If you’re like me then you absolutely love buying little trinkets. Figures, plushes, replicas, keychain danglers, dongle charms, apple juice bottles and shag rugs are all in the realm of possibility for junk junkies. Anyway, you’ve seen the picture and read the title so I’ll cut to the chase. I’m here to talk about Nintendo’s new endeavor, Amiibo. At first glance these appear to just be well made and quite detailed figurines but these aren’t just your average collector’s items. In the base of each Amiibo is a chip that communicates with your Wii U gamepad much like the NFC Pokémon figures for Pokémon Rumble U. What Nintendo has claimed however is that these figures will eventually be able to interact with several Nintendo titles such as Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8, Mario Party 10, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Yoshi’s Wooly World and more to come. 
They demoed how the Amiibos will work with Super Smash Bros on their live event. In the video the Mario figure was touched to the gamepad sensor and BAM, Mario appeared in the game. At first this doesn’t sound like much because well, Mario is already a playable character but what the stock Mario doesn’t have is the ability to upgrade stats and move sets like the Amiibo Mario does. That’s right, your Amiibo figures have the ability to level up so you can tweak your character to your liking. This will make for some interesting match-ups because in theory, there are endless possibilities for stats and moves for individual figures. Your Link Amiibo could be completely different than your friends. 
I think it’ll be very interesting to see where Nintendo goes with Amiibo, especially with future titles. Honestly, I am mostly excited to collect all the figures and just add them to my collection of knickknacks. They appear to be really well made and about 2.5″ give or take depending on the character which is a decent sized figurine. Nintendo has also stated that more figures will be made, not just the ones shown. I’d love a sweet Charizard Amiibo. It could be flying and using flamethrower against the base for support. How awesome would that be? A fanboy can dream.
What are your opinions on Amiibo? Excited? What characters would you like to see made? Think it’s a gimmick to wrangle in some more cash? Think it’ll add extra excitement to your games? Let me know in the comments!