Amiibo Won't Unlock Anything Big in Star Fox Zero

The Amiibo has been a curious lil’ thing, hasn’t it?

Inspired by the wild success of such franchises like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, Nintendo decided it would take a crack at its own physical toy/digital thingamajig with the Amiibo, and… well, the plan went off without a hitch, from their perspective. The Amiibos are hits—such enormous hits, even, that getting one has proven to be a legitimate problem: especially since some games, like Splatoon, locks a good chunk of content away from non-Amiibo holders. People have grown to hate Nintendo for the way they sell these things, and yet they just can’t stop buying them!

Well, at this year’s E3, Nintendo went ahead and showed off several new games, the ‘main star’ being Star Fox: Zero. And, since we happen to know there’s already a Falco and Fox Amiibo in existence thanks to Super Smash Brothers, there was some concern—legitimate concern—that Nintendo might do something dramatic, like lock a game mode, a map, or weapons behind a DLC wall, accessible only through the Amiibo.

Fortunately, Shigeru Miyamoto assures us that won’t be the case.

"In terms of being able to unlock content [with amiibos], I don't really want to go down that path. For this game, I think of it more as, for people who have the amiibo, they're going to get a little something extra and that's how I'm planning on it with this game. So rather than actual abilities or things like that changing in the game, it would be like getting a different skin for the Arwing or something like that. In terms of what I'm doing with Star Fox, I'm really not thinking about there being locked content or there being a mode that you won't be able to play if you don't have one. Since we already have the existing Smash Bros. amiibos I basically want to put in something so if you already have those amiibos, I imagine people will try and tap them on Star Fox anyway, and I want to make sure there is something that gives them a nice charge when they do that,"

He then confirmed that, yes, this game would not get any new Amiibos—the Super Smash Brothers Amiibo will do just fine. This, of course, has come as a relief for many people, but still… it’s no promise we won’t get into another Splatoon level “crisis” again in the future.

For now, though… we’re good.