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Blastfrog

Amiibos suck.

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What is the deal with these things? Why do people want them so badly? They're DRM in the form of overpriced, cheaply produced plastic crap. Nintendo knows that people want these things badly, so they under-produce to increase demand. It's bad business and I don't know why it's tolerated, let alone so enthusiastically embraced. Can't people see through?

Am I the only one who feels this way?

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Never heard of these until now. Nintendo fans are pretty hardcore when it comes to buying everything Nintendo related so I'm not surprised to see yet another Mario-themed hunk of plastic sell like hotcakes. I guess it's worth it if you're into that sorta thing. Can't say I'm any different when it comes to Doom merchandise. I buy just about everything there is. Nothing like decorating the living room with Doom floppy disk pillows.

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RUSH said:



Holy shit, I want those.

But I kind of agree with you. If you're really into something, you're gonna buy it like the so-called hotcake, regardless of an outside community's opinion. I don't the amiibos are much to see, either, but I would totally buy some Doom pillows. Currently I'm buying the Bethesda conference pins, as one is a Doom pin, and I'm looking to see if I can get that vinyl pack too, namely for the Cyberdemon (Though the Dishonored figure is cool too).

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Glaice said:

Amiibos come off as glorified action figures to me.

They're not posable, though.

It's a plastic version of on-disk DLC. Holding one up to the controller will "unlock" additional content in the game. That means they want you to spend a fortune on these rare, yet poor quality figurines to get access to more content on a game you already paid for. It's sickening that people are so easily fooled.

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Uhhh.
So do they actually like dance or react to the game in some way or do you just plug them in and that's it lol?

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Sodaholic said:

They're not posable, though.

It's a plastic version of on-disk DLC. Holding one up to the controller will "unlock" additional content in the game. That means they want you to spend a fortune on these rare, yet poor quality figurines to get access to more content on a game you already paid for. It's sickening that people are so easily fooled.



Awwww, but it'll be such a nice desk decoration when they're done unlocking digital things!

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Memfis said:

So do they actually like dance or react to the game in some way or do you just plug them in and that's it lol?

Like I said, no moving parts. They're literally just RFID devices, some have memory in them to save data to. Amiibos do nothing that couldn't be better handled by more traditional means.

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It just sounds like normal buisiness to me, nothing weird or sandalous about it. Its a cool concept to serve the fans while making money out of it. Even the 90's where filled with toys made out of parts and additional figures even though thats partially before my time.

Lol, these collectable childrens toys make me nostalgic to when i was ten with all that beyblade, pokemon, digimon, yu gi oh stuff.

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FireFish said:

Even the 90's where filled with toys made out of parts and additional figures even though thats partially before my time.

And the 80s. Voltron anyone?

Personally, I had no idea that Amiibos were anything more than rare collector's figures. Shows how out of touch I am with the modern console scene, I suppose.

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You know, I'd be fine with them if they had better support and actually did more interesting things but there's so many (specifically Nintendo) figures that only work with one game or only work with the games they're coupled with that they're basically useless.

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The fact that there are multiple figurines of the same character rquired for different games (example, different Mario needed for Mario Party and Smash Bros) is sorta dodgy. At first I thought it was a neat idea, but... They don't even add anything worth a shit to any of your games.

They're overpriced, but that's Nintendo's modern way. Street Fighter 2 on teir virtual shop costs 2x as much as the (better arcade port) we get on X360....

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Kids love them. That's all that matters. The twist with Amiibos that doesn't apply to those Spyro figures is that full grown men collect Amiibos. Grown ass men that would skoff at the Skylanders and those Disney Infinity toys are buying Amiibos.

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geo said:

Grown ass men [...] are buying Amiibos.

That is precisely what I am protesting. I don't think it's a very good idea for parents to buy them, either. It's a frivolous purchase to engage in an obvious scam. Not a good example for kids. I think the average consumer is not as skeptical as they should be.

People hate the EA style of DLC. So when Nintendo finds a way to make it worse in every way possible, people gobble it up? Why? It's far more expensive and far less convenient. Furthermore, limited availability means you have little guarantee of actually accessing that content (that is on-disk, AFAIK).

Nintendo has its head up its ass. They launched the Wii U without considering that most consumer TVs default to a false "overscan" mode, usually about 95.555% of the total area. The Wii was their original fuckup; not being competitive as MS and Sony surpassed them by the end of the 7th gen, abandoning the gamer crowd in favor of the casual crowd, then losing the casual crowd to mobile.

I hope they get with it and wake up to the 21st century. They've got too much potential for it to go to waste on rushed projects made without a hint of foresight. They need new leadership and a new focus.

EDIT: I should note that the first paragraph is partially tongue-in-cheek. Please don't take it seriously.

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I read this thread topic as AMIBIOS sucks, and expected it to be a topic about how shitty american megatrends bios has become in the last 15 years on most motherboards. I'm such a nerd.

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I'm confused. I thought Amiibos were little AIs stored in figurines that you could plug into your game and have them play that character against you while they learn and get better and eventually beat you. Don't you still have access to play those characters in the game, even without the companion Amiibo?

I just don't understand what content you're missing out on by not buying these. They seem like glorified collector's items to me, with the edge that they can become smart opponents when you don't already have friends to play against. So don't buy em, have a nice day.

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Sodaholic said:

Nintendo has its head up its ass. They launched the Wii U without considering that most consumer TVs default to a false "overscan" mode, usually about 95.555% of the total area.

