Here’s what amiibo do in Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

We don’t have the cat amiibo yet, but we know how they work

Nintendo has been very choosy when it comes to anything amiibo-related in the past few years. Just look at the stark decrease in production!

But alas, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is not only getting amiibo support for both modes (read: each game between the “plus” symbol), Nintendo is also reprinting the Bowser and Bowser Jr. figures to celebrate.

Here’s a quick rundown.

Mario 3D World

Using amiibo in Mario 3D World portion is very straight-forward: you hold left on the d-pad while playing to bring up the amiibo symbol prompt when in a level, then scan. 99% of figures create random power-ups or a 1UP mushroom.

In my tests, I scanned a handful of amiibo, including Bowser, wedding Bowser, Mario (Mario Party style), Sheik, and Bowser Jr. All of them yielded either a star or a 1UP. It’s important to remember that Bowser and Bowser Jr. are not special in this game mode, and also fulfill the role of “random power-up” bonus figures.

For further testing I bought out a few of the rarer amiibo, like Qbby (1UP), Gold Mega Man (1UP), Mega Yarn Yoshi (Star), and Detective Pikachu (1UP). None of them yielded any special activations, as expected.

Note that while we don’t have the Cat Mario and Cat Peach amiibo, we do know how they function thanks to the official site. Cat Mario is basically a cheat code, opting to trigger a White Cat Suit that makes you invincible. Peach will create a randomized power-up: so as far as we know, she has no special functionality.

If anything changes, we’ll update this page once we have the figures in hand.

Bowser’s Fury

There are two main figures to use for this new mode: Bowser himself, and Bowser Jr. — though everything else will summon random power-ups, like the main game. To utilize an amiibo, just like 3D World, you need to hold left on the d-pad until the amiibo symbol comes up, then scan one.

Using Bowser on the amiibo NFC point will immediately wake Fury Bowser from his slumber. While this is normally a hazard that needs to be managed and avoided, calling upon Bowser does have its perks, as certain walls/obstacles can only be destroyed by Fury Bowser’s abilities. So if you need him to immediately appear to enter a specific area, you don’t have to wait for him. We did test multiple Bowser amiibo, and figures like wedding Bowser will also perform the same functionality.

Bowser Jr. is special too, allowing you to unleash an explosion of sorts. You can’t spam it as it has a cooldown: there’s not much more to it! The Bowser amiibo is definitely more valuable here.