BulletGanon - Amiibo Crisis 2015

Amiibos… Plastic little figures with specialized chips in them to interact with your games. The effects they provide vary from figure to figure and game to game. And while I really do like the idea of collecting little figures of your favorite Nintendo icons (because, really, will there ever be a chance for a Marth, Ness, or Villager figure after this?), I can’t help but feel like Amiibos are ultimately a bad thing. Perhaps it’s because I’m jaded on the fact that a Ganondorf Amiibo still doesn’t exist and, at this rate, may likely never see the light of day. But I like to think my opinions on Amiibo aren’t entirely based on selfish desires to own a figure of the true dark lord of our times. #istandwithganondorf 

So let’s get into more detail. What do Amiibo’s do besides collect dust at the homes of people who still refuse to open the package for “collector’s value?” Well, it depends on the game. In Hyrule Warriors, they help you find extra money, health, or (if you use the Link Amiibo) you get an additional weapon. In Mario Kart 8, you can unlock specific costumes for your Mii to race in. We don’t know about Mario Party 10. And Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker will use the upcoming Amiibo of Toad to put a hidden Toad icon on the map to find… which does… something… We don’t really know.

But Amiibos were primarily built for Super Smash Bros. For those living under a rock and not sure what Smash Bros is, it’s a fighting game in which you play one of the near 50 different Nintendo icons (along with Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-Man) and play on an assortment of different maps to beat each other senseless. It’s a good game and I have a review for it RIGHT HERE if you wanted to check that out. So how to Amiibos work with this game? By plugging in a specific Amiibo, you can build a customized character.

But wait, I can hear you thinking. In the review of yours I just read that you linked me to RIGHT HERE, you said that you can already create custom fighters and that was your favorite feature of the game. Why, yes you can. The Amiibo fighters are different. To make it simple, if you have a Sonic the Hedgehog Amiibo, you can create a specialized Sonic-Fighter-NPC and its data will be stored on the Amiibo you use. By fighting this Amiibo in game, you can level it up to be stronger than any NPC can be in the game naturally. You can dispose of extra custom-gear you find in game to further increase its power. Basically, by buying a specific figure for a character, you can fight a tournament-level-difficulty for an NPC of that character. That’s pretty damn interesting.

Rumors are also that, for Mario Party 10, the Amiibo (again, not sure if this applies to all Amiibo) will be able to unlock special maps or character pieces. Wait… this sounds… almost like… on-disc DLC. (cue dramatic reveal music).

So, yes, I’m on the side of the fence that while I think the Amiibo as figures are cool, their function in the game is in a very morally gray area at best. In the case of something like Mario Kart 8, if it’s purely cosmetic, I’m not interesting in calling foul on it. It’s no different than the infamous “Day One DLC” problem with Portal 2 where the DLC in question was silly costumes and nothing more. Nothing functionally different. Nothing necessary or helpful to actual gameplay.

But in the case of Smash Bros and possibly Mario Party 10, having access to playing against stronger NPCs or to have new maps could actually do a lot to functionally change the game. In the case of Smash Bros, I wouldn’t say getting a stronger NPC (of level 50) is worth the $13 PER CHARACTER to get that and if it was just that, I’d almost consider Amiibos a rip-off. And we know so little about Mario Party 10 to determine the value of the Amiibo functionality. But then comes the other big issue with Amiibo.

You see, each Amiibo can only hold data for one game at a time. I can’t use my Mario Amiibo for both Smash Bros and for Mario Party. Meaning that I either have to erase the data from Smash Bros when I want to do Mario Party or I have to buy a second Mario Amiibo. In a sense, I’m spending an additional $13 for the on-disc DLC I can already access, but need another access key to access said DLC without losing my other on-disc-DLC. I don’t really want to call Amiibo a scam, but it certainly feels dirty what Nintendo is ultimately doing with them.

And that’s the other crux of it too. We don’t really know what Nintendo’s end-goal for Amiibo will be. Will these figures be supported indefinitely? Will they just be a short-term money-printer for a short-term money problem? Will games support them in a fashion beyond cosmetic bullshit or will we see more actual game-changing elements from them in the future? Will Ganondorf ever actually get an Amiibo or will he continually be snubbed while Mario and Link get near five different reprints of their Amiibo?

Unfortunately, the fact we don’t know the answers to any of these questions makes my interest in the Amiibo craze less than what Nintendo wants. Again, this is very similar to my problem with the DLC in Evolve. They’re asking for an additional $15 for a monster we know nothing about before the game is even out and before I even know if this game is actually good. Amiibo are part of that same problem. I’m being asked to pay $13 for something to unlock content in games I already bought, but I don’t know which games will actually support this feature and to what extent. At what point will that $13 actually feel like it was worthwhile?

To equate this to food (like all good game journalism does), it’s like buying a burrito. I’m happy to buy a burrito so long as I know what they’re putting into it. But why would I buy a burrito without knowing the contents? Why would I want to spend money on something I know nothing about? What if they put fish into my burrito? What if they don’t put any meat at all? What if they put in a hotter salsa than I’m willing (or capable of) to eat? This is how I feel about DLC when it is announced prior to the game’s release. This is how I feel about Amiibo and their ability to unlock content on discs I already bought, but to what extent, we don’t really know.

In short, as a collector’s item, I find Amiibo charming and would love to pay for higher quality figures to collect as just collectable figures. But as for their functionality with games, I’m sorry. But I’ll take the side of the fence that sees Amiibo for what they are. $13 passes to unlock content I already bought that puts Capcom’s on-disc DLC to shame. I won’t call it gross because, again, I like the figures themselves. But Nintendo on a shaky start with me this year. They better pray to their gods that Star Fox, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Zelda WiiU are enough to make up for this load of ballocks. Or just fund Bayonetta 3.

And that’s all for this week’s BulletPoints. If you want to unlock another paragraph where I tell Ubisoft to “Fuck off” you need to by the Aaron Amiibo which will be an exclusive figure only sold in Sears. But otherwise, if you liked what we had to say, please be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe. We’ll be back soon with more amazing content for you lovely folks. See ya next time!