PTE83: Amiibo or AmiiNO

[Nu-Eclipse]

Sorry, no longer in town it'll be into next week before I get near again. Had to resort to Amazon for my others. Given how they popped up on shelf though Id imagine next Fridag morning they should be easy to nab until that Saturday hits

Not a problem. Found one in the end. Cheers.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Ultimately, I think the problem Amiibo faces is quite simple.

Skylanders and Disney Infinity, I've always believed, work because they allow you to take a tradeable item from real life, and put that into a videogame. The appeal for kids is blindingly obvious. When I was a child, I would've loved something that (for example) took my Magic: The Gathering cards and rendered a game as a visually appealing magical battle. The games-playing public ate up Pokemon Stadium on the N64, and its ability to take your tiny Pokemon sprite and blow it up to a 3D image that could battle on your TV. I played CARDDAS games in Japan that did the same thing - stuff like Gundam Cardbuilder. I spent a fair amount of time in Tokyo hunting down the elusive GP-03 card I needed to pair up with my Amuro Rei to form an unstoppable team in the arcade game.

Amiibo lacks this central concept. Sure, you can use it with Smash, fine, but those features are still in their infancy.

Disney Infinity isn't just a game, really - it's a platform that allows people to use the Disney figures and bring their favourite characters to life. Nintendo need a "Nintendo Infinity", but I'm not sure what form that would take.

In theory I think the concept behind Amiibo is sound. Whereas Skylanders and Infinity figures work well within the context of their games they're ornaments elsewhere and quickly get left behind with each yearly iteration. With Amiibo Nintendo can make them cross title and cross platform, theoretically your collection is good for future gen Nintendo platforms as long as Nintendo supports them. The potential is there for them to offer much more per figure than Infinity and Skylanders do, the trouble so far being that Nintendo still hasn't provided a core platform for them.

They really need a 3DS/WiiU Amiibo game that all the figures work with in a similar fashion to the rival titles. That way, all the cross game bonus features are the cherry on top rather then currently where unlocking costumes etc is the sole in game purpose. By next summer the wind will be out Amiibo's sails unless Nintendo has something lined up to make proper use of them. If they do have that title though, Amiibo could serve as a great gateway in guiding buyers to 3DS and more importantly WiiU.

Wave 5 is still unknown but as they've used Smash Bros fighters so far the lineup seems obvious and the only ones I'd see as interesting are PacMan and Falco so I want to see their plans beyond that. Today though I've properly looked over my Fox (decent enough), Samus (easily one of the top three they've released, excellent figure) and Luigi (the plastic prop is ropey but I just see it as Luigi leaning on something like a weirdo which fits his character). I really hope they don't get reliant on bit part characters for padding though like pokemon creatures. Potentially some cool ones I want.

Hard to disagree with the majority of this.

This is what makes Amiibo so disappointing. Nintendo had, imo, a big opportunity to blow the competition out of the water and claim this niche market for themselves with superior quality as shown via the original prototypes. Instead, it looks like they've done the bare minimum quality and functionality-wise. That only serves to show it up for the cash-grab that it looks like (and who can argue? Amiibo are raking it in at present). That's a shame because I do feel that Nintendo could've done this so much better with more of an honest effort.

Little Mac Amiibo is quite disappointing. My DK Amiibo is better but that's not saying much - poor paintwork. I could've done a better job.

[capcom_suicide]

Whatever they are, it has created a very interesting and engaging debate!

[Neon Ignition]

I'm curious as to what Nintendo will do about the supply chains for Amiibo too. Now that they're aware of the rarity it's created there's a fine line between generating demand and under supplying as the latter can easily kill interest too. Link is apparently the highest selling Amiibo yet he's pretty easy to get hold of which suggests they did scale runs for each character. Considering they've used the excuse of needing shelf space for steady new releases I'm wondering if they will cut short Amiibo's with alternates as the Smash Bros line up would suggest an impending Amiibo release for Zero Suit Samus, will that mean the current one will become the next rarity?