Since the launch of Nintendo’s incredibly successful amiibo, many fans have been clamoring for games that revolve around the use of the beloved collectibles. While Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival left people with sour tastes in their mouths, perhaps Nintendo’s second attempt with Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge (direct translation of Japanese title) will finally scratch some itches.

In what is becoming a common trend with Nintendo, the game saw a surprise announcement in Japan via a stealthy upload of a YouTube trailer and website . Thanks to to the fine folk at Nintendo Everything we have a clearer idea of what the game is about.

The game appears to be a continuation or spin off of the Mario vs Donkey Kong franchise. Lately, the franchise has focused on lemmings style gameplay, where you guide toy Marios through to the end of a level by building paths and blocking them from walking the wrong way with the touch screen. The twist this time around is that players with an amiibo are able to play the game for no additional cost. The game is apparently compatible with all amiibo, however the amiibo based on Mario universe characters (with the odd exclusion of Wario) will unlock the specific amiibo character in toy form to play as, while all other amiibo will unlock a generic robot known as Mini Spec. Each Mario character appears to have special abilities allowing them to tackle certain obstacles more efficiently than others.

Currently the game is only announced for Japan, with codes for the game being given away with every amiibo sold from January 28th onwards. A free eShop release is also planned for some point in the future. The game is highly likely to be localised, but whether it will be distributed in a similar fashion is unknown at this point.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bycoAdmdQ-E[/embedyt]