If anyone here at NintendoFever is qualified to talk about amiibo, it’s…all of us, but my urge to collect and complete said collections means that I’ve got a nice surprise from Nintendo this year at E3.
We didn’t get a lot of unexpected news on the amiibo front – we were told previously that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will support amiibo, and this week we were given a look at the prototypes for the three figures coming with the game. We’ve got two Link statues, one as an archer with his fancy new bow, and one as a rider mounted on a horse that’s definitely not Epona and I’m not sure how to feel about that.
Then we have the Guardian, the large robotic monsters that Link first fought in the opening trailer a few years ago. This is the first amiibo figure to be articulated, as the legs will be movable. (They weren’t at E3 because the prototypes are more fragile than Link in the cold wearing the Kokiri Tunic.)
These three are super finely detailed – arguably the most to date.
Following along with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD amiibo that was released with the game, we got a look at the evolution of amiibo figures from conception until completion using the Wolf Link figure as an example. Nintendo stated that they usually start with in-game models (which is why the very first figure they put on the stand looks polygonal and misshapen) and then polish them up from there until we get the masterpieces that we buy on the shelves.
(image credit to @AmiiboNews)
That’s great and all, but why use Wolf Link and not one of the new Breath of the Wild amiibo? Because we learned as well during the many hours of gameplay we got from the show floor that scanning the Wolf Link figurine after you’ve completed the special amiibo dungeon in Twilight Princess HD onto Breath of the Wild will allow you to spawn a Wolf Link partner in the game, coming with the amount of hearts that you had when you saved the amiibo data!
This is the only “partner” you get in this game and you can only scan him once a day, but he will sniff out enemies and food, sneak attack baddies and run alongside you as you travel the vast reaches of Hyrule. It’s just a bit strange to think about when you remember that he’s still Link, so you’ve got two Links from two different times interacting with each other…what is this, Super Smash Brothers?
What did surprise me is that Nintendo remembered that last year they released Mario Party 10 and a new Super Mario line to go with it. There were only six figures in the line, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Bowser and Toad. Yet the game let you play as a bunch of other characters as well that never got figurines. This became annoying when you’d play the Amiibo Party mode (which is the closest thing we’ve gotten in years to traditional Mario Party) and some characters were just wooden cutouts on stands as if this were some 80’s board game, hopping next to my living, breathing Yoshi character.
How did they remember this, you ask? By FINALLY giving us a second wave! Of course, they only did this so they could also (stealthily) announce a new 3DS title, Mario Party Star Rush, but I digress.
The game launches on November 4th of this year, with the amiibo alongside it. That means we only have less than five months to wait before we get our hands on the greatest amiibo of all time:
…waa!
Oh, and Boo glows in the dark, which I guess is cool but it doesn’t matter because no matter what you do, you’re still not Waluigi.
