Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits
Developer(s)Nintendo
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Platform(s)Wii U
Release
  • JP: April 23, 2015
  • WW: April 30, 2015
Genre(s)Miscellaneous
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits[lower-alpha 1] (stylized as amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits), known as Amiibo Touch & Play: Nintendo Classics Highlights in the PAL regions, was an application developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U's Nintendo eShop in 2015. The application was used to play demos of 30 popular Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System video games by scanning, Amiibo figurines, Nintendo's toys-to-life series of products.

The player could play demos of the games under a three minute timer, and would start in various parts of each game. Each Amiibo scan would unlock one title randomly from the collection. The application was teased by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in February 2015, who later announced the application via Nintendo Direct the following month. It released April 23, 2015 in Japan and April 30 worldwide. Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits received negative reception, and was criticized for its pricing and structure, especially amidst a supply shortage of Amiibo products. It was discontinued upon the Wii U's eShop closure on March 27, 2023.

Overview

A demo of Super Mario World

Amiibo Tap allowed the player to scan an Amiibo figure from any physical series of figures on the Wii U GamePad to unlock demos of 30 video games by Nintendo that were originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).[1] Every unique Amiibo scanned unlocked one game randomly selected from the 30 available. Every time the Amiibo was scanned it would start the player at random points throughout the game, which each unlock having seven to nine of these "scenes". The player then plays however much of the game they can within three minutes. Also on the screen was a link to a how-to-play screen that explained the controls, and a link to purchase the game's Virtual Console version from the Nintendo eShop.[2]

The list of NES games to unlock are as follows:

The list of SNES games to unlock are as follows:

Announcement and release

The concept of Amiibo Tap was teased by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata on February 17, 2015 during a financial results breifing.[5] It was officially announced via Nintendo Direct on April 1 the following month, also presented by Iwata. He detailed the time limit and how games are unlocked randomly, comparing the gameplay to "a box of chocolates" in reference to the 1994 film Forrest Gump; it was also slated for a release in spring of that year.[6][7] The application released in Japan on April 23, 2015,[8] and worldwide on April 30, 2015.[9] It was discontinued when the Wii U Nintendo eShop closed on March 27, 2023.[10]

Reception

Prior to release, Hardcore Gamer reviewer Dermot Creggon referred to the tile as "the most ingenious implementation of amiibo yet", especially for its utilization of retro Nintendo games.[11] Nintendo Life's Thomas Whitehead also believed the application's concept would be "a clever blend of promoting amiibo, usage of the GamePad and to introduce Wii U owners to classic games".[2] Upon release, however, reception was generally negative. Whitehead was critical what little content that can be unlocked with an individual Amiibo, finding it interesting only to those with many Amiibos, therefore alienating those who only have a few. He also believed it failed to make retro video games appealing to those unfamiliar with them due to limited context and lacking content.[2] In a time where Amiibos were rare to find and expensive due to their scaracity,[12][13] PCMag reviewer Will Greenwald considered the game not to be worth the hassle of purchasing Amiibo to play. Beyond this, he considered the formula to be an entertaining way to enjoy demos of retro Nintendo games, but buying Amiibo to do so was not worth the price to pay for the content.[1] Critics derided the application for not associating games to their respective Amiibo and instead assigning them randomly.[2][1] Daan Koopman of Nintendo World Report enjoyed the package for offering a wide variety of experiences, and enjoyed pushing the time restrictions to their limits by speedrunning and trying to get the highest score.[14] Greenwald recommended purchasing the games in full instead of Amiibos via the Virtual Console,[1] while Whitehead recommended the NES Remix series of NES and SNES collections.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Known in Japan as Touch! Amiibo: Sudden Famicom Classic Scenes (タッチ！アミーボ：いきなりファミコン名シーン, Tacchi! Amībo: Ikinari Famikon Meishīn)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Greenwald, Will (2015-05-19). "Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits (for Nintendo Wii U)". PC Magazine. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 2016-10-13. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Whitehead, Thomas (2015-05-01). "First Impressions: Tapping In With amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Albert, Brian (2015-04-01). "Unlock Demos of Classic Nintendo Games Using Amiibo Tap". IGN. Archived from the original on 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Hits Has Highlights From 30 Titles". Siliconera. 2015-04-23. Archived from the original on 2022-08-13. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  5. ↑ Tach, Dave (2016-02-17). "Amiibo will unlock free 'highlighted scenes' from NES and SNES games this year". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  6. ↑ Tach, Dave (2015-04-01). "Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits headed to Wii U this spring". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2023-02-07. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  7. ↑ "Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits announced for Wii U". MCV/Develop. 2015-04-02. Archived from the original on 2021-09-26. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  8. ↑ "タッチ！amiibo いきなりファミコン名シーン" [Touch! Amiibo: Sudden Famicom Classic Scenes]. Famitsu (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  9. ↑ Whitehead, Thomas (2015-04-25). "amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits Bringing Retro Freebie Fun to North America on 30th April". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 2022-05-20. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  10. ↑ Scullion, Chris (2023-03-17). "Here's the exact time the Wii U and 3DS eShops close down today". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2023-04-03. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  11. ↑ Creggon, Dermot (2015-04-02). "Nintendo Direct Dissection: April 2015 Edition". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  12. ↑ Saed, Sherif (2015-05-04). "Nintendo apologises for Amiibo shortages, will reissue some out-of-stock figures". VG247. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  13. ↑ Crecente, Brian (2015-05-04). "Nintendo apologizes for amiibo frustrations, promises to do better, reissue toys". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2023-03-30. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  14. ↑ Koopman, Daan (2015-04-30). "Swapping Cartridges with Amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 2021-01-09. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
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