Amiibo are a series of lifelike figurines from Nintendo that allow players to unlock features in games for various Nintendo platforms.
What is amiibo?
The figures are fun to collect because they’re faithful representations of beloved video game characters. But they’re also functional. Embedded tech allows amiibo toys to interact with supported video games, allowing data to be transferred to and from consoles including Nintendo Switch, Wii U and New Nintendo 3DS.
Each amiibo (plural: "amiibo") is sculpted to look like a character from a video game and contains a hidden radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip. When a player scans the RFID chip in an amiibo with a compatible Nintendo system, the system recognizes which amiibo it is and acts accordingly.
Specific effects vary from game to game. Some games, like Super Smash Bros., let players save information to their amiibo, customize characters, store data, and take saved content with them to play on friends' consoles.
