jawafour wrote:Nintendo Life
has written up a great article on amiibo... it pretty much ties in with how I feel about them at the moment.
I still think there is so much exciting potential in them but, for me, in terms of functionality they've never got near the fun of using a Skylanders figure. Add in the fact that you often cannot easily buy them anyway and you can see why sales have dropped so far from their peak. Nintendo really has to act quickly if they want to keep the brand in a good light.
I read that article and definitely agree with some of the points they're making, they're mostly just physical DLC now which feels like a step backwards from the 'training your Amiibo' functionality of the original Smash Bros ones. I do like how they can be used across multiple games though, I can train a character in Smash, get item drops in Breath of the Wild and costumes in Mario Kart all with a single Amiibo.
I would absolutely love for Nintendo to make a Switch game completely based around Amiibo, something similar to Disney Infinity where the Amiibo can play across different Nintendo worlds. Gameplay would only need to be simple but it could be brilliant.
I have to admit though that despite this, I'm thoroughly hooked on buying them, mostly just for the figurine. Have ended up with all the Zelda, Animal Crossing and Smash Bros sets, majority of the Splatoon ones and a couple of Kirby/Mario series ones too.
The poor stock control doesn't make it easy though, I've got most at retail or less (only paid over the odds for the Ocarina Link Amiibo) but I've had to be really on the ball with pre-ordering and I think most people buying them now are in a position whether they either feel like they must pre-order them as otherwise they either miss out completely or end up paying scalper prices on places like eBay. It's seeing a rise in people using nfc apps, or people selling self-made Amiibo cards on Etsy which can't be good for Nintendo's own business and it devalues the Amiibo brand even further.