Nintendo has a history of making dubious decisions when it comes to their products. I'm sure many a Metroid fan were excited with the announcement of Samus Returns, a remake of Metriod 2, that's coming to 3DS next month. I am, too. Now, we've already seen an example of how Nintendo can lock content behind these little collectibles. BotW features plenty of exclusive gear that can only be unlocked via specific amiibo, and there are like 20+ Zelda amiibo that have been produced, so that can rub some people the wrong way. BotW also has regular old downloadable DLC that grants further stuff, but while you still have to pay for those, their available to everyone on the eShop, unlike amiibo which can be hard to find for some of the older and rarer ones. So now, coming back to Metroid, we've learned that the existing 2 Metroid-themed amiibo and the upcoming 2 new amiibo will have functionality in the Samus Returns game. For 3 of those amiibo, the unlocks are things like concept art, and soundtrack, and other bonuses that don't really affect the game itself. But the 4th and arguably most popular amiibo--the upcoming squishy "Escaped Metroid" amiibo--actually unlocks a new difficulty in the game, what they're calling "Fusion Mode", as well as the Fusion suit for Samus. And when they revealed this, people flipped out. Nintendo tried to do damage control by saying the game still has a "Hard Mode" everyone can unlock that's separate from Fusion Mode, but it missed the point; people were clamoring about how and entire mode of the game is not only locked behind DLC, but the DLC can only be obtained via a hard-to-get physical collectible item. As of right now, preorders for the Metroid amiibo are unavailable via the normal amiibo vendors (Walmar, Best Buy, Target, Gamestop, and I guess Amazon). I have no idea how easy it will be to obtain those amiibo when their released, but if it's anything like the BotW amiibo, they will sell out fast and supply will be persistently low. So what do you think of this? How do you feel about a game mode being locked behind an amiibo? Do you think the crux of the issue is not that it's DLC, but it's DLC tied to a rare collectible? I'm interested in your thoughts.