It's a thing. Edited by Sam Essig and Scott Wozniak Main Channel: @ScottTheWoz Twitter: / scottthewoz Facebook: / scottthewoz Instagram: / scottthewoz
Yep. Nintendo won’t get rid of them as long as there is demand for them and there are enough people out there that will buy every single one that they release
You'd be surprised how much the Switch has in common with a can of chili -Exists -Has something inside of it that makes people want to buy it -Has red on it (sometimes)
The latest releases do kinda give that vibe, especially when it came to the 3rd parties of the Smash FP2 line with Sephiroth, Pyra/Mythra, Kazuya and Sora being so damn difficult to get.
They're not doing too great anymore since the toys to life thing died. And I think Nintnedo knows that. Which is probably why they're just, kinda there on Switch
@luischeco3009 near the release of mario odyssey, Nintendo released a branded super Mario cereal that had an nfc chip in the box I believe, was pretty weird
I'm fairly sure that Nintendo realized fairly early on that Amiibo are much more profitable as a collectible than a usable in game thing. The fact that they went heavy on variants (ie P1 and P2 versions of Cloud, Bayo; the Fami ROB, etc), heavily limited supply at various points, locked them to specific retailers, did stuff like the Gold and Silver Mario ones that essentially did the same thing in most of the games that recognized them. Oh, and the newer sets don't even seem to include that little foil bit they used to include so you couldn't scan them through the package. They've started doing reprints, too, to re-capitalize on the 'rare' figures that spiked on the 2x market. Which would also explain why the AC ones bombed, since let's me fair, AC characters are fine, but at the end of the day, most people don't care enough about any single character enough to want a figure of one. I mostly just buy these for display or for franchises I enjoy. I used the Splatoon ones, and once in a while a game like Ace Combat on 3DS used them to unlock some cool planes. The fact that they never made a crossover style game using amiibo like Skylanders still baffles me, since they wouldn't be bound by stupid licensor agreements like Disney or LEGO, where a bunch of suits somewhere dictated that character X couldn't be used in franchise Y and killed the whole point of it.
@@valentinlopez8292It does in Disney Infinity, Scott even goes over it in his Toys to Life video, you can't play as characters from another franchise in the story packs, only in the "toy box" mode or whatever it's called.
The funny thing about the Wolf Link amiibo was that the summonable wolf in Breath of the Wild had very low health by default, and the only way to increase that was through the Twilight Princess HD and getting to a certain point in a new dungeon added in that version.
If you’re the target customer, and you might well be, Nintendo's better off dumping amiibo and putting the hard/software money into higher-quality collectibles.
@davebob4973 What's funny is that whenever I see "consoom" it's from someone too naive to understand that every company primarily wants $$$ for investors
i think Nintendo is never gonna get rid of amiibo because it allows them to make whats pretty much DLC in a physical form, without having to deal with the backlash that games get for having DLC. Instead of BOTW/TOTK having a “helpful items pack” thats sold on the eshop for a couple dollars, that’s regulated to the amiibo so people could say “Look! Nintendo games almost never have DLC!” if that makes sense
That’s kinda silly dude. It’s more like an in app purchase than a dlc, and even then that’s a bit of a stretch. People don’t really go out of their way to buy amiibo for the in game bonuses as much as you think. People buy them simply because they’re cool little figures with game comparability.
@@queasc0220 But people buy the splatoon series amiibo mainly because they want the exclusive gear they offer right? And personally speaking me and my friends rushed to find the Shulk amiibo to use the monado in Xenoblade 3. Though “microtransactions” is definitely more appropriate than “DLC” but still, they’re minor features that other games would just throw on the shop to get people to spend an extra $5 or something. I get people are mostly invested in amiibo for the collectible aspect, but from Nintendo’s point of view, I think that’s what they’re gonna keep them around for.
well anything amiibo is free, all modern phones have an NFC chip in them, amiibo NFCs are dummy easy to clone, if you want all the amiibo items in BOTW/TOTK then you can easily get them all for free
pokémon's lack of amiibo is particularly confusing to me... you have a franchise known for trading cards and collecting creatures, and yet there have been no amiibo card sets. imagine a standard pack of pokémon cards, but each one is an amiibo. you can scan the amiibo into the current pokémon game to get something, like a 6 IV version of that pokémon or maybe a special move it can't normally learn or something. if it's a dupe, it could give you an item depending on the card's rarity. say like a gold nugget for a common dupe and a gold bottle cap for a secret rare dupe.
