Amiibo for Wii U & 3DS is the official name of Nintendo’s Skylanders-like lineup of toy figurines, which were officially announced and detailed during Nintendo’s E3 2014 Press Conference.
Give a look at what Nintendo intends to bring to the “Toy To Life” category (as Nintendo refers to it) phenomenon with this introductory video to Amiibo.
— CONNECT WITH THE GAME —
Introducing Amiibo Character Figurines, designed to connect and interact with compatible games. By holding the Amiibo over your Wii U GamePad, you’ll open up new experiences with each corresponding game. Your Amiibo will store data as you play, making it your very own, one-of-a-kind Amiibo.
Key Amiibo Features:
* The First Amiibo Series Will Be “Super Smash Bros. Wii U – Amiibo Series #1”
* Send Your Amiiibo In To A Smash Fight & Grow Stronger! – In Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, you’ll be able to scan your Amiibo into the game. You’ll then be able to fight against your Amiibo, team up with it in battle, or watch it battle other in-game characters. Your Amiibo will be able to increase its attack and defense stats, and even learn new fighting tactics!
* Amiibo Launches This Holiday – At launch, there will be around 10 different Amiibo figurines available. More will be released during holiday 2014 and throughout 2015.
* A Range of Compatible Games – In addition to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a variety of other games will offer Amiibo compatibility. How they interact will vary from game to game.
* Wii U Games With Planned Amiibo Support Include: Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Mario Party 10, Yoshi’s Woolly World and more!
* Compatible With Nintendo 3DS Too – Nintendo 3DS systems will be compatible with Amiibo functionality using a peripheral device scheduled to launch in 2015. Stay tuned for more information on the Nintendo 3DS games that will work with Amiibo.
Like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, Nintendo will produce their own line of toy figurines that you can purchase (for an extra cost, they are sold seperately) then use to interact with various Nintendo titles, including the upcoming Wii U & 3DS Super Smash Bros., and the already released Mario Kart 8 for Wii U.
Using the Wii U Gamepad’s NFC Scanner in the bottom left-hand corner, you simply hover the figurine over it to zap the character into the game you are currently playing. From there, Nintendo expands on the idea already utilized in other “Toy to Life” titles (like Skylanders) by allowing your data to be re-uploaded back to the figure when you are done playing.
In this way, you will be able to completely customize your character whom you can then take over to a friends house. The character will be bound to the figurine, not to the game, opening up all kinds of new possibilities. The biggest draw to this system is the ability to take the same figure, and use it for multiple titles, watching it continue to evolve without having to buy a new figure.
Here is Nintendo’s Amiibo reveal video from E3 2014.
In Super Smash Bros. 4, you will be able to use your Amiibo figurine to level up and completely customize your own Smash fighter, raising their skills, and giving you the ability to bring in customized item sets to multiplayer fights!
By gaining experience points from winning battles, you can improve their Attack, Defense and Speed stats, customize their equipment, give them various “Effects” (such as Critical Hit Bonus, Improved Meteor Smash or Explosive Perfect Shield), collect Gifts and even customize their moveset!
You can also watch the figures duke it out, watch them fight the CPU, or team up with various figures against the CPU, or fight against your figure yourself! There will be multiple ways to interact with Amiibo figures. Additionally, Amiibo will level-up faster if they fight against other Amiibo.
And don’t worry, the 3DS will also get Amiibo support (in particular for Super Smash Bros. 3DS) via an accessory, like the Skylanders Portal of Power, that will allow you to use the figures with portable titles.
Amiibo will also support: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U), Yoshi’s Woolly World (Wii U), Mario Party 10 (Wii U), as well as the aforementioned Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, with future titles offering Amiibo support in the works.
Here’s what the official Amiibo packaging will probably look like according to the figures on-hand at E3 2014.
The first line-up of Amiigo figurines will launch alongside Super Smash Bros. Wii U this holiday, with 14 figures revealed so far (no word on whether or not all of them will be part of Amiibo Series #1).
The previously revealed figures include: Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Princess Peach, Kirby, Princess Zelda, Pikachu from Pokemon, Marth from Fire Emblem, Fox McCloud from Star Fox, Link from Zelda, Samus from Metroid, Villager from Animal Crossing, Pit from Kid Icarus and Wii Fit Trainer Girl.
New figurines will be released stretching into 2015 and hopefully beyond.
Btw, Nintendo didn’t ignore the fact that they are taking a page from the Skylanders & Disney Infinity playbooks. As they also announced that both Disney Infinity & Skylanders: Trap Team for Wii U/3DS will be getting special Amiibo functionality for their games that will only be available when playing the Wii U or 3DS versions using Amiibo. Very interesting.
Here’s the Amiibo image gallery.
Click on any of these image thumbnails to see the full-size photos:
I’m super excited about Amiibo, despite this idea being stale due to the massive success, popularity and milking of Skylanders & Disney Infinity.
Even so, having figures of Nintendo mascots and beloved Nintendo characters is absolutely awesome and is a dream come true for Nintendo fans. Let’s face it, Nintendo has the most iconic characters of any videogame company, so being able to buy toy versions that interact with Nintendo titles is really neat! It’s also fun to see Nintendo reference the classic Super Smash Bros. Melee toy-scene from that game’s opening… in truth, this is like Nintendo taking the original concept of Smash (toys fighting each other) and making it real! Huzzah!
I can’t wait to try Amiibo out!
How excited are you for Amiibo? What Amiibo figures do you hope to see? I hope to see Toad! 😀