Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker’s amiibo functionality adds a small incentive to replay every level

Oh, and you can actually buy the figure too

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker launched its amiibo compatibility this week, and I’ve found a new reason to revisit the game. It’s as simple as adding in a “Hide-and-Seek” mode, enabled by tapping the newly minted Toad amiibo to the GamePad as you’re selecting each stage.

After a quick tap the minigame will start, tasking you to find a “Pixel Toad” while playing the level as normal. All you have to do is locate it and tap it on the GamePad to complete the extra mission. Hide-and-Seek will work with all three core episodes, but it is not compatible with the bonus stages. After finding the Pixel Toad, you’ll earn a new stamp in your notebook for that page. 

Like the checkbox that appears after grabbing every crystal and completing the extra objective, it’s easy to become addicted to filling out every entry. It sounds like an overly simplistic little thing, but it emboldened me to replay every map again and find that damn Pixel Toad. It’s a nice way to get people to return, and it doesn’t hurt that the core game is already great to begin with. Get a quick look at the functionality in the video above, and note that other amiibo function as power-ups of sorts, earning you extra lives with a tap.

Of course, the best part about this particular amiibo mechanic is that Toad, the physical toy, isn’t impossible to find. While retailers knew ahead of time that select exclusives wouldn’t be replenished for weeks, if not months (I’m looking at you Target), Toad is readily available at every location I’ve visited. Heck, even his scalped price online is roughly $18, a far cry from the $60 or more asking price of the Trinity and other select rares to this day.

I’m also a fan of the way Shulk was handled in Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, since you can replicate the amiibo bits by way of Play Coins and StreetPass. If Nintendo is going to add amiibo support in future games, it needs to either plan ahead of time if the figures are going to be retailer exclusives (Meta Knight’s unique features in Rainbow Curse being lost to most of the market is still a tragedy), or allow unlocks through other means (no one is missing out not having Shulk for Xenoblade).