It’s easy to make fun of Sonic the Hedgehog. For the last 15 or so years, the games he’s starred in have been mediocre at best to dumpster fires at worst. His glory days may be long behind him, but I’ll never forget the time when he was the king of video games.
video game culture
Amiibo Story: Bowser
In a weird way, Bowser has been my life long video game arch nemesis. Since the original Super Mario Bros. was the game that got me into video games years before I was even old enough to go to school, I’ve been battling the King Koopa for as long as I can remember. Nowadays, I usually give him the boot with relative ease, though things certainly weren’t in my favour back then.
Amiibo Story: Diddy Kong
Flash back to the summer of 1994. I’m only 10 years old at the time, so there’s almost no reason for me to receive mail. On this particular summer day, I open the mailbox with a VHS tape addressed to me from Nintendo. With no idea what this tape was or why Nintendo was sending it to me, I threw it in my VCR and watched it as soon as I could.
Amiibo Story: Mario
Mario has been a part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. I vaguely remember playing Defender on a hand-me-down Atari 2600, but when I was just old enough to comprehend what video games were, it was when I was playing the original Super Mario Bros. with an NES controller in my hands. Much has changed since I first played a game with Mario in it, but he’s been with me all the way.
Amiibo Story: Rosalina
Rosalina is a fine character in the Super Mario universe. I’m not much of a fan of the first Super Mario Galaxy, but I liked her in that game. She was also fun to use in Super Mario 3D World as an unlockable character. My in-game memories with her are admittedly thin, but the chase for her Amiibo was probably the most interesting one yet.
Amiibo Story: Samus
Samus is one of my favourite Nintendo characters. Sporting iconic armor, an arm cannon and the ability to curl up into a ball and drop rolling grenades, she’s one of the most combat-ready characters in Nintendo’s lineup. The big reveal of her being a she is one of the first breakthrough moments for female characters in video games. She’s even been one of my favourite characters to play as in the Smash Bros. series since the very beginning.
However, the sight of Samus also brings with it a reminder of a gaming Achilles Heel of mine. I suck at Metroid and Metroid-style games.
Amiibo Double Heartbreak
Two rare Amiibos. Two online orders from two separate retailers. Within the span of a week, all I could do was watch in dismay as both would cancel my orders for Captain Falcon and Villager. Neither retailer could secure enough to meet the demand for either, so they just cancelled my orders and refunded me the money.
I’m really bummed out that I got this far into the purchase process and it didn’t work out, but at least I got my money back. In particular, I really had my hopes up that the Villager from B+H Camera would go through. Oh well, maybe someday I’ll eventually have both in my collection. For now though, I’ll keep hunting!
Nintendo Reveals Wave 4 Amiibos and a New Line of Super Mario Bros. Amiibos
Amiibo Story: Fox
Thinking about Fox McCloud of the Star Fox series takes me back to Toys R Us in 1993. At the time, my local Toys R Us had Star Fox in its Super Nintendo demo machine, and I made a point to play it every chance I got. I never got farther than the first level, but by the end of its run as the default demo game, I could practically ace that first level with my eyes closed. In retrospect, that Star Fox demo ended up meaning a lot more than a few runs of that first level. When I really think about it, that game was one of the major tipping points in me becoming the gamer that I am today.
The Amiibo Collecting Struggle is Real
Collecting is a choice, not a right. When people get upset about the challenges that come with collecting Amiibos – myself included – it’s important to remember that. However, I do find the act of trying to buy Amiibos in this current marketplace to be particularly difficult and somewhat unreasonable.
In Third Person 