It’s the beginning of August, and we’ve updated both of our tier lists! Come see which characters have risen or dropped and why. If you’re new to competitive amiibo training and need an explanation of how these tier lists work, feel free to check out their respective pages here and here (vanilla and Spirits). Otherwise, let’s get right into the updates! It’s a light slate, but an important one nonetheless.
It’s no secret that the production of amiibo figures has slowed to a crawl. In 2021, we received a rather generous eight brand-new figurines! These include three from the Super Smash Bros. series, as well as two each for Metroid Dread and Super Mario 3D World. The Zelda & Loftwing amiibo was released for Skyward Sword HD as well. In 2022, we’ve received just one new amiibo figure — Min Min.
Between figurine delays and possible cancellations, the future of amiibo is looking rather thin. Today, we’re going to look at the reasons why this may be — and we’re also going to accept the reality that amiibo may be dying (we offer free therapy sessions in our Discord server).
Competitive amiibo training in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been going (fairly) strong for almost four years now! When the game was first released, dedicated amiibo trainers were in a scramble to see what was different. After several years of struggling through amiibo training in Smash 4, players wanted to see something different. And for the longest time, they did: in the Ultimate metagame’s early days, trainers experimented with off-stage play, taunting, and combos — things the CPUs were finally capable of pulling off. But now, it’s 2022, and the metagame is winding down a bit. We’ve quickly realized an interesting tidbit. Over the years, as specific amiibo characters have been optimized and refined, something remarkable has happened: Ultimate’s metagame is beginning to look a lot like what Smash 4’sdid toward the end of its lifespan.
The original Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64 is where it all started – and, technically, it’s the reason this site exists in the first place! Despite its age, it’s still fun to play. For being the first in the series, it’s held up surprisingly well over twenty years later. There are only four unlockable characters and just one unlockable stage, but we’ve got the full run-down on how to access all of them right here!
The idea of a free-for-all frenzy involving multiple amiibo at once is a very exciting idea to those new to training. Unfortunately, as most experienced trainers will tell you, it often ends up in the same way: sooner or later some or all of the Figure Players present in the match will simply stop moving. They’ll end up just standing still completely vulnerable to incoming attacks, and for the longest time no one really knew why this would happen. With some new research, we may have found an answer!