loot crate goodies which includes a t-shirt, cinch bag, collectible mags and a few other trinkets. I don't see how that's such a bad deal when they usually put pretty cool stuff in their crates. The Amiibo at retail would be $130 plus tax anyway.

FYI, I just went to the Loot Crate site again and it says they're sold out of the Amiibo Loot Crates.

I got the notification email so here's the deal:

http://www.lootcrate.com/amiibo?utm_source=Amiibo&utm_campaign=df6c5ea68b-amiibocrates_11_14_2014_EM&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d1e489b21b-df6c5ea68b-57347809&mc_cid=df6c5ea68b&mc_eid=8f02b8c3d7

@ThomasWhitehead The article subtitle says Lucario, but in the content it says King Dedede. This needs to be straighted out.

@CapuJohn The article actually states the cables are 2.5 feet longer than the original controller cables. Add the 3 feet of the USB adapter and that's an extra 5.5 feet of cable if you really need to be 12 feet away from the TV.

@Jonny There was no miscommunication from Nintendo. They said from the beginning that they would not work with anything but SSB.

@rjejr That would be sweet actually. They did this with Skylanders and it saves you money. I think Disney does it too but I don't get into those. I haven't seen Amiibo 3 packs online yet either.

It is kind of annoying that you get bits and pieces of information from different Nintendo execs. Not saying they contradict each other necessarily, but NoA tells us one bit, NoE tells us another, NoC another thing and some random spokesperson tells us something else. We have to piece it all together sometimes or wait until they finally give us a Nintendo Direct like the SSB 50 facts thing.

@DESS-M-8 They are not pointless. I can't help you if you really don't understand what they offer as it's pretty straightforward. They do offer something more than Skylanders and it is in addition to the main game just like you said they should.

As far as using it to unlock a character across multiple games, it's possible and they haven't ruled that out. We could talk for days about the possibilites here but I can't imagine it's that simple for them to do, so they'll want to approach it with care and do it right. Some games it would make sense like in Mario Kart, but they already have a DLC model to get new characters for that game. In future games, they could easily do this where it makes sense. In some games, it just wouldn't make sense like Call of Duty and being able to run around as Mario shooting people in the face. It would be funny and that's a perfect thing for a PC mod, but it doesn't make sense for Nintendo in that particular case. They clearly would have to do this with a lot of thought so I wouldn't write off the possibility completely, especially this early on.

@rjejr They did say in August already that you will lose data when moving Amiibo from one game to another. Just because you didn't read it doesn't mean they're obfuscating something. So no, they didn't lie and they were up front about how it works, unlike you saying it won't work across multiple games which is a flat out lie.

Someone else already posted this link but I'll show it again:

"Amiibo will hold the information specific to the game that you are using it in, and then when you transfer it to a different game, (because you can use Amiibo in Captain Toad and you’ll be able to use it in Kart), then they’ll be a part of that game. You can bring them back into another game, but you will lose the data"

• Matt Ryan - Nintendo of Canada
  http://3gem.ca/post-e3-14-matt-ryan-interview/

@Bolt_Strike "The other part of it is that it affects the gameplay, so the Amiibos need to provide $10 worth of gameplay."

They don't need to provide $10 worth of gameplay for one game. They will provide way more than $10 worth of gameplay over time regardless.

"And like I said to @DiscoGentleman, just because it's a bad idea to lock major content in the game doesn't mean they have to be near useless. They need to find a middle ground."

This is basicaly what they're doing. I think what they did with HW and MK8 is fun and definitely middle ground.

"Some kind of neat extra that actually adds something to the gameplay but isn't required for anything, like a new character, ability, level, etc."

Adding new characters, levels and abilities is exactly the kind of thing that gives you an advantage over people without Amiibo and that seems to be what they want to avoid.

"As for Smash, it doesn't really matter whether it's playing against you or someone else. It's not very useful either way. When it's playing for you it removes the interactivity from the game which makes it less fun. And you can always watch someone else play. When it's helping you it's not much different from simply having a CPU player on your team, which you can also do for free. You're not paying for anything new or interesting with this setup, it's a waste of money."

But you are getting something new. You can't have roster characters as your teammate without Amiibo. You also can't level up and customize the existing allies that you can get from items in game. You also can't bring the standard allies with you to a friend's house and load it up to join you. You can do all of these things only with Amiibo. You can also experience 8 player smash essentially with 4 players and 4 Amiibo.

@HylianJowi "I like to remain cautiously optimistic, but I feel like we're seeing a Wii U 2.0 here; too many questions and not enough answers."

I'm not sure what information we're missing exactly. We know how they'll be used in the first three games and we know about the storage limitations. We have a utility to reset or wipe the data on the WiiU and we know that can be enhanced at any time because it's part of the OS. What else are you looking for other than how they'll function on future games? That information will come as those games come out, but you can't reasonably expect them to let all the surprises out of the bag this far ahead of the game release can you?

