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amiibo: Are They Still Worth It? (Discussion)

 

Tris, Nantenjex, and Liquid12A discuss amiibo use thus far, and if they’re still considered to be “worth it” going forward.

 

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4 comments
  1. I like this video, but some info is inaccurate.

    The Animal Crossing amiibo cards DO work as the figures, unless the developers code against them. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe allows you to unlock a racing suit with them, and Yoshi’s Woolly World + Super Mario Maker allows cards such as the Resetti card to unlock the costume. The Mario Sports Superstars cards have completely different Character ID’s.

    • Some info, more like a metric ton of it.

      Guys, here’s a list of all what the amiibo do in BotW: https://imgur.com/a/QWNvr

      Some of it is limited by where you are in the game.

      KL-Cobalt on April 3 |
  2. ++LONG POST INCOMING = LONG POST INCOMING++

    -*Mario Superstars Cards – Are they worth it?*-

    Eh… To me they’re not. They unlock an extra stage of stats to the character in the sport they correspond to. And since these card don’t work like figures, they really have no real use – other than minor things like transferring Miis to the Switch from the 3DS and Wii U or minor ingredients in BotW – to which, would be pretty helpful if you’re traveling.

    -*Animal Crossing Cards*-

    Given how Splatoon 2 is worked on by most of the same team as Animal Crossing, I don’t see another Animal Crossing game in the horizon at the very least for another two years. If amiibo functionality does return in the next Animal Crossing, it would largely be based on New Leaf’s formula, and I believe the cards would be more valuable than the figures in retrospect.

    -*Pokemon amiibo – The next big thing?*-

    As far as Pokemon go, I doubt Gamefreak would even consider amiibo. Like Animal Crossing which had the e-Reader functionality, Pokemon actually did dip their toes in combining Nintendo’s gimmick into the cards. I feel that with how extensive the card game has gotten, that adding amiibo to it would really mess up the card game’s balance for some, as there were similar complaints with the e-Reader function as well back in the day.

    I mean, with over 700+ Pokemon, yeah that would make sense to add them all, but the point then becomes, what would the amiibo DO? Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon have absolutely no amiibo support and even then, Gamefreak seems to limit the kind of things the Pokemon amiibo in Smash currently do. They work in Smash, they work in Mario Maker, and they work in Robobot – The Mario Maker costumes don’t make any special Pokemon sounds unlike the special 20th anniversary Pokemon event costumes, and Robobot only mentions the character’s name which wouldn’t be an issue. The Yoshi’s Woolly World staff said they couldn’t find a way to make Pokemon costumes look good, but when the 3DS version added Ryu and even Corrin but yet the Pokemon amiibo still don’t do squat, it makes you wonder…

    Not to mention, there isn’t a ton of options for amiibo use to occur. Aside from main titles, Pokemon has mostly been handling spin-offs through mobile devices lately so where’s the platform to use the amiibo going to be then?

    -*ARMS amiibo – What would they get in comparison to Splatoon?*-

    I honestly don’t think ARMS should be getting amiibo. We have about at least until the end of June for the game to come out in the projected Spring, and yet unlike Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which comes out at the end of this month, ARMS has at least two whole months to set a release date on. (This is the start of the 2nd Quarter after all, they have until July before it hits Q3) So on top of that there isn’t much info to go on.

    As far as Splatoon went, the amiibo unlocked costumes (Single Player challenges and the rewards were costumes and weapons) so I’m not sure if ARMS could have the same effect.

    As far as a trainable fighter ala Smash, I’d like that, but if we’re going to be realistic, I think the AI wouldn’t work as a trainable fighter for ARMS as it would for Smash since ARMS looks to be designed as a more traditional fighter – instead perhaps an amiibo exclusive ARM ATTACHMENT could be unlocked, preferably through a challenge.

    Now with that, I’m off to go play more Breath of the Wild and train more amiibo – here’s also a nice image of what amiibo do in Breath of the Wild: https://imgur.com/a/QWNvr

    (yes, I’m plugging that again.)

    KL-Cobalt on April 4 |
  3. The amiibo figures are meant to be the keys to Nintendo’s success financially, but usually meant to be the keys to unlock special features for that game. However, sometimes I do see the amiibo can be really useless if it had no meaning to whatever usage it can do, rather than collecting as a hobby. Sometime long ago GameXplain somehow commented that the amiibo doesn’t feel special as its not like Disney’s Infinity, Skylanders, and Lego Dimensions. I do disagree that amiibos are more than that, but I somehow sense that amiibos can lack specialties towards certain games.

    Smash amiibos were mostly used as customizing your amiibo figure in game, but eventually it became useful to unlock certain features upon many games. Mario Kart 8 and One Piece’s 3DS game unlocks special costume, Codename STEAM unlocks playable Fire Emblem characters, Yoshi’s Wooly World unlocks figure’s color palette, etc. In my opinion, amiibos should work in many games entirely for special features, rather than focusing only on that game. Shovel Knight’s amiibo only works on his titled games, Pokken’s special Mewtwo card only unlocks Shadow Mewtwo and only contains ONE card…other than that, its useless towards other games except for earning more Rupies and weapons for Hyrule Warriors…which is a generic feature. They should add in more features with every amiibos as possible which can be really exciting, and I do think that’s what amiibos are all about; unlocking special features only that amiibo can contain.

    Possibly the reason why they don’t do that is maybe copyright issues, which they need permission to use that character in order to unlock something for that game. It may be impossible today, but Nintendo and other second/third party companies should’ve put more effort on amiibo usages. Yo-kai Watch should’ve allowed amiibo usages rather than focusing on Yo-kai Medal than can only scan QR codes, which would’ve been interesting if they obtained special costumes for certain Yo-kais; such as Jibanyan wearing a Mario costume, and Venoct wearing a Link costume. Splatoon should’ve added more features on amiibo usages like adding a FLUDD from Mario’s amiibo, wearing Link’s tunic from Link’s amiibo, or having a crossover with Mega Man’s amiibo on wearing Mega Man’s helmet and using his Mega Buster as a weapon. I think ARMS should add in amiibo features like summoning Little Mac and Donkey Kong as playable fighters from their amiibos, or summoning other special fighters like Knuckles from Sonic’s amiibo, or the REAL Spring Man from Mega Man’s amiibo. It should be great if they do that, rather than adding something that’s not special enough.

    For the amiibo’s future, it really depends. I do see many people are still buying it for more features or collecting reasons, but for their usage, they should work more onto it with more specialties. I do think the Animal Crossing cards will continue on, if they’re planning to make the new game for the Switch. I really don’t know how long it’ll take and how much it costs to create an amiibo from scratch, but they should add in more new ones other than Nintendo games, but other third party companies. It’ll be interesting to see Sonic amiibos if possible.

    zoniken on April 4 |