Super Mario – Series 2
While the Super Smash Bros. series of amiibo has seen several waves of releases to get out all 50-something figures, there has only been one wave for the Super Mario series. That set came with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, and Toad – five of which already had a figure of their own in the Smash Bros. line-up. A second wave of six more figures to the Super Mario series could give us some more variety in the form of Birdo, Daisy, Toadette, Rosalina (without the Luma), Wario (in his classic yellow and purple outfit), and Waluigi. Fans have already made custom figures for most of them, so there’s obviously a bit of demand there.
The six new amiibo could each be made to be compatible with upcoming Mario sports or party games, as well as have functionality with some existing titles. Toadette, for example, could add another new mode to Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker, much like the Toad amiibo did. Rosalina and Wario would both be equally compatible with Mario Party 10, just like their Smash figures are. It would also be nice to have some Birdo and Daisy Mii Racer outfits in Mario Kart 8.
The Legend of Zelda: 30th Anniversary
Much like the Super Mario Bros. 30th Anniversary set, there doesn’t need to be a lot of figures here. Just one or two in the same vein will do. There are already three-dimensional figures of the classic 8-bit Link from that first game. The amiibo would be pretty much exactly that, but with an amiibo chip in the base.
With several titles in the Legend of Zelda franchise coming out this year – Twilight Princess HD, Hyrule Warriors Legends, The Legend of Zelda for Wii U – there are plenty of ways the 8-bit Link amiibo could be used. Maybe he could unlock an old-school inspired mini-game in Zelda Wii U, or grant the user a new weapon in Hyrule Warriors Legends, like how the Smash Bros. Link unlocks the Spinner in the original Hyrule Warriors. Again, there are many places where this figure could enhance your gameplay experience.
Pokémon Cards
The Legend of Zelda isn’t Nintendo’s only big anniversary this year, as Pokémon is celebrating 20 years. At the time of this writing there are more than 720 different Pokémon in total, but only six of them have amiibo figures so far thanks to the Super Smash Bros. series. The fact of the matter is that it’s wildly unrealistic to expect Nintendo to bring out actual figures for each and every creature in the series, but luckily they don’t have to. Instead, they should launch Pokémon amiibo cards throughout several waves, just like they’re doing with Animal Crossing.
There are currently two waves of 100 cards each available for the Animal Crossing amiibo cards, with two more waves still to come. It’s not unreasonable, then, to see Nintendo giving Pokémon a similar treatment over the course of a year or so. There are 6 generations of Pokémon, with anywhere from 72 to 156 new creatures in each one, so each new wave of cards should just cover each separate generation. Kick things off with the original 151, followed by the Gold/Silver generation in wave 2, and so on and so forth.
The Pokémon trading card game has also been going strong for nearly 20 years, with new sets constantly releasing, so the idea of new Pokémon cards to collect and trade would feel perfect for the series. Add in some minor in-game functionality with each card, and fans will have even more reason to try catching them all, all over again. The first edition of the upcoming Pokkén Tournament will come packaged with an exclusive Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card, so soon there will already be one out there in the wild. That just leaves 721 more to go.
Indie Games
Nintendo has been more and more supportive and welcoming of indie developers and games in recent years, even going so far as to allow Yacht Club Games to make the very first third-party amiibo in Shovel Knight, even though it wasn’t a Nintendo-exclusive title. Shovel Knight had an unprecedented amount of success, but that still opened the doors to so many countless possibilities for indie amiibo. Plenty of of indie developers have even voiced interest in having amiibo made for their games.
Witch Beam told the SML Podcast last year that they kicked around some ideas as to what kind of functionality Assault Android Cactus amiibo could have, even though it’s “99% likely it won’t happen.” Image & Form even posted an entire video chat dedicated to the possibility of amiibo for SteamWorld Heist, also beaming about a fanmade custom amiibo of Rusty from SteamWorld Dig. While Toby Fox hasn’t made any direct comments on the matter, he has mentioned the possibility of Undertale getting ported to Wii U. Of course, this meant custom Undertale amiibo were just around the corner. I haven’t played the game personally, so it’s hard to say what kind of functionality they should have, but there’s no doubt these things would sell like crazy.
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