by Doc – Owner, Founder, Sure Wishes He Could Get Paid For Having Opinions on Amiibo
Well, those Smash 6 leaks weren’t real, thank goodness.
Nintendo has always seemed to have a love-hate relationship with amiibo. That is, their developers hate amiibo but corporate seems to love ’em. Outside of Sakurai titles, almost no developers have any real interactivity with the functions that amiibo are capable of. It’s always a “scan it and get a character or item” excuse to sell an expensive figure.
Still, that’s a relationship I’m alright with. If corporate has to keep harping on developers to wedge some kind of amiibo content in so they can put out absolutely rad plastic like this, I can live with it. Check it:
Are you seeing this? This is from the September 2026 Nintendo Direct that just aired. I’ve sworn off buying amiibo in the Switch 2 era, due in no small part that I can’t and don’t want to pay fifty smackers for one of these. Hell, I’m not even a Kirby fan. But if you can’t see that these are the most detailed, vibrant and colorful figures that Nintendo’s ever put out then you need better glasses. Look at that! Even the packaging is fantastic compared to how amiibo have always been shipped.
Don’t get me wrong here, the Smash Bros series had some good packaging runs and amiibo have always been (well, mostly been) high-quality plastic for their entire run. But man, if I were in a position to be buying amiibo again I’d be hard tempted to break my decision and get some.
But what can you do with amiibo outside of Sakurai titles? Even Sakurai does the same thing with amiibo each time. Scan it, train it within some very tight guardrails, and if you’re in Smash Ultimate, go online with it to beat up other people. (At the time of this writing Smash 4 has no online amiibo functionality, and neither does Kirby Air Riders. We can’t even figure out how to clone KAR amiibo figures for use in competitive KAR amiibo training!) I appreciate that Papa Sakurai is doing what he can with what is still a very innovative use of hardware, it’s just that, well… he’s the only one. Outside of Sakurai amiibo has no use besides being a physical paywall for DLC.
I don’t know what Nintendo plans to do with amiibo going forward. I imagine it’ll look a lot like what they’ve been doing with it since the beginning of the Switch era. But it’d be nice if we had just a bit more function for the thing we’re paying $50 for.
Amiibo Doctor 