Last year, when I was gifted a Wii U from my wife, she bought me the Super Mario Maker bundle. Not only did it include the console and the game, but it also came with one of Nintendo’s little NFC figurines. It was the modern color 30th Anniversary Mario Amiibo and could be used to unlock the Big Mushroom power-up in Super Mario Maker.
After unlocking the power up in Mario Maker, I set the figurine on a bookshelf and haven’t touched it since. I have been aware of Nintendo’s lineup of Amiibo since before we had the console, but I’ve done my best to avoid it. The figurines can be used to unlock new features in certain games and are generally pretty neat looking.
The main reason I’ve resisted the urge to purchase a second Amiibo — or even browse the lineup — is because I’m quite susceptible to the collector’s mentality. It’s a slippery slope for me. My history with Pokémon cards and Magic: the Gathering has taught me that I can’t just own a few. As soon as I buy another Amiibo, I’ll find three or four more that I just need to have.
But a few of weeks ago I bought Splatoon on Nintendo’s eShop. I quickly fell in love with the game and have been playing it steadily ever since. Here’s what I wrote after just a week of play:
It’s essentially a cartoony paintball game in which you and your three teammates try to cover as much of the level in your color paint as possible. Along the way you can disrupt the other team by “splatting” their players and forcing them to respawn at their starting point.
There’s new weapons and clothing accessories that feature special abilities and increased power that you can unlock by leveling up. There’s other game modes to play as well, but I’ve been having too much fun with the normal “Turf Mode” to explore the other options.
Since then I’ve unlocked nearly every weapon in the game, beaten the single-player campaign, and played my fair share of “ranked” matches — Tower Control and Rainmaker being my favorite modes. But there’s one area of the game that has alluded me — the Amiibo challenges.
Nintendo has released a series of Amiibo specifically for Splatoon. It features the Inkling Boy, Inkling Girl, and Inkling Squid, which unlock weapons and accessories that aren’t available through any other means. They’ve also recently released Callie and Marie figures that can be used to change the appearance and music of the game’s main hub area.
Last week, I did a little research to find out what each of the Amiibo unlocks and I ended up buying just the Inkling Boy from Amazon. It gives me access to the weapon and accessories I’m most interested in without tripling or quadrupling the size of my Amiibo collection — as the multi-packs would.
I’m still a little afraid that this is going to get out of control. I haven’t even received delivery of my second Amiibo and I already have a handful of them in mind that I want to purchase — like Waluigi, obviously. I’ll do my best to stay strong and resist the urge to continue adding to my collection. But don’t be surprised to find me with dozens of these things, strewn about various shelves throughout my apartment, in only a few months.
