iNFCiibo NFC/NTAG Emulator

Hardware Type: Misc.

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Review:

The iNFCiibo is an NFC emulator specifically designed for use with Nintendo devices that read Amiibo accessories, including the Wii U and New Nintendo 3DS (or an older Nintendo 3DS model using an Amiibo scanner accessory), as well as of course the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

To put it in more simple terms, this is a device intended to be used in place of an Amiibo figurine to access features in videogames on Nintendo platforms that those figurines unlock. The idea here is, if you want to access that content without buying all of the expensive plastic, don’t mind not owning the actual figurines, and don’t mind the creators of those figurines not getting any of the money you’re spending on this device, you could save yourself a fortune without missing out on that content.

Is that… legal? I have no idea! Will you somehow get in trouble for using this? Highly unlikely! Anyway, let’s have a look!

At a price that fluctuates from $15 to $25 depending on when you buy it, iNFCiibo’s device is one of the least expensive NFC emulators you can currently find. Do you get what you pay for? Let’s see…

The device is quite small, somewhere between one-third and one-half the size of a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controller. It charges via a USB-C port on its top, and has only a single input in the form of a scroll wheel on its top, as well as a black-and-white OLED screen. It doesn’t take long to charge, but it will lose its charge gradually even when not in use.

The main menu lists a few different options: Amiibo Emulator, Amiibo Database, AmiiboLink, Card Emulator, Game, BLE File Transfer, and Settings. Some of these menus’ functions are unclear, but I expect most players will focus on Amiibo Database and maybe Game.

Amiibo Database stores the various Amiibos the device can use, and comes with many pre-loaded, including some fairly obscure ones – I spotted Amiibos for Chibi-Robo, Animal Crossing character cards, Diablo III, and Monster Hunter Rise, to name a few. Players can find these listed in directories organized by game, search, or even upload their own via USB or Bluetooth, though to do so you’ll need to track down the files for these online, and that might potentially expose you to a bit more legal danger if you’re worried about that sort of thing (or so I would guess – I am no lawyer).

I should note that while most of these were usable, I oddly couldn’t get Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to create an Amiibo profile – it kept insisting that when it asked me to scan a second time that it wasn’t the Amiibo I was using before. I wouldn’t count on this device holding on to a profile in the few games that use that feature of Amiibo figurines.

Using this device took a bit of trial and error, since it comes with no instructions, and the Amazon listing for the device is no help there either. Basically, once you select a specific Amiibo to use (by default, you’ll see a QR code), the device is already ready to be scanned, and can be held up to the controller or device that is capable of scanning Amiibos.

It doesn’t help that the scroll wheel is extremely clunky and not always clear in its use. You can scroll left, right, or push it in, and using that you have to navigate all menus and it can be a real pain when you have to use these buttons to navigate a keyboard interface.

I will also note that while there appear to be options here to save favorites, I couldn’t get any of them to work properly, so if I wanted to re-use an Amiibo, I’d have to do the same every time.

I mentioned the Game menu earlier, and that’s because this device includes simple versions of four games, titled Lander, Invaders, Arkanoid, Tris (clearly based on Lunar Lander, Space Invaders, Arkanoid/Breakout, and Tetris). It’s a fun little extra, but with these terrible controls I can’t see it being much more than that.

I should also note one other flaw here… or perhaps quirk? I’m not sure if this is intentional or not. The side of the device’s case with the screen can be pried open, and in fact I noticed this because it was opening on its own. This doesn’t seem to damage or inhibit the device, but it seems unprofessional, and makes this a poor choice if it’s in an environment with small children.

Overall, I do still think this will save you from having to buy countless Amiibo figurines to unlock things, but it’s extremely clunky and difficult to use, doesn’t hold a charge well, and has multiple caveats, issues, and limitations you don’t face from real actual Amiibo figurines. Plus, it seems pretty cheaply made, though some may see the low price and small size making this reasonable. Overall, the iNFCiibo NFC/NTAG Emulator is an adequate workaround, but not a great one.

tl;dr – The iNFCiibo NFC/NTAG Emulator is an emulator device that players can use in place of Amiibo figurines with their various Nintendo game systems. This device gets the core functionality okay, but comes with multiple issues and caveats. It’s still an okay solution if you want to unlock content in your games without buying a fortune’s worth of plastic figurines, but it’s far from perfect.

Grade: C

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