Zelda Wii U is going to use Amiibos. That much we already know, and that’s shocking enough for some people—Legend of Zelda has a somewhat different cultural cachet than Super Smash Bros. And, while we don’t know the details of how Amiibos will work on the forthcoming Zelda game, we do know how they’ll work on Twilight Princess HD, which comes out on March 4. And that may give us some insight into the future.
Twilight Princess HD Amiibos, Legend of Zelda Wii U Amiibos
Twilight Princess HD will be the first mainline Legend of Zelda game to use Amiibos, and in the game, they have purposes somewhat different than Amiibos have in other games in other series. For Twilight Princess, one Amiibo has a unique purpose. The game’s only exclusive Amiibo, Wolf Link, unlocks a new dungeon in the game. That dungeon is specifically designed for Link in his wolf form—a nice change of pace, since wolf form didn’t provide many challenges after the early stages of Twilight Princess. However, the other Zelda series Amiibos, those from the Super Smash Bros range, don’t unlock content. Instead, they offer buffs and bonuses—Zelda and Sheik restore hearts, whereas Link and Toon Link restore arrows. Ganondorf introduces a new difficulty mode that makes the game harder.
We already know that Zelda Wii U will also use some Amiibos… including the Wolf Link Amiibo, which is (for now) exclusively packaged with Twilight Princess HD. Plan accordingly. The Twilight Princess HD Amiibo model seems reasonable enough for Nintendo to emulate: Most Zelda Amiibos can provide little bonuses to help you along your way or make the game harder, slightly changing the balance of the game.
Additional dedicated Amiibos could also potentially unlock content or DLC in Zelda Wii U, if Nintendo decides to go that route. That hasn’t happened yet with a flagship Nintendo single-player game. The company has largely limited DLC to multiplayer games, or to simple features like added maps for games like Fire Emblem. Its only major single-player DLC content pack was Super Luigi U, which also supported multiplayer and was separately released as a standalone game. If Nintendo introduced content packs for Zelda Wii U, Amiibos could play a role there. That’s speculation, but the little buffs to hearts and arrows—I bet we’ll see those again.
Don’t forget to get that Wolf Link Amiibo when Twilight Princess HD comes out on March 4!