OK, but what's the aspect ratio??

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I thought for a moment I'd have to launch a spirited defense of the Amiga Kickstart ROM.

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Sodaholic said:

That is precisely what I am protesting. I don't think it's a very good idea for parents to buy them, either. It's a frivolous purchase to engage in an obvious scam. Not a good example for kids. I think the average consumer is not as skeptical as they should be.

People hate the EA style of DLC. So when Nintendo finds a way to make it worse in every way possible, people gobble it up? Why? It's far more expensive and far less convenient. Furthermore, limited availability means you have little guarantee of actually accessing that content (that is on-disk, AFAIK).

Nintendo has its head up its ass. They launched the Wii U without considering that most consumer TVs default to a false "overscan" mode, usually about 95.555% of the total area. The Wii was their original fuckup; not being competitive as MS and Sony surpassed them by the end of the 7th gen, abandoning the gamer crowd in favor of the casual crowd, then losing the casual crowd to mobile.

I hope they get with it and wake up to the 21st century. They've got too much potential for it to go to waste on rushed projects made without a hint of foresight. They need new leadership and a new focus.

EDIT: I should note that the first paragraph is partially tongue-in-cheek. Please don't take it seriously.


People hated Evolve for its DLC bullshit. Yet they can't get enough of Mortal Kombat X DLC and pre orders! DLC so bullshit it sounds like a joke. Brazilian Skins!!!



But Brazilian skin packs aren't for us... we're not in Brazil. Yet its still available world wide!

Wiis and Wii U's aren't for us. They're not meant for us in the same way happy meals and cartoons are for us. We're adults.

Wii still needs a plushy happy version of Doom with bubble guns that make sad enemies to go to happy enemies that dance when they're "bubblefied."

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Doomkid said:

The fact that there are multiple figurines of the same character rquired for different games (example, different Mario needed for Mario Party and Smash Bros) is sorta dodgy.

Actually, I think the Amiibos of the same character but from different games are actually functional for all the games that character supports; they're just different figures, i.e. the generic Bowser design vs. his design in Smash 4.

Sodaholic said:

People hate the EA style of DLC. So when Nintendo finds a way to make it worse in every way possible, people gobble it up? Why? It's far more expensive and far less convenient. Furthermore, limited availability means you have little guarantee of actually accessing that content (that is on-disk, AFAIK).

Probably because the group that has a massive, unstoppable hate boner for DLC does not overlap significantly the people who want Amiibos. Shockingly, different people have different interests. That is besides the point that they're very collectible; I have a friend who doesn't have any games that support the Smash characters, yet still tries to get them when she has the chance.

I suppose one of the bigger differences is, though, is that EA DLC is usually stuff that appeals to most people, while Amiibo DLC is pretty niche. I don't think most Smash players really care too much about not being able to play Pokemon with their favorite character, nor do most Mario Kart players really think it's too much of a bummer to not have all the costumes to their miis. They actually took content that's pretty optional for most players and, well, made it optional, rather than shoving the stuff most of the playerbase cares about behind a pay wall.

A lot of it comes down to execution, I think. EA gives you a download you have to pay for to unlock content. Fair enough, although their methods of deciding what this content is pretty dodgy for a lot of people. Amiibos, meanwhile, give you a special figure of a character you presumably like that you actively use to interact with, and then - in the games that are more designed for Amiibos, anyway - gives in-game content that actually makes you grow attached to the figurine, such as the Amiibo training in Smash and the bonus mode inventory in Mario Party. They might both ultimately just end up unlocking new content for you, but Amiibos actually give you something to care about; not to mention, if I'm not incorrect above then a purchase not only unlocks content from that Amiibo in the current releases, but also future releases that support the Amiibo as well.

That last part might not matter too much as it isn't assured we'll get much more good Amiibo stuff, but at the same time the E-Reader kind of did something similar back in the GBA era and stuck with it decently well even though it was kind of obvious it wasn't too popular, until they just realized that most people weren't bothering. Which is a different story from this; lots of people want Amiibos, and there's no real reason for them to not keep coming out with game content for them.

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geo said:

Wiis and Wii U's aren't for us. They're not meant for us in the same way happy meals and cartoons are for us. We're adults.

Speak for yourself...

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People have always spent money on crap they don't really need. This is not a recent phenomenon, and we're all guilty of it.

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Gadgets and toy based games or controls have been normal for so many years (my entire life) that it makes it hard for me to wrap my head around some comments being made in this thread. And Nintendo is a Japanese company, which makes it even less surprising or weird for them to promote extra collectible models or toys which on their own could activate extra content in games... yet again dead normal.

The DLC issue ;
Those complaining about this so called "modern" thing named DLC need a severe reality check... Expansions and additional content used to be sold on CD in retail stores during the 90's and early 2000's and the end user had the choice to buy them or not to buy them and you still have this choice with DLC the downloadable additional content. It is not some magical pixie dust concept of extreme modern proportions, its exactly the same as the ADD-ON CD you bought many years ago for lets say Quake but the download part allows companies to make them bite sized / per small add-on. So instead of paying 30$ for a CD containing 10 maps and two guns it allows the user (in a lot of cases) to get the gun for 1 or 2$. So no... DLC are not some kind of modern evil.

Can't people see through?


That little extra made me think of people wearing tin-foil hats... They write the same way ; "am i the only one smart enough to detect the evil mind beams ? "

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