Nintendo's starting to make games just as an excuse to churn out more amiibos.

Aren't they just skins, a la the amiibo functionality in Wooly World? They didn't seem to actually do anything special in the trailer...

Yeah, it's just costumes. It's weird that even Luigi is locked but I can't say that I'm awfully bothered by it.

I knew something like this would happen.

Thought so. In that case, I don't see this being any more objectionable than the rest of the Amiibo content, including the several released and upcoming games where costumes are locked behind amiibos. The stuff going on in the boardgames is far worse, in my opinion.

Well I suppose not getting Luigi, Peach and Toad would be a valid complaint, at least if they play differently like they do in other Mario games.

That's um... yeah...

"We are not going to make any more Wii U games, so we released Mario Maker so you can do it yourself" - Nintendo #NintendoE3

— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) June 16, 2015

That's too bad, but there are still more than plenty of features you can have without them.

From what I heard on the IGN preview, people without amiibos can use the costumes, but apparently there is more freedom with the amiibos.