I'm also very surprised that they didn't make figures for any of the Switch titles. Imagine if we got a Zacian and Zamazenta amiibos for Sword and Shield, Dialga and Palkia figures for BDSP, Koraidon and Miraidon figures for Scarlet and Violet, and so on. As for what they would do in-game or how they would work, well I assume something low effort like give you an assortment items that range in rarity per day (maybe one guaranteed rare item to be generous) by scanning the amiibo in Mystery Gift followed by a mandatory save as to not exploit it by resetting the game. Though maybe if you scan a legendary from the opposite version, it'll give you the legendary not native to your game. For example, I scan a Miraidon figure in Scarlet and it'll give me Miraidon for that Scarlet save file and the same would be true for Koraidon in Violet. It would have to be limited per save file which is a fair enough to prevent getting multiple legendaries and if you try to scan it again or a figure of the same version, it'll just give you the generic item drops. Either way, still surprised Pokémon has no amiibos outside of Smash aside from Detective Pikachu and the Shadow Mewtwo card that barely counts
Amiibo are still pretty sought after. My local GameStop didn't have any Pyra and Mythra amiibo left when I went to go pick them up (along with Pikmin 4).
Sure was a thing alright. I remember how Scott always suggested how Koei Tecmo should make an amiibo Warriors game using every amiibo ever to some capacity. Im a fan of the Warriors games and even I always thought that was an impossibilty.
The thing about amiibo is that if you want every amiibo compatible while not just making it a basic "here's some random items" situation, it *has* to be something that can be churned out quickly. The costumes in Mario Maker 1 and Yoshi's Woolly World are the peak of this specifically because a simple SMB1 sprite swap and a texture replacement on a simple cute character are easy to produce in a short amount of time individually. An action game notorious for over the top animations and fan service is objectively incompatible with this notion.
@@th4nkyoub3n man I love the comedy sketches, I sometimes go to some videos like the Mario Party ones for the legendary phrases alone lmao I also have an unhealthy amount of love for Jerry Attricks, the character
Same, my complete Metroid amiibo collection was incredibly helpful against the final boss of Metroid Dread when I was trying to complete hard mode in a certain time to unlock the exclusive pictures.
Looking back, they really did all they could with the Animal Crossing amiibo in New Horizons. It was kinda hard to strike a good balance, but that's mostly due to how New Horizons is set up. It's a good thing they didn't just make them give materials or something. Also, shout out to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for making *any* Animal Crossing amiibo unlock the suit since there were so many.
I hate it. The figures are cool, but buying a game for 60 bucks only to find that there's content locked behind another product you have to buy is super lame.
I think Nintendo just does Amiibo at this point to have a collectible figure lineup of some kind. The fact they're game compatible is just a nice little bonus.
I recently just bought the Pyra and Mythra amiibo and the reason why I bought them was because I thought they would be nifty to have as some decorative figurines. I don't think they need to have much use in games in terms of this aspect. I also had the thought of "what if when you bought and scanned these amiibo, you unlocked their characters in Smash Bros to play". People would probably cheese that, but for the price, it kind of makes sense.
I'm cool with the amiibos that are mainly for bonus costumes - Splatoon 2&3 and Fire Emblem Engage - it feels like a fun enough extra without feeling like I'm missing super essential stuff. One of the Splatoon amiibos gave a witch hat so I wore that during the recent Halloween event in the game.
