Live Magazine September 2014 Volume 9/2014 | Page 76

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NINTENDO AMIIBO

WHAT WILL NINTENDO’S FORAY INTO THE “TOYS TO LIFE” FRONTIER DO FOR THE WII U?

If you’ve been going to retail game
stores in the last few years it is likely you’ve seen shelves lined with
figurines for both Activision’s Skylanders series and the Disney Infinity games. These figurines are part
of a recent development in gaming
known as “Toys to Life”, where people purchase figurines of the characters they want, and place them
on a device to make that character
appear in the game via NFC (Near
Field Communication). Although the
concept has proven success and
both the Skylanders and Disney Infinity games have been a hit, none
of the big three console giants have
attempted to have their own slice in
this market. Until now.
This year at E3, Nintendo announced
that they are joining the Toys to Life
fray with their new range of figurines
known as Amiibo. Confirmed for sev-

counterparts, Amiibo will function differently for each game. Some information that will please gamers worried about the welfare of their wallets
is that Amiibos are not used to unlock characters in games, meaning
you won’t have to shell out a fortune
to play as the entire roster of one of
the compatible games.
So far the only game that we have
confirmation on the role of Amiibos
is Super Smash Bros for Wii U, and
their role is quite unusual in deed.
When an Amiibo is placed on the
Wii U gamepad, the character represented by that figure will be summoned into the game. This character
will be able to fight for you, against
you, or against other Amiibos. The
interesting feature that makes the
Amiibo character different from a
CPU is that it will adapt and evolve
over time; fight it with the same

their game.
So what about the other games
Amiibo is compatible with? What
role could they possibly play? Senior Product Marketing Manager of
Nintendo of America Bill Trinen confirmed at E3 that Mario Kart 8, Mario
Party 10, Captain Toad’s Treasure
Tracker, and Yoshi’s Woolly World
would all be compatible, and the
vastly different nature of these
games makes speculation on their
role all the more intriguing. Mario
Kart 8 stands out for being an Amiibo-compatible game despite the
fact that the game will be almost six
months old by the time Amiibo is released on shelves. Given the competitive nature of the game, could
Amiibo figures play a similar role
to their role in Smash Bros; characters who adapt and learn strategies? This could open up all sorts of

“..THE CHARACTER REPRESENTED BY THAT FIGURE WILL BE SUMMONED
INTO THE GAME..”
eral Wii U games (and later 3DS via
an NFC adapter), these figures won’t
require a portal device for the Wii U;
instead they’ll simply be placed on
the gamepad to be used. Like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, Amiibo
will feature a range of characters,
this time from Nintendo’s famous
library of all-stars, but unlike its

approach often and it will learn to
combat your fighting style. Amiibo
characters can level up and become
more powerful, and you can customise your Amiibo fighter to change his
special moves and modify its stats.
The data is stored within the figurine,
so you can even take your Amiibo to
a friend’s and summon it to battle on

new challenges when racing, such
as challenging smarter CPUs who
regularly take short cuts or block
incoming attacks with a well-fired
Green Shell. Maybe Amiibos could
also have the ability to store your
time trial ghosts, so you can bring
them over to a friend’s so they
may challenge your best lap times.