Animal Crossing amiibo Festival Preview

Update: November 4, 2015

Nintendo has released a new official trailer for Animal Crossing amiibo Festival. Watch it below:

Original Preview: October 21, 2015

It’s no secret amongst my friends that I’m a huge Animal Crossing fan. I’ve loved each installment since it debuted back on the GameCube. I was super excited to see what the development team could accomplish with HD graphics on the Wii U, and when Nintendo started to show a trailer for a new Animal Crossing at E3 I was stoked. About five seconds after the video began, the brutal reality set in. I had been trolled. This wasn’t the Animal Crossing I had been hoping for. It was a Mario Party rip off. Or, so I thought.

As it turns out, Animal Crossing amiibo Festival really has very little in common with Mario Party. In fact, it appears that there aren’t many mini-games to play. Sure, there’s a board and each player takes turns moving around it and landing on spaces, but this appears to be a straight up traditional-style board game, which is very different from Mario Party and even Wii Party.

The game exudes charm and the Animal Crossing characters are always fun to interact with. The big draw is that the game works with amiibo figures and cards. Scanning them in will allow you to save the points you win right to your amiibo, and those can then be used to expand your game. The Animal Crossing amiibo cards allow for you to play a few mini-games as well. The retail game is set to release on November 13, 2015 and comes bundled with the game, Isabelle amiibo, Digby amiibo, and 3 Animal Crossing amiibo cards: Goldie, Rosie, and Stitches.

Even though I was pretty down on this game when it was announced, and remain bitter that I’m not getting an HD console version of the series I love, I’ve warmed up a little to the idea of a fun board game revolving around the characters from Animal Crossing. It remains to be seen how much content is in the final game and if it has staying power, but I’ll surely give it a shot.

Recently select members of the press had a chance to try the game out. Below is a video from GameXplain where they divulge a host of new information and give impressions on the game. In addition, there is a summary of the video from Nintendo Everything if you don’t have time to watch the 20-minute video.

General

– Different modes: Board Game, Desert Island Escape, Quiz Show
– Apparently some other things to do as well
– Might be 7-8 modes in total based on the different icons
– Some modes only work with cards, others only work with figures
– As you earn Happy Points, spend those to build up each attraction
– Add things to each attraction individually
– Ex: build new things for the Board Game mode by spending points
– This appears to affect gameplay and is more than just looks
– Individual amiibo can level up

Board Game

– 12 different boards
– Different board for each month of the year
– Choose the board youself
– Board months have a different theme (ex: snow in December)
– Each turn is 1 day of the month
– 30 turns in total (for the month)
– Day/night cycle will happen at the end of each turn
– Get the most Happy Points
– Do so by landing on certain spaces, sell turnips to get bells which you can exchange for Happy Points at the end of the game
– There aren’t really mini-games on the board
– Everything you land on can be like a mini-event where your character will take place in something at the town
– There are different directions you can go on the boards
– Buy turnips from Joan
– Each day, the turnip resell prices change
– Depending on when you buy/sell, you can get more bells for the turnips you buy
– Use the GamePad when buying turnips

Desert Island

– Brand new mode
– Uses the amiibo cards
– Play as a team of 3
– On a deserted island
– Each character has a different skill
– Ex: one character can find materials more easily than others, but isn’t good at making tools
– Choose which way you want to go on the island by moving to different hexagon spots
– Move up to 4 spaces per day
– Depending on where you go, you can forge for tools for materials
– At the end of each day, can choose to cook with ingrediants you gathered or make tools instead so you can go fishing the next day
– Ultimately need to gather tools to make a raft and get off the island
– Cat characters don’t need a fishing rod to fish
– If you’re in a pitfal, there’s a spinner that stops randomly on your face or the pit fal to get out

Quiz Show

– Just an Animal Crossing quiz show
– Up to 4 players
– Uses amiibo cards
– Tap your card to decide your character
– The mode is tough and is essentially for diehard fans
– When you want to answer, tap your amiibo card when the spotlight is on your character
– If you scan your card when the spotlight is on of your rivals, they answer instead
– You have to scan at the beginning of your turn

Craig Majaski

Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.