Nintendo has made a lot of people mad just by announcing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. The game is a remaster of a game and many already found the standard $60 price tag too steep.
Now, Nintendo has announced a gorgeous amiibo of Zelda with her Loftwing, and people are once again furious. The amiibo is gorgeous and has the feature of allowing players to instantly teleport between the surface and Skyloft no matter where they are, including in the middle of a dungeon. This is an incredibly convenient quality of life improvement. Normally, you need to go to a save point in order to make the jump between the two areas. The amiibo will have an MSRP of $24.99 and launch on July 16.
People are furious because they believe that the quality of life improvement should’ve just been included in Skyward Sword HD instead of behind a $25 amiibo. I would’ve liked to see it included too, but it wasn’t up to me, and honestly, I’d just prefer some usable controls. Also, there are a couple of things to consider.
First, Nintendo doesn’t have to include the improvement. All they promised was a remaster of the game with improved motion controls and button controls. Second, this is nothing new. In Hyrule Warriors, you needed a Link amiibo (except the Wolf Link one that came with Twilight Princess HD) to unlock a weapon. In Twilight Princess HD, there were features also locked behind amiibo like a completely new dungeon. Nintendo and many players really like amiibo and if Nintendo can reward those amiibo players, they’re going to. Now, if Nintendo required you to have the amiibo to do something that was in the original version, we’d be having a very different discussion. Do you have to like that they put this feature behind the amiibo? No. Just stop feeling like you’ve been betrayed because of it. This is actually really nice since it doesn’t lock content like previous titles, it just adds some convenience.