Amiibo lets Nintendo brings Skylander style NFC figures to WiiU for games like Smash Bros and Mario Kart.
The figures, such as Mario, connect with the WiiU gamepad and store data about your character as you play. Therefore, each Amiibo is unique to the player and will affect how they play Super Smash Bros WiiU and Mario Kart 8.
According to Nintendo, Amiibo is a way to make figures come to life, which works as a nice call back to the opening cinematic from Smash Bros Melee. In Super Smash Bros WiiU, the Amiibo characters are CPU controlled characters that will level up as you play and also gain custom-picked special moves. The data is saved within the Amiibo and will function as specified when used in any WiiU. In fact, in Super Smash Bros WiiU, Amiibos will level up faster when they fight other Amiibos. A full selection of Super Smash Bros WiiU Amiibos will be released when the game releases this winter.
An adapter is also in the works for the Nintendo 3DS that will release sometime next year. Until then, Amiibo functionality will be included in Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Mario Party 10, and Yoshi’s Woolly World. How they will function within those titles has not been stated, but more information will come.
Here is the clip from the Amiibo section of the Nintendo stream from earlier today:
