Nintendo has been relatively quiet about their Amiibo plans since E3 back in June other than to reiterate that the Toys to Life figures would be available this holiday season and be compatible with Super Smash Bros. on Wii U. That silence finally broke this morning with the Nintendo Amiibo launch figures list, colorful character-themed packaging for all 12 launch figures, retail pricing and active pre-orders that you can place right now.
The 12 Nintendo Amiibo figures that will be available on the yet-to-be-announced launch date are Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Marth, Link, Samus, Fox, Kirby, and Pikachu. That leaves Kid Icarus and Zelda as the only two revealed Amiibo figures that will not be a part of Amiibo Wave 1.
Note that all of the Nintendo Amiibo figures from the first wave include Super Smash Bros. branding on their packaging. This would seem to indicate that future Amiibo figures could be aligned to specific games, and the confirmed future Wii U games that will support Amiibo are Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Mario Party 10 and Yoshi’s Woolly World. Of those, Mario Kart 8 is already available and 2015 DLC packs that add Link and Village as playable drivers seems to naturally correspond with the introduction of Amiibo support.
I’ve put together a table that features the names, packaging and prices for each of the Amiibo launch figures. It will set you back $155.88 to pre-order them all at Amazon.com sans sales tax, and you can do so by clicking on any of the character names.
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Nintendo has promised that the Amiibo release date and more details about the Toys to Life figures will be “revealed shortly.” I would anticipate the Amiibo launch date to coincide with the Super Smash Bros. release date as the two go hand-in-hand, and I would expect both to be available to purchase prior to Christmas if Nintendo wants to maximize their holiday sales and go head-to-head with Disney Infinity 2.0 and Skylanders Trap Team.
Right now all that is known about the Nintendo Amiibo figures is in Super Smash Bros., using the NFC functionality of the Wii U GamePad will create the equivalent of a sparring partner in the game. The more this character is used as a fighting companion, opponent, or simply to watch fight other CPU characters, the more his or her stats will build up and be stored on the physical toy. You cannot fight directly as the figure character, unless that’s a detail that Nintendo is intentionally holding back for the time being.
Nintendo Amiibo will be compatible with select 3DS games sometime in 2015 using a separate peripheral device.
Look for the Amiibo release date and more details about the Nintendo Amiibo launch figures in the near future.
