Are you okay with amiibo unlocking a significant portion of a game?

Only if it’s readily available

As amiibo have become more and more prevalent in the gaming world, controversy quickly followed. In the past, Nintendo has handled the entire process very poorly, ensuring that many of the rare figures were retailer exclusive in the US, and it generally did a bad job of communicating any and all issues to fans.

Time passed however, and the amiibo situation got better. Now, while it’s due in part to Nintendo’s increased manufacturing efforts, I truly think a lot of it is because the demand died down. Nearly all of my friends who were hunting with me stopped after the Wave 4 debacle, and the low demand for Animal Crossing toys, which have taken up most of the recent waves, likely isn’t helping things.

But I digress. The amiibo situation has changed, but the approach to content hasn’t. In addition to costumes and other menial enhancements, figures have unlocked things as significant as new characters, and even new modes. It’s not confirmed at this point, but Twilight Princess HD may even have an entire dungeon gated behind an amiibo.

This has split the community, to say the least, as people are angry that DLC is being gated behind physical toys. Personally, I had a major problem with this in the past when the figures were so hard to find at every turn, but I could walk into any store last Friday and pick up a Shovel Knight amiibo, no problem. The same cannot be said, however, about Twilight Princess HD, as the bundle is sold out everywhere online in the US.

Accepting amiibo as a viable means to deliver DLC is inherently a gamble. I’m basically putting my fate into the hands of Nintendo, who has screwed up many times in the past. For instance, Code Name: STEAM launched on 3DS, and every single one of the Fire Emblem amiibo were nearly impossible to find at retail — hell, Lucina and Robin are still fairly rare in some regions.

But at the same time, I get it. Nintendo is pushing a new product, and it’s a significantly popular product, so it wants people to buy it. As long as ample stock is provided, I don’t mind going out to the store (or spending a few seconds pressing a checkout option online) to pick up a $13 bit of DLC. I know I’m biased as a game collector in that I don’t care about physical objects taking up space, but ultimately, I don’t think it’s something to riot over in a post Wave 4 world.