If you thought Nintendo’s amiibo couldn’t get any cooler, you were so wrong. During a company briefing it was revealed that the little plastic figures for Wii U will soon be able to unlock playable highlights from a library of NES and SNES games.
To play classic moments including characters from Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and more Wii U players / collectors of amiibo figures will be required to download a free app which is expected to become available in the first half of the year.
Once installed the amiibo can be tapped down onto the Wii U GamePad to activate the NFC connectivity and access a selection of time-trialled replays of the retro games. Scenes can be flipped through and loaded up quickly and Nintendo hopes this gives the same nostalgic feels as popping in a cartridge back in the day. What’s old is new again and this adds one more cool function to amiibo and another good reason to fork out £10 a figure.
In other amiibo related news, a Gold edition Super Mario figure is confirmed to be a Walmart exclusive after a promotion was leaked online showing the shiny plumber pictured along with a range of Mario Party 10 figures expected for launch on March the 10th. It was previously reported that both a Gold and Silver Mario will hit shelves but as of yet the Silver edition hasn’t been spotted with no reports of its availability.
It seems Nintendo was a bit overwhelmed by the popularity of amiibo and the rarer figures have been popping up on ebay for ridiculous fees and we have to wonder how much these metallic variants will turn up for. Nintendo has said it will not be making any more of certain sold out figures but will be releasing NFC responsive cards that unlock the same features as the regular amiibo but without the satisfaction of owning all the toys.