@DESS-M-8 "They are too pointless and not really integral to any video game experience at all."

That's the point. They add extra fun but it's nothing integral to the game. This way, Amiibo are not required and they are not locking anything important which would leave people out.

@Bolt_Strike "Aside from the characters that aren't playable, why would I want a Mii costume for a character when I can just use the actual character? It's just a pointless aesthetic thing that's redundant thanks to the existing roster, not something that most people would consider to be worth the $10 or so it costs to buy one."

Like I mentioned above, you're getting way more than just costumes for the price. And even though some of the costumes are redundant like you said, none of the costumes are available for your Mii character without using Amiibo. For those that really like using their Mii character and those that like the Amiibo that aren't actual racers, this will be pretty cool.

@blackbeltbap "am i the only one that remembers someone saying( i think it was miyamoto) that amibos would have a large portion of their storage devoted to the game they are from and the rest would be for other games. certainly made it sound like they had a sufficient amount of storage then, what now."

It sounds like they explained it exactly how it is. They can store save data for SSB which takes up most of the storage and the remaining data allows them to unlock content in other games. It sounds like they have sufficient storage to do exactly that. We all knew they were using NFC technology and if you look it up, you can see how limited the storage actually is.

@Bolt_Strike "Why would I pay $10 for a character costume or to have a CPU character play the game for me? So I agree with the article that there needs to be better usage for Amiibo, it's not really doing much of any use gameplay wise."

First, you're not just paying for a character costume or a CPU character to play the game for you. You're paying for the collectible figure, the content you mentioned, and endless possibilities for content in the future on many other games. A one time cost for repeated additional content and a cool figure. This is worth more than the initial cost by far.

Second, for SSB, the Figure Player(CPU) isn't just playing for you. Yes, you can pit your FP against the CPU and other FPs, but you can also have him play along side you in a match using the skills and levels you've earned for him. This is pretty cool.

Third, the part about not doing much of any use, that's because Amiibo isn't required for any game. This is their exact intention. That is to provide fun additional content that's not required and not going to make anyone feel like they're really left out or at a disadvantage if they don't have Amiibo.

@rjejr But they will work with multiple games, so to say it "obviously isn't the case" is just a lie. It won't work as you expected, but it will work as they said.

To those people saying you have to pay $13 for a tiny bit of DLC such as the Mario Kart 8 outfits, that's just simply not true. You pay $13 but you get a decorative and collectible figure first of all. This alone is worth most of the $13. But to go even further, you're not buying it for content in one game. It provides you with content over multiple games which, individually as DLC, would cost a lot more than $13 typically. Especially if you consider that the number of games that will gain content from one $13 Amiibo purchase is not limited. We will be gaining Amiibo content from now until the end of the Wii U cycle and probably beyond if they maintain the NFC functionality in future consoles. That's worth way more than $13.

@rjejr The difference between Skylanders working over multiple games and Amiibo working over multiple games is Skylanders all have the same data set, whereas Amiibo will need a different data set for every game. In Skylanders, they just store level, coins, moves, and maybe one or two other things. It's the same across all of the Skylanders games so they just need to update data in the existing data set on the toy. For Amiibo, they would need one data set for SSB, another for Mario Kart 8, another for HW, etc. With the NFC storage limitations, this just isn't very feasible.

@rjejr You can save the data on Amiibo and play your characters on a friend's game. That's what Amiibo does that you can't do with the game alone. And of course the collectible nature.

@rjejr The reason you don't worry about losing data on Skylanders(it does happen btw) is because the character sits on the portal the entire time. Right there is your tradeoff, right? With Amiibo, you don't have to buy a separate portal that takes up space and a USB port and requires extra batteries and needs to be upgraded with every game. The benefit is it's always there built into the controller, doesn't require separate batteries, doesn't require a separate port, and won't need to be upgraded for specific games.

For reference, I have the first four Skylanders games on Wii and 3DS(Spyro's Adventure and Giants) and every figurine they released for those games and I've played through all four games completely. I'm definitely planning on getting Amiibo and probably every character until it starts to get completely ridiculous like Skylanders Swap-Force and Disney Infinity.

@Shirma_Akayaku I completely agree. People think the WiiU should get a price cut but it's already pretty cheap and comes with great games and the other consoles are really expensive by comparison and that's before the fee for online play. They just want Nintendo to give away their console for free it seems even though it has some amazing games on it and it's the only innovative console again this gen.

@Baker1000 Does every toy you buy that needs batteries and has a screw holding the cover shut come with a screwdriver? Of course not. It's a common house tool.

Is this really an issue? The only time I've ever messed with the SD card is when I replaced the original card with a bigger card. I haven't touched it in years. I imagine it will be the same for the face plates.