"Amiibo" Unveiled

Nintendo Unveils New Product Line: “Amiibo”

            Nintendo came out swinging at this years annual Electronic Entertainment Media Expo in Los, Angeles California, also known as E3, yesterday with a slew of new properties and videogames.

Beginning their conference with a digital event showing, Nintendo revealed “Amiibo.” Through the use of near field communication (NFC), the wireless transfer of data between the Nintendo Wii U and an outside source, “Amiibo” is a new line of Nintendo product that takes the form of a figure.

Embedded into each of the many figurines, crafted in the images of famous Nintendo characters like Mario, is a chip that stores, saves and transfers data back to the Wii U’s tablet-controller.

“When you touch an ‘Amiibo’ to the gamepad, the character’s data is downloaded into the game you’re playing, and it’s also a two way street. We can send information back to the figure… Figures data changes as you play, which opens the door for various new gameplay possibilities,” Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, stated through the digital event showing.

It has only been revealed to be working in conjunction with a few select of Nintendo’s hardest-hitting franchises including “Super Smash Bros. for Wii U,” “Mario Kart 8,” and “Mario Party 10.” Nintendo is hoping to extend this line of product to their other famous franchises, such as “The Super Mario Bros.” and “The Legend of Zelda.”

Nintendo first hinted at its plans to expand on the NFC development field at the release of their most recent home videogame console, the Wii U. Serving as a successor to Nintendo’s latest venture, the Nintendo Wii, the Wii U is an all-new videogame console that was first released in 2012.

Upon release, outlets praised Nintendo’s innovation in terms of controller design, stronger emphasis on online and digital ventures, and their first steps into the world of high-definition rendering for games.

But lack of clarity on what the Wii U is, and poor marketing have left this system behind competitors Sony and Microsoft’s home consoles.

President of Nintendo Japan, Satoru Iwata lamented earlier at their Corporate Management Policy Briefing for their fiscal year, “…In addition, the GamePad is the only video game platform with an NFC (near-field communication) reader/writer function. ‘Pokémon Rumble U’ has already taken advantage of this function, but aside from this title, Wii U has failed to make use of the full potential of this function so far, despite it being a built-in feature.”

Nintendo is hoping to turn the tides though, having shown off a strong return to their fundamental properties at this year’s E3 with a batch of new intellectual properties and concepts, including an expansion to Nintendo’s portable console, the Nintendo 3DS.

“Combining Amiibo with our games opens up a whole range of potential gameplay experiences,” stated Bill Trinen, a representative of Nintendo of America, “It’s one of the most exciting things Nintendo is debuting at E3.”