It's hard to find a balance to make it worthwhile beyond being nice little collectables - Having skins or the personalized Smash CPU was fine, but then you have (24:48) Zelda and metroid samus returns with in game features being locked behind them at launch
the animal crossing new leaf welcome amiibo update was amazing tho obsessed w the npc camper vans you could scan in. WOLF LINK AND GANNON VILLAGER? obsessed
The welcome amiibo update was probably one of the best free dlcs ever. It added SOOOO MUCH and gave us villagers based of splatoon and Zelda. It was so cool. All my villagers were amiibo villagers and it was so cool
Exactly, I've been really into Kid Icarus Uprising recently but there's one official figure for merch and it averages at £150 I found the Amiibo on eBay for £15 lmao
It feels really weird when there's so many cool things you could do with amiibo: costumes (Mario Odyssey, Splatoon, etc.), unlock music tracks (theatrhythm, smash bros, donkey konga), save character data to bring across games (pokemon, zelda, metroid), save levels (mario maker, animal crossing), save a companion character (mario sports games, mario party, warriors games, kirby star allies), or even a combination of these. Seriously, imagine how cool it would be if Zelda games had amiibo support, you could save all of your progress on that Link's amiibo, and use that same amiibo in another Zelda to fight the Link from that game, with some modifications to turn him into a boss. Same could work with Metroid.
It's a big missed opportunity how most games only have unique functionality for amiibo from their own series, with all other amiibo having a generic effect if anything.
A few years ago, I went into a 5 below for the first time and I vividly remember they had Star Fox Zero, Amiibo festival, and a bunch of AC amiibos. Like massive shelves full of them
Honestly, I just want amiibo to be figures that give you crossover cosmetics. Something cool, but not something that is necessary for the game. Tears of the Kingdom could have had a plethora of crossover items made specifically for amiibo, like Pit's bow, Palutena's shield, Fire Emblem Swords, etc... Then they could have crossover outfits. Pyra/Mythra could give you Rex's outfit. Other examples could be have Link dress as Mario/Luigi, fire emblem characters, Starfox characters, Pit, Dark Pit, Shulk, and so on. New Horizons should bring back the pre-existing crossover villagers/furniture from New Leaf plus more, since there are so many series that would go well with it. Villagers with Mario, Donkey Kong, Starfox, or Duck Hunt themes would be cool! The Joker amiibo giving you a Morgana villager with Persona themed furniture would be amazing! Splatoon would be cool with some cross series themed gear as well. Miitopia did an amazing job with Amiibo. If we get a sequel to that game or Tomodachi Life, I hope those include the same compatibility if not more outfits.
Amiibo in Pokémon would make so much sense. Get clothes, items, mini-quests, even Pokémon. They don't even need to be legendary ones half the time. Example, Bowser amiibo could give you a fire terra type Blastoise, simple.
I think amiibo started as a toy to life thing but now it’s just for collecting which I don’t mind cause I personally like to collect and put the ones I like on the shelf since it’s the only merchandise that exists or is affordable for some characters and series
It was kind of nostalgic seeing the amiibos for smash. Reminded me of the intros and plots of smash 64 and especially brawl. The amiibos were the figures in brawl
I feel one of the more detailed uses I had seen was in Kirby planet robo bot was that whichever amiibo you scanned you got an ability corresponding with that amiibo, for example I had a greninja smash figure at the time and when I would scan it, it would give me the ninja copy ability.
The Champion Amiibos for Breath of the Wild are easily my favorites. Getting a heatproof or extra cold resistant piece of equipment just makes it far easier to go in any direction you wish regardless of the environmental obstacles. Made even better by the fact that the champion powers are all really useful for different playstyles and parts of the game. Especially when compared to Tears of the Kingdom where a lot of key quests end up clustered around the Hebra region, so going out of your way to equip yourself for Death Mountain doesn't feel as satisfying. Still cannot believe they turned my dog into meat though
The whole thing about the Animal Crossing part really does boil down to the entire philosophy behind New Horizons shifting quite a bit from its roots. You're absolutely right, the appeal of the series was about it being a miniature reality that captures the feeling of moving to a new town. _Was._ New Horizons in general is overemphasized on the customization aspect to where your character is basically only a few steps away from God. Which yes, does have its appeal, that's why games like The Sims exist, but that's not really what feels right here. I point this out primarily in regards to Scott's statement on them moving out, because that's the thing: In New Horizons, nobody moves anywhere until you have the final say. Even if you haven't touched the game in ages, nobody leaves until they ask you about it and you say they can leave. That is the only condition that causes it now. It's kind of silly.
And it's better for it. The villagers I most cared about moving out without even giving me a chance for them to stay made me never open New Leaf again.
