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Stop Shoving Amiibos into Every Wii U Game

Stop Shoving Amiibos into Every Wii U Game

Nintendo is going overboard with this Amiibo thing, and they need to be stopped. Somebody has to take the people in charge aside and explain that every, major Wii U game doesn’t have to have Amiibo compatibility shoehorned into it. You know, the fact that I feel I have to say this, before Amiibos are even out, proves something is seriously wrong.

I mean, it started out okay. Amiibos will be used in Super Smash Bros! That made sense. Because in this installment, characters can be improved and customized. Sure, bring those NFC figures on in. Mario Kart 8 and Mario Party 10 were a stretch, because the former already works perfectly fine without Amiibos and doesn’t offer customization really, while the latter is a board game that most people will play around 10 times before they realize the Mario Party glory days died with the GameCube.

Then, Nintendo went full cloud cuckoolander. Yoshi’s Woolly World has Amiibo compatibility? Why? Will it keep track of yarn records? Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is essentially Nintendo’s Echochrome . NFC doesn’t need to be there. We aren’t going to go to friends’ houses with our figure to show off how much treasure we’ve collected. Most recently, it was revealed that Hyrule Warriors will work with the Link Amiibo. I guess because Nintendo figures we’ll want to save our customized Link, with the weapons we acquired for him in-game and such, and play as him at the house of someone else who also has Hyrule Warriors and a Wii U?

Let someone who has played numerous Disney Infinity and Skylanders games tell you a NFC figure secret. Swapping figures gets old. Sure, when you first get a game, it’s so much fun to see what every single character looks like. Switch them in and out 20 times in 20 minutes! We’ll use them all today. It’s a party!

Stop Shoving Amiibos into Every Wii U Game

Then, you start playing for real and find you rely on a handful of figures. Even then, exchanging them can be a chore. So what if you can’t unlock that Life area right now? “I’m doing really well with the Tech Skylander, Chopper, and needed to level him up anyway. I’ll come back later.” Ask anyone who has every played an NFC game before, and I guarantee they’ll agree. It’s fun to collect the toys, and sure you’ll use a bunch of them, but in the end, a set rotation will be formed. Between 2 and 8 characters will see a lot more use than anyone else.

It’s like Nintendo thinks their Amiibos will be something so special and revolutionary, that they’ll have to be in every game and used all the time. The truth is, that approach is going to make them unwelcome. We don’t want to always be bringing them in and out when playing a game. The fear that something will be missed because we don’t have an Amiibo is unpleasant. Especially since it won’t be as though we’re leaving an Amiibo on a peripheral in front of us. We’d have to be constantly tapping them to the GamePad to check them in during play. Less is more, Nintendo. Less is more. Especially since they’re already destined for a life on a desk .

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