A few months ago, Nintendo released its latest iteration of its much beloved and anticipated Super Smash Brothers series. In this beat-em-up party game, players take control of the most popular characters from Nintendo’s most popular franchises to fight friends, computers, and even total strangers from around the world via its online mode. With this new version of the game comes a variety of new features, including 8-man multiplayer, character creation and customization, new challenge modes, and as always, lots of new stages and fighters. Perhaps one of the most interesting new features, however, is completely external to the game itself: small figurines called Amiibos.
Similar to Skylanders and Disney Infinity figures, Amiibos are toys containing computer chips that allow them to interact with designated video games. However, unlike these examples, which are figures containing a playable character that saves certain stats and items, Amiibos instead contain an AI capable of learning and leveling up through training, essentially becoming a digital pet that plays Smash. Furthermore, they can be scanned while playing various other Nintendo games in order to unlock bonus content, such as extra outfits in Mario Kart 8 or special items in Hyrule Warriors. Another key difference between Amiibos and the Skylander/Disney figurines is that the former are not required to play their compatible games. Amiibos promise what sounds like an interesting new style of play, but is it worth buying one?
Currently, there are 18 Amiibos available; with 11 more hitting markets this month, next month, and so on. In stores, these figures sell for $12.99; however, due to limited availability, many characters have become difficult to find and can reach prices over $50-100 online. Besides varying price and availability, another thing to take note of when getting an Amiibo is which games they can interact with, for some Amiibos can unlock content in a large variety of games, while others have less uses. For example, Kirby can be used regularly in Super Smash Brothers, and also to unlock content in Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, Mario Party 10, and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse; while Pikachu can only be used in Smash Bros, Hyrule Warriors, and Mario Party 10. It would appear not all toys are created equally.
For this review, I’ve purchased Link from The Legend of Zelda series, mostly in admiration for the character. Once being scanned into your copy of Super Smash Brothers, you will be asked to choose a costume and give your new Amiibo a name. My fellow play testers and I have affectionately named this particular Amiibo Splip’Blop. After naming your Amiibo, you can feed it items to bring up its stats, and customize its abilities. From here, you can begin “training” your Amiibo by playing with it in the multiplayer mode. The figure will level up with each game you play with it, reaching max ability at level 50, and it will pick up new habits along the way, such as taunting after a kill. While Splip’Blop’s skills did seem to grow over time, it’s unclear to me whether or not his AI “learned” or merely began to play better as it leveled up; I frequently noticed Splip’Blop using certain moves and tactics which I did not use when facing him, although perhaps his learning is more based on reacting than copying. Over all, leveling up Splip’Blop took only a few hours, and it was as easy as playing a few matches with friends. Once Splip’Blop was fully leveled, he became a genuinely threatening foe: easily able to fend off against a few human players at once.
A couple friends and I getting ready to face off against the Amiibo
It’s hard to say what the main use Nintendo had for Amiibos is, and instead there simply seem to be a multitude of small uses for them here and there. For people desiring to train against a more difficult AI, this might be a good way to hone your skills. For more casual gamers on the other hand, fighting the Amiibo might prove more annoying than useful or fun. Besides battling with the figure yourself, you can also pit it against your friend’s Amiibo to see who has trained their fighter better. If this was the Amiibo’s desired use, however, then one must wonder why they didn’t simply design similar figures for their Pokemon series, which is a game built on the premise of training characters to battle with friends. The Super Smash Brothers games by contrast are more centered on active play.
So returning to the main question, is it worth buying an Amiibo? Well honestly, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you play competitively and want a stronger AI to practice with, then buying an Amiibo of a character that you have trouble fighting might be beneficial to you. If you enjoy the train and battle style of Pokemon, then maybe getting a few friends to each invest in their own Amiibo might be enjoyable as well. Collectors are another group that may be interested, as these are premium figures with well-detailed molds and painting. Further more, many of these characters have never been made into toys before, so some fans will be eager to get their hands on merchandise for the more obscure characters.
These particular reasons aside, it might be better to wait if you plan on buying one. As of now, there are only a few games other than Super Smash Brothers compatible with Amiibos, and for the most part, the toys’ only real function in these games is to unlock small bits of extra content. Most of this content is only items and bonuses that are relatively minuscule or uninteresting. The most significant of these unlockables would probably be the mii racing suits in Mario Kart 8, most of which are suits based on characters that are already in the game (an exception being the Captain Falcon suit, which when paired with a properly designed mii allows to get as close as possible to driving as the legendary F-Zero racer). Nintendo has claimed many of their new games will be made with Amiibos in mind, so in the future there may be more of an incentive to buy one, but if you’re not a Smash fan or you’re not interested in training and collecting, then it may be best to hold off on getting one just yet. Still you have to admit; there is something cool about seeing your favorite video game characters come off the screen and onto your shelves.
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