@@chubomikz7104 I haven't touched New Horizons in forever because once I unlocked K.K., the island basically stagnated. Everyone is at my whim like a deity while repeating the same nonsense ad nauseam. Nothing noteworthy happens anymore unless I decree it, and that gets exhausting for me really quick. Life changes when you least expect it. Animal Crossing was supposed to encapsulate that, and now that feeling is gone.
I'd be nice if things changed while you were gone but villagers moving away when you're not there is just a bad idea. They need to find the balance. The lack of customisation in new leaf is fine but only in happy home designer you were even allowed to change your skin colour, no excuse on that really. If they manage to combine both somehow it'd be perfect but perfect is hard to achieve
@@hellohaveagooddayThe villagers aren't trophies for you to just horde and gawk at, they're meant to be people with their own decisions. If they want to leave, so be it, you're supposed to be an equal, not their parent. And if you desperately need them to stay that badly? We'll, there's always those cards. So it's not like there _isn't_ an option. And I feel like you're missing the point if you felt the need to point out the skin tone thing, obviously I think that was only a good thing to update. You should have freedom to express yourself. But you are not the town, you are not its residents. That is my takeaway.
@@MizunoKetsuban I get that entirely, and of course villagers are supposed to be their own being, but it's that them moving away when the player just isn't there doesn't feel like it's fair. Sure they should move out of their own accord if they're not being talked to but it's that there's no way to prevent it if you've got things going on. I get that animal crossing is a passive game, it always has been, but I think with games like these there needs to be a little allowance for life to happen. Even if it's just something in settings to put the entire game on pause, but picking up a game after a very busy time shouldn't greet you with being left. I'm saying I like the customisation of new horizons but the villagers are lacking. If they keep the new horizons customisation and added the life of the villagers from new leaf it'd probably be a better experience for everyone.
One of the coolest amiibo features that NO ONE talks about is that certain figures have photoreactive elements. Almost ALL the Splatoon amiibo have it. Viewing them under a black light is a wonder to behold.
The Amiibos in Breath of the Wild are the best use of them, in my opinion. They unlock treasure chests filled with exclusive outfits and items related to the specific Amiibo.
I'm still surprised they never did a huge Pokemon Amiibo card thing. Blind packs like the Animal Crossing ones that spawn wild pokemon into your game for you to catch. Each pack contains either a foil card that gives you a shiny, or a "boss" card to battle a Legendary Pokemon. You could even go crazy with it and include "specific" pokemon, like Giovani's Rhydon or whatever. Give them some perfect IVs / hidden abilities and it can replace Friend Safari from X/Y. It would work like the Dream World from Gen 5, letting you get Pokemon that you couldn't normally get in the wild.
You can't have it both ways. If you lock really good stuff behind it, people will complain. If they do minimum basic stuff, people will complain. If the game does not support Amiibo, people will complain. I just collect the Amiibos for the sake of collecting. Everything else is a bonus.
Because it's just an NFC tag inside a figure which is incredibly easy to make yourself and there's plenty of apps for that. NFC tags are sold for cents, you can just buy over 200 for less than 10 bucks, if they put anything of value like actual DLC instead of whatever game functionality tons of people would never actually buy the DLC and just pirate it by writing to an NFC tag. Amiibo works because is a collectible first and the in game functionality is just a little extra, if it was the other way around it wouldn't work.
@@Cruelboypurple oh :( thats unfortunate. However if NFC cards are so easy to dupe, then that would make tap-to-pay functions on credit and debit cards INCREDIBLY unsafe, right?
I'm not like 100% sure how it works since I just know the basics but you have to get the NFC ID first, so we have the amiibo ones because someone always buys the original and uploads it for others to use, so something like your personal credit card wouldn't be subject to that but I'm sure that banks have their own security stuff built in as well
@@undefender they need to copy the actual ID of the NFC, so we have all the amiibo ones because people have bought the originals, copied them and uploaded them, that's harder to do with your personal credit card although it does happen from what I understand but I think the cards or bank systems themselves have security measures to try to prevent that or make it harder. I am unsure how good those would be since I'm no expert and I just know the basics of this stuff.
I feel like Yoshi's Wooly World, Fire Emblem Engage and Federation Force did amiibos best in that they just unlock costumes based on whoever you scan. These costumes in these games aren't something required for 100%, in Yoshi and Federation Force they're just cool textures even and each game can scale them to however ambitious they wanted to be, with Yoshi being compatable with every amiibo that was out when it released while Fire Emblem to my knowledge only unlocked costumes based on characters who were emblems in the game.
