Half-Glass Gaming [Episode 19] : Amiiboversary
This week, our pre-break off-topic conversation is a rapid-fire lightning round, as the Rev explains polyamory, Mandi explains her love of clothing with animals on it, and Julian watches a bunch of Christopher Nolan movies and invents a new line of underwear.
After the break, the gang celebrates the one-year anniversary of the first wave of amiibo figures by updating listeners on the current sitch. Apparently, Josh and Mandi have had some recent luck in finding rare figures, and they’ve even acquired a few of the elusive amiibo cards. Just how much do those damn cards cost to produce anyway? We don’t know, but that won’t stop us from arguing about it.
Of course, we wouldn’t want to just rehash Episode 3: Amiibo Sandwich Blues for 45 minutes, because our loyal listeners deserve so much more than that. Instead, we take a deep look into Nintendo’s history and talk through a bunch of stuff the Big N probably hopes the world had forgotten about by now. We’re talking Yakuza ties, executive love hotels, instant rice, and more — and no, we’re not making this stuff up, folks.
Before we wrap things up, we get all gooey and nostalgic for Game Boy peripherals, Chuck E. Cheese’s, and free hand-me-down gaming consoles. What more could a 1980s kid ask for?
Interested in that NES commercial we used as a sound byte this week? Check it out for yourself.
Retrovolve Staff
At Retrovolve, we love discussing, studying, and playing retro games, though not necessarily in that order.
I was a bit apprehensive when I saw this was an episode about Amiibo but clearly my worries were misplaced. I was unaware of Nintendo’s history and quite interesting to hear about. I hope you do it with more game companies in the future.
I’m glad you loved it! Nintendo is a fascinating company, and I’m glad we got to dig into its history a bit. Hopefully you learned some things!
I own zero amiibos and after listening, I’m convinced I made the right decision. I am a little jealous of that Ganondorf.
They are super cool to have, but getting them is a major headache.
The Ganondorf figure looks incredible. He’s very detailed! I missed out on the Ganondorf figure that came with Wind Waker, so I’m glad I found this one!
You said you don’t have Squid Amiibo but its in your picture by Lucario.
You said you don’t have Squid Amiibo but its in your picture by Lucario.
Good eye!
Yeah, the squid was a very recent discovery. I saw the Splatoon 3-Pack randomly at a GameStop after we had recorded the episode, so I picked it up and gave my extra inkling boy and inkling girl to Mandi. I was surprised that they had it, because it sold out so quickly. I’m guessing N recently released a fresh shipment?
I was looking for what you didn’t have but I gave up, lol. Why do you have 2 of the pixel Mario?
I was looking for what you didn’t have but I gave up, lol. Why do you have two of the pixel Mario?
That’s actually a funny story. Amazon accidentally shipped it twice but only charged once. So I kept them both.
You can send it my way if you don’t want it.
Has it only been a year? It feels longer, but I guess I don’t pay too much attention to amiibos. Anyhoo, really great episode. I’m going to try to blow some minds with facts gleaned from this episode.
The 1-year anniversary of the launch of Wave 1 amiibo figures (in the United States) is November 21, so we put up this episode just a few days before that happened.
I think I probably just didn’t realize when they actually came out. Like I said, I don’t pay too much attention to amiibo.
My childhood is ruined! But actually I think I like Nintendo more now.
I said in the episode, but don’t remember if it got cut or not, that for all one might want to mock Nintendo for the various peripheral and console failures, and the various ridiculous things they invested in, the fact remains that they were out there *trying* things. That fact alone is fantastic, because if you don’t try things, how will you ever know if they work or not? Sure, motion control hasn’t worked out the way they’d hoped, but it may have been the first innovative gameplay idea in years. Sure, the virtual boy didn’t work out, but it opened up some ideas of how one might try to implement 3D (and how one should probably avoid it). Sure, R.O.B. didn’t work out, but it allowed Nintendo to market their console as a toy, which may have saved the industry.
I mean, I’m totally going to keep making fun of Nintendo for R.O.B., don’t get me wrong. I just think it’s worthwhile to acknowledge the benefit of Nintendo’s attempts at innovation.
– The Reverend
Love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t deny that Nintendo is a fascinating company. Glad you dug our little history lesson! Thanks for listening!
My only problem with amiibo is summarized by the situation with amiibo Festival: exclusivity of certain amiibo to the bundle to sell copies of a mediocre game. I don’t mind amiibo being mandatory but I don’t want to buy shit games to get them.
I’ve only picked up a handful of amiibo, but I do like having them at my desk. I don’t bother with anything else.
That’s how it started for me too! Then it turned into the collection in the pic above.
Nintendo is very good at making profit but they’re hard to understand. Sometimes I think they are very good at the business aspect of selling games and sometimes I think they are very bad at it. I liked learning more about why they make such strange decisions.