Topic: I don't get Ambiio.

[shingi_70]

So I get the basic gist of toys for life and Ambiio, but I don't understand its use in Smash Bros for Wii U. As far as I can tell its just a CPU controlled dude that levels up depending on how much you use them. I get the appeal of Skylanders and Disney Infinty figures but i don't understand beyond the appeal of wanting a figure the use for these guys.


could someone more Enlightened explain it too me?

[nickmitch]

They can be leveled up higher than level 9 CPUs, and customized with special moves and parts.

They also look really sweet on your shelf.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I have a weird feeling Amiibo is going to be like Mii's, they will show up in all the wrong places.

[pokepal148]

It's a ripoff.

[Shaymin]

It's a vacuum tube designed to fit into wallets and suck money out.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Nintendo knows that smash 4 might be the last game I ever buy for myself so they are giving me reasons to spend almost $800 on one game.




The real reason. POKE'MON! Just think about that. Amiibo + Poke'mon. It's scary!

[Adrock]

My understanding of Amiibo in Super Smash Bros. is that it's a CPU that learns how you play. As it levels up, it picks up on your strategies and adjusts accordingly so in theory, it should always be a challenge to fight against. That probably could have been written into the game, but you know, monies and whatnot.

[Triforce Hermit]

I don't get it either. But I'm going to buy some anyways because they are some nice looking figures.

[Mop it up]

It's just a desperate cash grab, don''t pay it much thought.

[Enner]

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/amiibo/list/index.html

According to @Cheesemeister3k on Twitter, amiibo can only support one read/write game at a time. If another read/write game besides Smash 4 comes out, you will have to delete the Smash 4 data on the amiibo to use it with the new game. amiibo have no limits with read-only games.

I never thought about the data capacity of Skylanders or Disney Infinity figurines before. Or about the storage available on NFC cards for public transit or payment. Nintendo has seemed to found a limit with stand-alone NFC data chips.

It's disheartening because this more likely means that amiibo will just be keys to locked in-game trinkets.

[Shorty McNostril]

I really hope there are ways to unlock the same stuff without buying these toys.  All I want is a software key (that should presumably be cheaper because it doesn't come with a figure) or just a straight DLC transaction to unlock the same content.

[BranDonk Kong]

Amiibo = stupid.

[Adrock]

None of the Amiibo content announced so far has been especially compelling which is fine by me. I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Until I do, I couldn't care less about Amiibo. They offer minor enhancements that I can live without. I've considered buying one more for decoration than anything. I probably could have talked myself into it for $10.

[King of Twitch]

Every time you buy an Amiibo, a Nintendo shareholder gets his wings.

[Luigi Dude]

It goes like this.  Nintendo knows the most hardcore fans will probably spend hundreds of dollars just to buy every one of these.  The Wii U right now is only appealing to the most hardcore Nintendo fans.  So you give the hardcore something extra they can spend money on so even if Wii U hardware sales are still bad, Nintendo can still find a way to make a profit with a lower userbase.

[Spak-Spang]

The problem with the amiibo usage in Smash Bros, is that it is not really doing anything too special. 

You are taking a character that you will basically be its coach.  You will battle with it, train it.  And then you will use it to fight against or fight with your friends.  All of this could have been done without an amiibo and uploaded for battles in the cloud or on Miiverse or something. 

The amiibos do have the nice gimmick of carrying them around, and them being "models" or "toys" like in the real game, that come to life.  But beyond that it isn't that special.

This is why I really hate this model of gaming business, because just like DLC you are hiding content of the basic game behind a pay wall.

[ObbyDent]

LOL Amiibos is nothing like on-disc DLC. I hate amiibos just as much as the next guy but they aren't nearly as bad as you say they are.

[NWR_insanolord]

The great thing about these is no matter how Nintendo uses them, people will complain endlessly. If they do minor things that aren't really that important people bitch about them being pointless, but if they put real effort into designing gameplay around them people whine about being "forced" to buy them. Classic Nintendo no-win scenario.

[Shaymin]

The only winning move for Nintendo would be to not release them at all, in other words?

[NWR_insanolord]

No, because then people would complain that Nintendo wasn't doing anything with the NFC functionality in the system.

[Ian Sane]

No, because then people would complain that Nintendo wasn't doing anything with the NFC functionality in the system.

Yeah but then they just shouldn't have had the functionality in the first place.  Obviously the second they saw Skylanders take off they immediately thought of a way to do their own version of it so they built the functionality into the hardware itself.  If they never put the functionality in the whole thing would be a complete non-issue.

[Spak-Spang]

I didn't say on disc DLC.  I said just DLC...and some of the amiibo stuff is exactly like DLC.  New costumes in some games?  Really.

The only way to make this work, is to treat amiibo characters as characters, and any game that can use amiibos will let you use that character in the game.  I don't care if the characters don't fit.  You have all the animations you might need for almost any kind of game in Smash Bros.  And great character models.  Just put them in other games...period. 

Also, you have limited storage space on these things.  No big deal.  Make an amiibo channel that cloud saves data for you.  Let the channel auto backup amiibo data and then let the channel handle the daily shuffling of memory on the amiibos.  This will make it appear like the amiibos have unlimited memory. 

[ejamer]

So, yeah. Villager is now really tough to get and totally gone locally. Actually would have bought one, but there aren't any available (not unusual for Nintendo stuff) so now I really won't get Amiibo.  Oh well. Maybe when the Shulk figure comes out.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

This reminds me of when Hasbro released those useless non-transforming Transformers line Heroes of Cybertron everyone bitched how useless they were yet they sold out everywhere.

[Evan_B]

The appeal for Amiibo, to me, at least, is that I can utilize them across a number of games I already own, which cuts the price of my Link Amiibo down to roughly "three dollars or DLC per game" with that number most likely shrinking as Zelda, Splatoon, and other titles being released down the line.

I like action figures. I own all the Nintendo Figma and I love them very much. They're nice display pieces for fans and they have in-game functionality. I was on the fence about picking up Mario, but damn, that pose is just too cool to pass up.

That being said, there's no way this is a "collect them all" type of thing for me, and anyone who does feel that way is pretty strange, in my opinion. Judging by what is being released for Smash Bros. you can get a pretty good idea of what sort of games will get Amiibo support in the future, and that's okay with me.

Amiibos also can only have the data from one game written to them, but they can be read by many games, which is what happens in the case of Mario Kart and Hyrule Warriors. So these things do have multiple uses.