Some days it feels like I’m the only person on Earth who still cares about Nintendo’s toy to life figures – amiibo. The amount of releases ha really slowed down with the move from the 3DS / Wii U over to the Switch and Nintendo themselves seems to be dropping support from their biggest releases with Super Mario Maker 2, Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Mario Tennis Open all omitting amiibo support while their previous entries proudly featured it. Still though, with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s incredibly massive case of characters and a couple dedicated third parties still pushing amiibo out into the wild, I wanted to keep the Link-Cable tradition of ‘amiibo of the year’ awards alive and well. Will other people care? Probably not – but I still love these little, overpriced figures and as long as there’s amiibo to talk about – I’ll keep giving them little titles and prizes!

amiibo of the Year Awards – 2018

amiibo of the Year Awards – 2017

See all 2019 amiibo

Piranha Plant (Super Smash Bros.)

King K. Rool (Super Smash Bros.)

Ice Climbers (Super Smash Bros.)

Young Link (Super Smash Bros.)

Ken (Super Smash Bros.)

Daisy (Super Smash Bros.)

Pokémon Trainer (Super Smash Bros.)

Pichu (Super Smash Bros.)

Isabelle (Super Smash Bros.)

Squirtle (Super Smash Bros.)

Link (The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019))

Snake (Super Smash Bros.)

Ivysaur (Super Smash Bros.)

Chrom (Super Smash Bros.)

Incineroar (Super Smash Bros.)

Simon (Super Smash Bros.)

Plague Knight / Specter Knight / King Knight (Shovel Knight)

Shovel Knight (Gold Edition) (Shovel Knight)

Best Dressed

The cape! The boots! The scepter! The… crown! This year, King Knight brings the goods with an outfit that just screams ‘royalty’. While we’ve seen some pretty snazzy looking amiibo in 2019 (Daisy’s dress is to die for), you simply can’t argue with the most kingly of knights for this award.

Runner up: Daisy

Best Functionality

When it comes to best amiibo functionality in 2019 we simply can’t ignore just how useful the Shovel Knight three pack of Specter Knight, King Knight and Plague Knight truly are. New armor sets, new stages and new companions just scratch the surface of what these knightly amiibo can do. Oh and they also work with the legacy versions of Shovel Knight on 3DS and Wii U which really sets them apart from the crowed.

Runner up: Chrom

Most Regal

We’ve seen our fair share of royalty this year, with a couple of kings and a princess joining the amiibo ranks but out of all this royalty – the most regal of them all is Donkey Kong Country‘s King K. Rool. Maybe we’re still hyped up from his awesome reveal trailer but of all the monarchs to get amiibos in 2019 K. Rool stands out the most.

Runner up: King Knight

Most Likely to Never Get a Restock

Our next award goes to the amiibo that you better have in your collection already because… Nintendo is not likely to go back to the well a second time around. And the winner is Piranha Plant! A curious Smash Bros. character that, is not really a character and more of species and offered as bonus DLC for early adopters of the game and Fighters Pass, just screams a ‘one and done’ kind of deal for this amiibo.

Runner up: Shovel Knight (Gold Edition)

Best Link

After a brief hiatus we can finally bring back our ‘Best Link’ award and this out of the two Link amiibo to release this year, the Link that showed the most Link and out-linked all the other Links has got to be… LINK from Link’s Awakening! Maybe next time Young Link.

Runner up: Young Link

Best Weapon

This year’s amiibo lineup was a particularly violent one – with all manners of swords, scythes, hammers and shovels really helping them earn that ‘age 3+’ warning on the box. And out of all these dangerous arms, the one we have to give the nod to is Simon’s whip… because we sure would hate to be hit by that thing!

Runner up: Specter Knight

Lottie Memorial Award

With the serious lack of new amiibo on store shelves these days it’s become almost too easy to pick the annual winner of the ‘Lottie Memorial Award’ for the amiibo that appears destined to remain in stock, collecting dust forever. This year’s unfortunate recipient is little ‘ol Pichu, who despite being adorable seems like might be destined for the discount bin sooner

Runner up: Ivysaur

Scalper’s Choice

There’s nothing scalpers love more than gold. That’s a known fact and for Yacht Club Games to give Shovel Knight such a shiny makeover has almost guaranteed that some scalpers out there will make a nice buck or two on this guy.

Runner up: Ken

Best Design

Think about this for a moment. The winner of ‘best design’ is an amiibo based on a couple of characters who have technically only appeared in one game in their own series before being completely re-imagined by Sakurai and co. for the Smash Bros. franchise. Not bad for a couple of 8-bit sprites.

Runner up: Chrom

amiibo of the Year

The general build quality of amiibo has done nothing but go up as the years went by and I daresay we might have reached a point where they simply don’t get any better. I mean – Link from the Zelda series of amiibo looks like he’s taken right out of the game! I don’t think there are many amiibo that are just this perfect and we have to give it the nod for our amiibo of the year!

Runner up: King K. Rool

What was your favorite amiibo released in 2019? Let us know in the comment section below!