Amiibos are out and it appears that Nintendo has what it wanted - an absurd demand for the figures that looks like it may pose a threat to Disney Infinity and Activision Skylanders.
I for one think its a good thing. It brings some sense of physicality back to an increasingly digital world. The world of video games. It gives players something to keep and cherish. Perhaps even use as heirlooms to pass on gaming memories. If you think it's crazy now, wait till they start releasing amiibo for all of the 700+ Pokemon.
While it is true that Nintendo vastly underestimated the demand for amiibo, (which is better than overestimating it, to be fair) there is something about the craze that I just don't get. I'm talking about the people who insist on buying them all. The fans who want to collect each and every figure, and are outraged to find a shortage of some and the fact that they have to put forth a little more effort to obtain some over others.
There is a rumor that Nintendo will stop producing less popular Amiibo (think Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager) after the initial shipment. While I don't think they will, even if they did, current amiibo technology only allows for 1 game to have read/write access per figure. This means that only one game at a time will offer the full amiibo experience. Any other games will only be given read access meaning you can unlock some basic stuff like items, money, costumes etc but nothing more. I have heard amiibo described as "physical dlc" but this only really applies to read only NFC scanning. Amiibo can be so much more than physical dlc when a game has full access.
Right now, the only game that can do this is Smash Bros 4. That means that of all the current figures out there, they can only be used for the complete Amiibo experience to train and level up a character specific fighting CPU. I don't care how big of a Nintendo fan you are, there is no reason to justify buying all of these figures just to use with this game. It is simply a waste. Most people are only decent with 2-4 characters, and some of those characters are probably from games that the person hasn't invested that much time into.
I feel like some people think of amiibo as dlc, in that if they don't buy all of it, they are being deprived of something amazing. When in reality, they are only missing out on a trainable CPU for characters they don't even play and some extra rupees or costumes in other games. It just doesn't make sense to get any more amiibos than (a) your absolute favorites and (b) characters you actually play in Smash Bros.
If you get an Olimar amiibo but you play as Captain Falcon in Smash, you better hope that you own Pikmin 3 and that Nintendo patches in amiibo functionality into it. Otherwise it is dead weight to you until Pikmin 4 comes out (which it may never). You're better off just buying a regular Olimar figure for much cheaper than the jacked up scalper prices you'll find online.
Which brings me to my next point: scarcity. Nintendo is obviously manufacturing less amiibo of lesser known (let's call them B and C-list Nintendo characters). Now whether or not they stop producing certain figures after the first few waves, does not mean that they will NEVER print these characters again. It is pretty obvious that Nintendo used Smash Bros to launch the amiibo platform, and for the most part all of these first few waves are primarily meant to be used in Smash.
But to think that Nintendo will never re-release these characters again as amiibo is extremly naive. If Nintendo releases a new Animal Crossing game in a year or two, you had better believe that they will release a slew of Animal Crossing amiibo to go along with it. Probably with even more capabilities than the current generation of amiibo. So even if Villager is really hard to find now, and may never be printed again, it doesn't mean that you won't be able to get newer, better, and more diverse figures later on.
And it's the same with every other game and series. Unless you can think of a character in Smash who will never have another game in its series made (Game and Watch, Duck Hunt Dog) then there is no reason to freak out and get upset when stock runs out and the figures aren't reprinted. (Which is just a rumor at this point. There is no reason to assume discontinuation as of now.) And again I'll note, even if it were true, those figures would only fully be compatible with Smash anyway.
Maybe the hardcore collectors are just a very loud but vocal minority, but when I see pages and pages of comments on sites about people complaining about how they can't buy all of the figures right now because of being sold out, or are getting their preorders cancelled because of lack of stock, or scalpers, I just get angry. Well, that's anough of this rant. Later gators.
