Heya, Cloudman here again with something new to talk about. Something else that has also been on my mind lately, and I feel it's time to talk about it, for I think it's something rather important that needs to be discussed. For some time, there has been a rise of debates over a rather controversial topic going on in the industry, at least on Nintendo's side. There have been mixed opinions on it, some being against it, and others paying little mind to it. So, I thought it was a good time to end the bickering and settle this once and for all. No more beating around the bush anymore. Let's get into it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBguvwROVic

So what I talking about? Nintendo's collectiable and usuable figurines. I'm sure everyone is familiar with them by now, but first, let's brush up a bit on the beginnings of the little figurines. Amiibo was first brought up in May 2014, when Nintendo presented the prototype, and the idea that the figures could be used across multiple games. Curiosity sparked as to what sort of things these toys can do and what games will be using them, such as costumes, in game items, playable characters, or perhaps even Nintendo's own Skylanders/Disney Infinity. Nintendo did say they would unveiled at E3.

So then E3 comes along, and Nintendo has their digital event. The first notable announcement were the Mii Fighters as new characters for Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U, but that wasn't the only surprise. Iwata displayed the first Mario Amiibo, which he played on the tablet and revealed its first known usage, a trainable, customizable character for the game. It was similar to a CPU, but could be raised to level 50 and learn your move patterns and adapt to your fighting style. And this data could be saved to the figure and used on other Wii U systems. A fairly novel and personal idea. And so the Amiibo were unveiled to fairly positive responses.  Nintendo had claimed they had planned on expanding the usage of Amiibo to many different platforms, such as Mario Kart 8, Yoshi Wolly World, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, and more.  With so many games using the figures, it sounded like a good deal, right? Right...???

Amiibo! Discover the power inside!

And so, in late November, Amiibo were released and garnered good sales, to the point of scarcity (but that's a different topic). At this point, they were compatible with Mario Kart 8 for costumes, extra items and rupees for Hyrle Warriors, and Smash Bros for customizable fighters. Seems fine so far. However, there was something different about Link for Hyrule Warriors. Using him gives you an exclusive item, which was only obtainable through the Link Amiibo (Later Toon Link as well). This seems a bit more than just goodies, but a more sizable piece of content locked. At this point, I don't think maybe people minded, so it went on unchallenged. It's just one small item... It's not vital to the core game....

Presenting... the Spinner! Only available through the Link Amiibo!

More games came out later, such as Treasure Tracker and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. These games also included Amiibo support, such as a "Hide-and-seek challenge with the Toad Amiibo, and small in game boosts in Rainbow Curse with the Kirby Amiibo (along with other bonuses from other Amiibo figures) . As before, fairly small, simple extras. Then comes a game with a sizable extra tied to the Amiibo, Mario Party 10 and the Amiibo mode...

Tap your Amiibo to access this mode... Only $12.99!!!

Now that seems quite a bit extra, wouldn't you say? But it's no problem, right? If you're like me, chances are you already have a usable figure, several actually...!  So no problem here... But what about those who don't have one, and have no interest? Well, they have a constant reminder of a mode they can't ever use. It's okay though, because that mode it terrible anyways... It's not that big an issue, right? It's just one game with a questionable piece of content locked right?

Then comes more games with Amiibo support. Xenoblade Chronicles for 3DS and later, Yoshi's Woolly World for Wii U. Xenoblade's bonus is extra concept art for the game. That's neat. And Yoshi gives you a second Yoshi to help you through the game. That's a nice extra. Plus, that plush doll is so adorable. How can I refuse... No problem here! But then there is Code Name STEAM and Splatoon. What's iffy about these titles? Well, STEAM has extra characters, Marth, Lucina, Robin, and Ike. How do you access them? By Amiibo of course!!! What if you don't have them? Well, you're out of luck, sorry... (not to mention you need a 3DS to use them)... And Splatoon, which has costumes tied them each figure. How do you get them though? First you need to complete 20 missions! Then you unlock the costume. But that's not all! You get a mini game with it too! So that would make 60 missions for 3 costumes and 3 mini games to play. That's quite a lot of neat extras... That's okay though, I have some of the Amiibo already anyways...

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Unlock the power that's inside...!

