Zero Suit Samus amiibo - Japan Import (Super Smash Bros Series)

This Zelda Super Smash Brothers amiibo yields very useful materials for playing Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch. Of primary interest to me is the Twilight Bow, akin to the Bow of Light that Link can only obtain from Zelda for the final battle with Ganon. Attack power 30, durability 100, range 8,000 meters!!! (but the light arrows do not travel at the speed of light - you can miss a moving target even though the arrows do not drop under gravity!). The Twilight Bow is great for sniping bad guys from far away! Also rarely, one can obtain star fragments and diamonds, which are difficult to come by in BOTW itself. More commonly, one can obtain Royal Bows and lesser weapons and as you progress in the game, the weapons dropped will come with perk upgrades like increased attack power or durability, as for finds in the game itself. The Twilight Bow is obtained on roughly 1 in 50 uses of the amiibo (after you have liberated at least one Divine Beast) but if you're persistent with Game Save and Reload, you can try your luck as many times a day as you want as long as you discard all the previous drops you don't want. Since I got a Twilight Bow from Zelda on my fifth try, I'm very happy with my luck and the amiibo! One or two points about the product delivered - although an Amazon label was pasted over the UPC code identifying the product as "Japan import," it was clearly produced for the European market as there seemd to be 7 or 8 European languages on the Nintendo packaging-no Japanese, AFAIK. The coloration of the amiibo is not quite as light and radiant as depicted in the marketing images on the Amazon web page, either, unless you put it under very intense light. But still, it's a beautiful and memorable figurine that drops lots of rare and useful stuff when playing BOTW on the Switch. You can get the same functionality much cheaper with NFC cards or discs, also available on Amazon, but I wanted a beautiful memento, expensive though it may be, for all the fun I'm having with BOTW. It would be nice, too, if the figurine were a bit larger and Zelda's face were a bit fuller to correspond to her BOTW appearance but then for an amiibo from the Super Smash Brothers game, one can't complain too much about resemblance to Zelda in BOTW, who's also a blonde, unlike the brunette SSB figurine.

I recently reviewed the Shulk Amiibo from the Series 2 release. Much of what follows relates to both Amiibo’s in general, though I’ll specify below when I speak of Marth exclusively (or at least make the comparative notes obviously stated).Simply to share, as my bias surely affects my best intentions of a helpful review, I avoided purchasing any Amiibo figures until very shortly after the most present release of Series 4. That shared, due to a New 3DS mishap at a big box retailer, I was given store credit and with it, brought home my first 4 Amiibo (Series 1 Link and Zelda; Series 2 Toon Link and Sheik). After having these 4 Amiibo to experiment with, it was only after I truly made my first two Amiibo purchases (dare I say, invested), Series 2 Shulk and this figure, Series 1 Marth.I could not find the U.S. release of Marth at a price that competed with the Japanese release. After reading another review elsewhere, and realizing it doesn’t matter whether one has the U.S. or Japanese Amiibo release in terms of being able to port into Wii U and New 3DS XL games, I jumped at the opportunity to purchase Marth.My purchase of this Amiibo was wholly due to the excitement I have had in experiencing the gameplay of Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. for the New 3DS. I played the demo and while it was just so-so, still I remained quite expectant of what could be a great game experience due to the reviews I read by those fortunate enough to have more access beforehand.I have not been let down, neither by the game, nor with this particular Amiibo figure.As this is a review of Marth, the Amiibo figure, let me focus there on a number of points I hope will help you, the potential buyer of this out-of-print and increasingly hard to find figurine:As other reviewers before me have stated, comparatively this is a very well sculpted Amiibo figurine, though I must state this Amiibo is not quite at the level of Shulk, the most nicely sculpted Amiibo figure I have yet to own.Overall, Marth’s Amiibo presence is very much that of his game presence in Fire Emblem: a bit hesitant at first, but then comes into his own. Marth’s clothing and wardrobe in general is detailed and nicely painted (between the lines!), and his hair looks (just about) as good as it does in the game (LOL), but in some of the finer details of the figurine, there is a bit of a lack of detail…just enough to not quite be at the quality of Shulk (the high-water mark of Amiibo figures that I’ve seen thus far, admittedly, only about 6 or so).In terms of the actual sculpted figure, as with the other sword-wielding Amiibo I have, Marth’s Falchion divine sword is not perfectly straight, but bows slightly downward. Why is this? I do not know. Perhaps it has something to do with the heating and cooling process of manufacturing? Regardless, the materials (plastics) this Amiibo is cast in allows for the sword to be slightly misshaped. While this doesn’t bother me or affect my enjoyment of the figure, I can see more scrutinizing collectors of toys and figures to be irked by this oversight in the perfecting of manufacturing.Some Amiibo have colored or clear plastic supports extending from the base to the figure itself. Thankfully, Marth stands on his own two feet, so to speak (the base, however, like other Amiibo, has a strikingly similar “X” pattern as seen in contemporary X-Men comics, films, and the like).Rough dimensions for this Marth figure, from base to top of his head, is nearly 4-inches; from widest point to widest point (downward pointed sword tip to extended cape at the opposite side) is 3.5-inches.Regarding gameplay, the Japanese import has ported just as any other Amiibo has on my New 3DS. I would expect the same from others, especially with so many reports consistently claiming this is in fact the case.If it is not clear by now, I’m a collector of things, especially that which relates to Nintendo. Most of us seemingly having missed out on the U.S. release, is it worth it to purchase this Marth Amiibo for 2x-6x the MSRP? I cannot answer that for you, obviously, but having ported Marth into Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., if you decide to make the purchase, I hope your experience is as much fun as mine has been!Happy gaming and happy collecting!

This Helped me out with my Games!