An amiibo is a small Nintendo collectible with a chip in it that a Nintendo console can read. You touch the figure to a controller, and a compatible game gives you something. In Nintendo’s own words: “Tap into more fun with amiibo accessories” and “Score additional characters, bonuses, or other perks in compatible games.”
That is the whole idea, and it explains why the question gets typed so often. On a shelf an amiibo looks like an ordinary figurine with a suspiciously chunky base, priced a little higher than a figurine should be, and nothing on the box explains what the extra money is for.
The one sentence that settles the gift question comes from Nintendo too: you can enjoy the full game experience with all games compatible with amiibo without using an amiibo figure. An amiibo is never a missing piece of a game. It is a display object with a small bonus attached — which is a good present or a pointless one depending entirely on one thing, covered below.
How you actually use one
There is no setup, no app and no account. You tap it on the controller, in the game, when the game asks.
On a Nintendo Switch, Nintendo says “You can tap your amiibo to the right Joy-Con controller’s Right Stick or the NFC touchpoint on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.” On a Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo publishes its own scanning guide: the touchpoint on Joy-Con 2 is likewise “located on the right control stick”, and on the Switch 2 Pro Controller it “is located over the Nintendo Switch 2 logo at the top-centre of the controller”.
Nintendo’s steps are: check the amiibo is compatible with the game, make sure the console has the latest system update, start the game and follow its prompts, then touch the amiibo to the touchpoint. It also adds one caveat worth passing on — “Some games may require a software update” before their amiibo features work.
What they unlock, honestly
Nintendo is careful here and so are we: “Specific features depend on the amiibo and the compatible game.” Its own examples include inviting characters to islands, unlocking power-ups and special items, and levelling up characters.
In practice that usually means a small in-game extra — an item, a costume, a character you can summon — rather than a new mode or a chunk of story. Some games are more generous than others, and a few treat amiibo as an ongoing feature rather than a one-off. Anybody promising you that a particular amiibo transforms a particular game is guessing, and we are not going to join them: the only honest statement is Nintendo’s, which is that it varies.
That is fine, because the bonus is not really the purchase. The purchase is the object. A character somebody loves, sitting on their desk, that also does a small trick when they are playing — that is the gift.
Figures, cards, and which to buy
Nintendo notes that amiibo “can come in different shapes and sizes”, from “high-quality character figures” to “super-portable cards”. Both carry the same kind of chip, so the choice is about what you want to hand over.
- Figures are display pieces. They cost more, they look like a real present, and they stay on a shelf long after the game is finished. This is what you want for a main gift or a centrepiece.
- Cards are slim, cheap and sold in packs. Better as a stocking filler or an add-on, worse as the thing somebody opens and reacts to.
One genuinely useful property of both: an amiibo is a physical object, so it works on any compatible console you touch it to. It can be lent to a sibling, taken to a friend’s house and sold on. A download code cannot — once it is redeemed it belongs to one account forever, which is a difference our physical versus digital comparison goes into across the whole category.
The one thing that decides whether to buy it
Do they own a Nintendo console? If no, do not buy an amiibo. It becomes an ornament, and a slightly odd one, because the base is sized for a chip rather than for looks.
Nintendo lists amiibo as working with “Nintendo Switch, Wii U, New Nintendo 3DS XL, or New Nintendo 2DS XL”, with older 3DS and 2DS models needing a separate NFC Reader/Writer accessory, and it publishes a Switch 2 scanning guide as well. Nothing outside that list reads them. There is no PlayStation amiibo, no Xbox amiibo and no phone app that substitutes.
The second question is softer: do they own a game it works with? If yes, the gift is complete on the day. If not, the figure still works as a collectible and the bonus waits. That is the case for pairing an amiibo with the matching game — which is why the picks below are a figure and two games rather than three figures.
If you cannot answer either question, do not guess at the console. A Nintendo eShop card lets the household spend it on whatever actually fits, and our gaming gift cards guide covers which card suits which console.
Are they worth the money?
As a toy-plus-bonus at licensed-figure prices, yes, for the right person. An amiibo is cheaper than a game, it is something real to wrap, and it is instantly recognisable to anybody who plays the series it comes from.
As a way to get more out of a game, no — and Nintendo says so itself. If the person you are buying for wants more game, buy more game. Our gifts for Zelda fans and gifts for Mario fans both put figures in context next to the games and accessories at the same price, and gifts under $50 covers the whole bracket an amiibo sits in.