And that brings us in our current events with Amiibo and their functionalities in games. While overall the question of the content placed into the figures may be negligible at most, there are some other questionable usages which I have also presented above. And this is just the beginning. I forgot to mention the amiibo cards, which will be another way to unlock extra features, or in the case of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, be the main driving force of the game, unlocking extra home requests in an already questionable amount of content in the base game. Then there is also the issue of rarity of Amiibo, which raises the price of a standard amiibo to sky high prices, just for that small extra, not to forget to mention that some amiibo will be discontinued, potentially driving prices higher than they already are. (Although, Nintendo plans to remedy this by releasing cards with the same functions, which will be cheaper, but not as cool as the figures themselves... ; ) ) Hopefully, the  Amiibo won`t rise to shady and questionable business practices, such as releasing incomplete games requiring them to get a complete experience...

It`s time to... DUUUEL sorry, wrong game...

Now this isn't about putting Nintendo in a bad light, or discarding the idea of Amiibo as expensive DLC just because it is just about the amiibo, and not the extras, but I wanted to represent both sides of the arguement. I think there is truth to the points people make against Amiibo, but I also think there is something good to be had with the idea of Amiibo, and that the extras in them are not the main reason for purchase, but a nice addition given to them.

It's hard for me to decide where I stand, because I see the potential danger amiibo have of locking more behind them, but I find myself hard to be against them, as the content locked behind them majority of the time I have the figure in question already, so it's almost a non-issue for me.

No Problem here...!

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Amiibo are cool collectables with a creative idea attached to them, or are you on the side that thinks they are a terrible practice and think it needs to be stopped, or at least call Nintendo out on it?

What are your thoughts? And please, it's keep it clean guys and gals. ; )

Let's discuss and debate... Like gentlmen! ; )

Also, if you want to write WHY you buy Amiibo, go ahead and leave a comment in Samus Aran's thread "What is the main reason you buy amiibo?" ; )  I saw he made a topic about Amiibo too, so I thought he should be mentioned here too. So stop by there if you haven't.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=202657&page=1 

Sorry for the long thread, and as always, thanks for reading!!! : )

Seems like Mario Party 10 is the only game that uses Amiibo in a bad way...

I like amiibo. I think that no matter what Nintendo does with them, people will complain. Don't give them substantial purpose, and people will claim they're useless. Give them substantial content, and people will complain that too much is taken away from the game.

I do however think that the one thing Nintendo is really doing wrong here is not offering the amiibo content for a cheaper price without the figure. Although, I don't care about most of the content that much, so personally I'm not bothered by it.

I have nothing against amiibos...unless Nintendo go overboard in blocking content behind them.

If one Amiibo was made to unlock content in one game, I'd say that was pretty crummy. But the fact that they work across so many games makes it okay in my eyes. I don't feel like they've done anything so far that makes it seem like you have to get the Amiibo for the full game. Just little features here and there.

how can you not have a kirby amiibo?

I remember when amiibo's first launched with very little content. All they were was basically just for Smash Bros fighters and MK8 customs and little else of note and I heard quite a few people saying that, oh amiibos are worthless because they don't offer any reason for me to get them and blah blah blah. Now they offer a notable amount of content and people are like "omg, its anti-consumer" because I have to buy the toys in order to get the content inside. Now don't get me wrong, that is a valid argument but it seems that Nintendo would lose both ways.

The positive side of getting more content for my amiibos is that it increases the value of the amiibo as time goes on. I bought my Samus amiibo mainly cause we rarely see Nintendo figurines and I wanted one but as Nintendo puts Samus into more and more things, the value of my $12 investment increases outside of the physical figurine part

On the other hand, people that only want the content are basically left without it. So Nintendo of course need to have a way to cater to both audiences which will hopefully be resolved with the amiibo cards

So overall, I like the amiibos because a) I am getting a physical item b) The value of an amiibo will increase overtime due to more and more games having support. I am not paying 1 amiibo for 1 game's content, I am paying for 1 amiibo for multiple games' contents

Of course if you want the content and not the amiibo, you will not like it but I like the physical part of the amiibo more so than the content it offers hence why I like my amiibo

It's both. As soon as the cards Rol mentioned come out, as long as they aren't over priced, this entire issue will evaporate.

While I do love collecting amiibo as little collectable toys, I doo feel that the content they provide is lackluster.

I think if Nintendo made more of those amiibo cards, like for Animal Crossing, it'd be a nice solution when it comes to unlocking content.

I think the amiibo implemtation in Yoshi Wolly World is pretty disguisting.  Blocking a AI partner behind a $13 paywall, and they even said having it helps to expand the gameplay so it does affect the gameplay.