@@AnAverageGoblin Here, I'll give you a few more. On paper Federation Force was a solid idea both for a multiplayer focused game and as a way to flesh out the Metroid universe. If it had come out a few years earlier and maybe on the Wii instead of a handheld especially post Prime 3 I think not only would it have been a great game I think it would have been a fan favourite that would have brought in a ton of fans from mainstream shooter fandoms looking for a cool, well made and generally family friendly Halo 3 equivilent they could play with their kids or younger siblings on the Mario/Wii Sports machine. Even if they'd just held it off until after Samus Returns 3DS I think at the worst it'd be as devicive as Prime Hunters, Federation Force is a squandered concept fucked entierly by timing and it's chosen hardware and that will never make me not sad.
The way Nintendo handles amiibo currently is both business as usual and strange at the same time, it's so sporadic now. Just in 2023, Fire Emblem Engage had support, the cheap "get a little bonus" kind but still, but no new figures. Xenoblade 3 had support when it came out but no figures until *over a year and a half* later when Noah and Mio released. Tears of the Kingdom got a new Link, and like Xenoblade, got more *after* the fact, I don't get that at all. And then for all of Nintendo's big ticket releases the rest of the year, *none* got new amiibo, not even dinky support for them. No Mario Wonder implementation, no Oatchi amiibo, no figures for the characters in Super Mario RPG, nothing. When they choose to utilize amiibo or not seems completely random now.
I really do wish that Nintendo made their own Skylanders or Disney Infinity, a sandbox game where you could play as the toys. Amiibo are fine as is, I guess.
That's why I loved Mario Maker 1 so much, almost EVERY amiibo released got a Mario Maker 1 skin, I was so disappointed when they removed the feature entirely in 2, it was the reason I own like half of my amiibos was just to play as them in Mario Maker.
I think amiibo are fine as long as you see them as a collectable figure with a bonus in a game. I think they're trying avoid being pay-to-win, nobody likes seeing somebody in a game you can't have because you can't buy it.
A random idea I had: Whatever Nintendo's next console is supposed to be, assuming it has amiibo support (which I am willing to bet it will) what if it had a dedicated app that came with the console that, when you scan your amiibo into it, a digital version of the amiibo appears in the app. They can get cool animations and effects that takes the plastic and brings it to life, as I imagine they always wanted. You could then use them to play a game (level?) that already exists (mario bros., the legend of zelda, metroid, etc.) somehow related to the amiibo, kind of like how you could in SSB Brawl. Maybe even slightly altered versions of these games with harder or just weirder content. This gives incentive to buy the amiibo, but they're not mandatory purchases to unlock major content, while also not being afterthoughts. They just allow you to play a part of a game that already exists, but spiced up a little. Choosing exactly how to use amiibo seems to be a difficult task. The best implementations bridge gaps or create shortcuts, which I think is fine. But the ones that bring additional content are the ones that I find to be more interesting, like the Wolf Link amiibo for BOTW or the shadow link in Link's Awakening. I like the idea that amiibo aren't rewards per se, but an additional challenge, something to make gameplay more difficult. Perhaps you unlock NG+ early or you make the enemies in a region stronger or something. Having the amiibo just poop out items is just so lazy and might as well not even be there.
me: I wish they did cooler things in most games most other people: nah if they do too much it's content locked behind figures, I like that they do nothing I think the best thing I saw their use in was getting to play as everyone in Mario Maker or the Fire Emblem characters in Codename: STEAM, that's more what I thought they should do more of
Amiibo unlocking content seems like a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. If it unlocks too much, people that don't wanna get them get pissed, if it doesn't unlock enough, the people that DID buy them are gonna feel cheated.
my biggest thing is why I love amiibo is because obscure characters that usually never get merchandise or people would never think to give merchandise to got them through amiibo like Mr Game and Watch chibi robo box boy and stuff like that.
This video is kind hitting me at the right time because at the start of this year, I’ve started collecting Amiibo again. And I’m still doing that, even picking up some older amiibo I missed out on. Even if I don’t use them at lot, they are just very convenient and cheap figurines that are pretty high quality.
