NaMiiO (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
Amiibo, Skylanders, Disney Infinity; when will it end? These toys seem to be taking over the gaming world and can get pretty expensive for completionists. Luckily, devices have been appearing in recent months that allow you to emulate those figures in order to get all the in-game goodies that your heart desires. The NaMiiO is one such device and will allow you to emulate amiibo toys - similarly to the MaxLander which is used to emulate Skylanders toys. (Check out my review of the MaxLander here.)
Like always, my hardware reviews come in both video and written format. The video includes an unboxing, tutorial, and review of the product while the written portion is simply my review, taken directly from the video. Be sure to watch the video to get the full experience!
NaMiiO Unboxing, Tutorial, and Review
Written Review (Taken directly from the video)
The NaMiiO is a great device that serves it's purpose well. In a time where flash carts are being replaced by custom firmwares and physical devices are being phased out by software, the NFC toys still must be emulated using physical devices. That's just what the NaMiiO does.
The device is fairly simple to use and is a great value when compared to how much money you would have otherwise spent on all of your Amiibos. If you have children who tend to break their toys easily, you can be rest assured that they won’t lose all of their progress simply because of a broken toy.
If you're trying to save time, or don't want to put in any effort to become the best, the NaMiiO allows you to inject your Amiibos with steroids-- I mean it allows you to hack them to improve their stats.
Many people collect the toys because they like the look of them. Obviously, the NaMiiO will never be able to give you the same satisfaction as you would have playing with the actual toys, but that's the price we must pay to be cheap.
For those who just want to play the game and don’t want to spend the time searching for rare figures to be bought by scalpers, this is a great deal. As I showed you in this video, the process is really straight forward and I really like that.
The NaMiiO has no write limit, so you can alternate between as many characters as you want. The thing that bothers me however is that each token can only hold one Amiibo at a time. So if you want to switch between then you must go back to your computer to do so, or buy more tokens.
The NaMiiO is compatable with every Amiibo release to date, including the Animal Crossing Cards and the hybrid characters that cross Amiibo with Skylanders.
As of right now, the NaMiiO will not work with Skylanders or Disney Infinity characters. Back when the MaxLander was released I asked their team about Amiibo support and was told that, “Maxlander only supports Skylanders so far, there are no plans for an update to make it compatible with amiibo and infinity in the near future.”
It appears that was in fact the case and that the NaMiiO was created in response to the desire for Amiibo support. Only time will tell if another device from the MaxLander team will support Disney Infinity characters.
Many people will compare this device to the Amiiqo, or N2 as they are called these days. While comparable in price, the N2 allows you to have up to 200 Amiibos on the device at once. The NaMiiO on the other hand will at least let you know which Amiibo you are using so you do not have to constantly click a button to find the one that you want. So if you want to always reliably pick out an Amiibo, I recommend the NaMiiO. If you would prefer to have many Amiibo on one device at once that you can blindly switch between, I would recommend the N2 instead.
NaMiiO official support site: www.namiio.com
Verdict
- Full support for all Amiibo
- Cost effective in the long run
- Absolutely no write limit
- Easy to use - only need a PC to use
- The upfront cost may turn some people off
- The lack of support for Skylander and Infinity
- No physical manual describing what to do
- Only one Amiibo can be stored at a time
