Golden Mario Amiibo Is Retailer Exclusive

Nintendo has announced that they have a special Amiibo inbounds for Wii U owners eying a purchase of Mario Party 10. The Big 'N' will unleash a special golden Mario figurine that will be a retailer exclusive, starting March 20th, 2015.

The news comes courtesy of Nintendo's official press room, where they announced that the golden Mario figures will be sold across 3,000 Walmart stores in the U.S. The figures will carry a $12.96 price tag on them.

As mentioned on the Nintendo website...

It's kind of neat seeing the figures have a place in more than just one game. In fact, if you find yourself getting bored playing with the golden Mario Amiibo in Mario Party 10, you can take him for a spin in a few other Nintendo exclusive products, including Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS.

In fact, Nintendo has an ever-growing list of games compatible with the Amiibo that you can check out over on their official compatibility page. Clicking on the game will give you a look at which figures are compatible with the game and what features they bring to the title. It's a really cool way to bring cross compatibility between real life collectibles with in-game software.

For Mario Party 10 Nintendo is listing the following Amiibo as being compatible with the Wii U party title: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser, Rosalina, Donkey Kong, and Wario. As mentioned in the quote above, the figures can be used to bring items into the fold, or save certain kinds of data to the figures and carry it over into other titles.

Nintendo really started turning heads with the figures when they launched along with Super Smash Bros. last year. The company managed to move more than 5 million Amiibo figurines over the course of the holiday season, proving that the Big 'N' still knows how to shift hardware when they need to.

However, the real mystery is whether or not Nintendo will have enough software to capitalize on the cross-over compatibility with the Amiibo to help them expand the Wii U's install base before eighth-gen is over with?

Something like the Amiibo would have been perfect for the Wii U back during 2013 because that's when the console was really struggling. Trying to gain a decent foothold this late into the console cycle could prove to be too little, too late. However, it all depends on how well Nintendo leverages the Amiibo in upcoming titles like Splatoon, The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox.

Mario Party 10 is set for release exclusively on the Wii U starting March 20th. If you want to learn more about the game you can pay a visit to Nintendo's official page for the game.