Amiibos really don't have much wiggle room in how games can support them in good ways. The choices are either A)Make them unlock something so minor you kinda wonder what's the point B)Make them unlock something really cool, but because how the technology works at that point you've made the scummy move of locking content that's already in the game behind purchasing a piece of plastic.
Still collect this to this day, I do feel like it’s very hard to please everyone, if they unlock cool features people get mad and if they unlock non important stuff people get mad 🤷🏻♂️
I think the funniest part of this is Scott didn't talk about Fire Emblem at all. Which yeah, it's Scott, that makes sense, but Fire Emblem amiibo for some reason has the most consistent and best uses of Amiibo. Like you'll get a song from one of the games, or a costume, or a weapon. And on 3ds you got sidequests and characters.
The "game interaction" aspect has basically died down, but the quality of the figurines themselves have had a great improvement over the years. Nowadays they're more figurines than toys to life, which is fine imo since many people (justifiably so) didn't like when substantial content/features was locked behind them
Amiibo was the cane the Wii U barely could use to support it. When the switch arrived it was a surgery that made that cane nearly useless. But it kept it out of pity that amounted to a lot less than hoped
The reaction to the Skyward Sword amiibo was so overblown. I completed the game 100% when it released and never felt the need to use it. I didn't even bother removing it from its box until after I finished the game.
I feel like a pac-man alternate mittens and shoes in Pac-Man Re-Pac would have been a decent amiibo unlock. Not too big, not entirely nothing, plus it helps that Re-Pac was announced during a nintendo direct.
If Nintendo could actually make Amiibo Pokémon cards (Aside from Shadow Mewtwo) that would be an amazing callback to the Pokémon E-Reader GBA cards. If Nintendo also made an Ankha Amiibo Figure then that would also be selling like hot cakes too, because some Animal Crossing characters only have a card but no figure. I bet that Nintendo could FIGURE this out sooner or later, cause the money is on the table.
Mario Vs. Donkey Kong for the Switch revolves around toys and yet doesn't get Amiibo support either. They could have at least made a Mini Mario Amiibo.
My niece loves the amiibos. We have been playing Smash together since she was a baby and ever since she found out that “these toys can scan into the game and then we can train it together!” She was super into it. Now she brings them to me when she finds new ones and we now have half the roster in amiibo form haha
I was a day 1 adopter of Amiibo back in 2014 because i had fond memories of Skylanders and was in the Nintendo collecting phase of my life. They almost immediately ended up becoming paperweights on my bookshelf and nothing more.
fire emblem amiibos had some pretty cool use. In fates they gave you the characters playable in game yes they dont get support but it was still cool seeing Marth and ike in fates. While in 3 houses you got music based on the game they came from. While engage had music plus costumes that you couldn't use in combat which made no sense but ok. So ye it was a nice bonus to have you really only get it if your a fan of the series.
You forgot that Animal Crossing had exclusive outfits, furniture, and characters from amiibo cards that crossed over with Sanrio. Its actually pretty substantial and I recommend them if you can get your hands on them. ACNH really needed more crossover content.
The less in-game functionality, the better, as far as I'm concerned. They're cool little figurines for those who want them, but I'm just not one of those people. I don't want the plastic and I don't want to feel like I'm missing out on a game feature by not paying 15-25 bucks.
My dream use for amiibo has always been it unlocks DLC you would otherwise have to purchase separately. Like it's available either way but when you get the figure it's like you're getting 2 things at once. It's so often they release game specific amiibo anyway. The skins method also would work as a way to easily incorporate all amiibo.
I really lik amiibo kinda makes me sad to see them in such a state Like the fire emblem amiibo went crazy on 3ds they added characters to fates, they added characters to code name steam, they added a whole new tactic to echoes All totally unnecessary things but really cool (Also the shovel knight amiibo is really substantial it adds in whole new ways to play the game)
I'll never forgive myself for being a jobless teenager when amiibos came out. But I am pretty pleased that I was an overworked young adult when Gamestop was CONSTANTLY selling loose amiibo for 2-10 dollars. So many killer deals that I think fondly of whenever I see some dickhead reseller jacking prices into the stratosphere.