That Time Nintendo Made a Cereal Box an amiibo

Oh, amiibo. For some, these little interactive figurines are the ultimate collection items from Nintendo, and for others, these are a huge waste with too much of a pay-to-win idea behind them. Whatever you think of these successful figures, there are a metric boatload of them at the moment. To date, there are 186 individual figures, numerous cards, and 20 other variants that were offered in promotions and such. One of those is the topic for today, and that is the Super Mario Cereal one. Yes, Nintendo made a cereal box an amiibo, and there is actually a lot to talk about regarding this one.

This is that time Nintendo made a cereal box an amiibo.

amiibo are toys-to-life that launched in November 2014, and they were one of the most sought-after items for the holiday season that year. Entire shelves were being bought out, and stores that had exclusive rights to sell certain figures sold out instantly and had no idea when restock would happen. Nintendo knew right away that they launched a goldmine, and the amiibo craze did not slow down for another couple years.

After the early waves of amiibo, Nintendo began working alongside other companies to launch 3rd party figures on top of their first-party ones, but that was not the only bold move Nintendo made during this time. They also reached outside the box (Pun intended) and began producing strange amiibo that were locked to very specific games, like the Bowser and Donkey Kong amiibo for Skylanders Superchargers, the Animal Crossing amiibo cards, the giant Detective Pikachu amiibo, and yes, the Super Mario Cereal box amiibo.

To celebrate the launch of Super Mario Odyssey in November 2017, Nintendo decided to honor the game by giving it and its fans a unique amiibo that has yet to be replicated since: a cereal box.

This was both a good and terrible idea. The good was that anyone could easily (and cheaply) get a working amiibo for their Super Mario Odyssey game. This much more affordable route gave kids and parents alike a chance to have a practical food item for breakfast while also having a working NFC chip on the box itself that works as an amiibo for the game.

Well, that’s the good, but it all goes downhill from there.

You see, during this time, amiibo were a super-hot item, and it was near-impossible to keep them in stock at retailers. When Nintendo announced the Super Mario Cereal box amiibo, scalpers rushed to all of the nearest Wal-Marts and such to snag up every single Super Mario Cereal box with the amiibo chip and then turn around to sell it online for ridiculously high prices.

Not only that, but the amiibo’s functionality is piss-poor. It would be one thing if the amiibo served as a strong assist within Super Mario Odyssey or did something unique, but unfortunately for people who ended up paying way more than they should have for a box of cereal, they found out the hard way that this cereal box amiibo was no different than any other generic amiibo you scan into Super Mario Odyssey.

On top of that, this cereal box amiibo did not even sell worldwide, so many countries around the world, including Nintendo’s home country of Japan, did not even give their people a chance to buy it. Because of this, not only were scalpers ripping off collectors locally, but they were getting more to an extent from fans internationally that wanted that box in their amiibo collection.

The whole situation was a disaster and did no good for Nintendo or its fans, and at the end of the day, this was not a worthwhile amiibo in any way. If you are an amiibo collector, then this is a hot item to own, but if you were a casual player that just wanted to try the cereal out and use the amiibo functionality, you were shit out of luck thanks to those dastardly scalpers.

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Thank you for stopping by Nintendo Link and enjoying this “That Time” article. What do you think of Nintendo making a cereal box an amiibo? Were you able to pick one up? Let us know what you think in the comments below! Happy gaming, everyone.