Indie games will be getting amiibo love with Nintendo’s announcement earlier this evening during a pre-Pax Prime event that a Shovel Knight amiibo is coming later this year. If an earlier retail leak is on the money then Shovel Knight will drop into stores in late November.
Yacht Club Games worked closely with Nintendo to ensure the Shovel Knight amiibo has some special purposes. Wii U owners of the Shovel Knight game will be able to unlock cooperative mode by scanning in their Shovel Knight amiibo.
Additionally, the Wii U and 3DS versions of the game allows the amiibo to level up and customize Shovel Knight with new visual enhancements, relics and abilities. All these new goodies will then be usable in new amiibo-exclusive levels.
To ensure the Shovel Knight amiibo has some legs as other more recognizable amiibo characters are released in the coming months and years, Yacht Club Games has designed Shovel Knight so that he will be compatible with all future games in the series.
Another Wii U exclusive indie title, Hive Jump, is coming in early 2016 and will also feature amiibo support and presumably a figure or figures that will launch alongside the game. Hive Jump is a four-player platformer with run-and-gun action.
Shovel Knight is now available to own digitally on 3DS and Wii U with packaged versions due in stores this October. Check out high-res box art for the Shovel Knight amiibo and a Hive Jump screenshot below.
