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Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival

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Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Developer(s)Nintendo EPD
NDcube
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Aya Kyogoku[3]
Producer(s)Hisashi Nogami
SeriesAnimal Crossing
Platform(s)Wii U
Release
  • NA: November 13, 2015
  • EU: November 20, 2015[1]
  • JP: November 21, 2015[2]
Genre(s)Party
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival is a 2015 party video game developed by Nintendo and NDcube[4] and published by Nintendo for the Wii U.[4] Similar to the Mario Party series, the game is a spin-off of the Animal Crossing series that moves away from the series traditional format, instead being a party game that primarily integrates Amiibo figures into the gameplay. Alongside the release of the game, eight Animal Crossing Amiibo character figures were released for use in the game. It was released worldwide in November 2015.

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival is the only game in the Animal Crossing series to receive generally negative reviews from critics who criticized its gameplay, lack of innovation, and departures from the series' format, though its presentation was praised. The game's Amiibo use was widely panned, with many critics calling its implementation "repetitive" and "poorly utilized". The game was also a commercial failure. Amiibo Festival is often considered to be the worst game in the Animal Crossing series, as well as one of the worst Nintendo games ever made.

Gameplay

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Gameplay screenshot at E3 2015

Amiibo Festival is a virtual board game similar in style to the Mario Party series.[5] Playable characters from the Animal Crossing franchise include Isabelle, K.K. Slider, Tom Nook, and Mabel—four of the series' eight characters upon which Amiibo toys had been based. The game also supports the Amiibo cards which had debuted alongside Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer,[6] and generally requires the use of Amiibo figures for play.[7]

During board play, players take turns rolling on a board specific to the month set on the Wii U's internal clock. Players occupy the character specific to the Amiibo they scan on the Wii U Gamepad, and roll by doing so each turn. Each space represents in-game hypothetical situations in traditional Animal Crossing, resulting in the player receiving or losing Happy Points and/or Bells depending on the space they land on. Occasionally, specific in-game events happen on the board that result in the board changing all or some spaces. Players can use received bells to purchase turnips on Sundays from Joan for a specific price. After turnips are purchased, each space on the board receives a certain bell-to-turnip selling rate. The economy for selling turnips fluctuates daily on each space, and high paying turnip spaces are not specific to good spaces. Players have until the following Sunday to sell some or all their turnips to Joan, otherwise the turnips spoil and cannot be sold again. By passing corners on the board, players collect stamps that get exchanged into Happy Points. Each four-player cycle counts as a day of the month in-game. The game gets completed once all days pass within the month. At the end of a game, a final award ceremony occurs. Remaining bells each player possesses get traded in for additional Happy Points. The player with the most happy points ultimately wins the game.

Certain days of the month contain aforementioned specific events. During these events, players have opportunities to receive more happy points, bells, and/or receive an item that can affect board gameplay. For example, during Animal Crossing's traditional Fishing Tournament, all spaces turn into outcomes for catching certain size fish. At the end of a four-player cycle, an corresponding award ceremony occurs that turns a player's placement into Happy Points. Ceremonies are specific to certain in-game events. Others, however, give the player a desirable or unpleasant effect after landing on its space. For example, during Katrina's Fortune Telling event, players receive or lose Happy Points, Bells, and/or items depending on the fortune the former reads to them.

Traditional space types in regular board play include Good Happy Points and Bells spaces, Good Bell spaces, Good Happy Point spaces, Bad Happy Points and Bell spaces, Bad Bell Spaces, and Bad Happy Point spaces. Players get reward with Happy Points and/or Bells on the good spaces, while Bad Spaces take away Bells and Happy Points. There are also mystery spaces that cause uncertain events to occur that can reward or punish the player. When players land on the same space, the space temporarily turns into a mystery, regardless of the original space type. It causes both players to either get rewarded, punished, or one to get rewarded while the other gets punished.

The game also features eight minigames that may be played by scanning Animal Crossing Amiibo cards: Desert Island Escape, Balloon Island, Acorn Chase, Resetti Bop, Mystery Campers, Amiibo Card Battle, Quiz Show, and Fruit Path. Each minigame requires a certain number of amiibo cards to be played at a time.[8] Once an amiibo card is scanned, the characters specific to the cards used will appear on the board for item games, as background cameos, or the host of the game.

Development

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Director Aya Kyogoku stated that the game was conceived as a vehicle for the creation of the first Animal Crossing Amiibo: "Honestly, we just wanted Animal Crossing Amiibo. We wanted the company to make Animal Crossing Amiibo, so that's why we made a game that works with them."[3]

The game was announced during the Nintendo Digital Event at E3 2015 for release in Q4 2015 during the holiday season,[5] later specified as November 2015.[1] Kyogoku distinguished the game from Mario Party by stating that the latter is more focused on minigames, while Amiibo Festival is more of a board game. The game uses Nintendo's Amiibo protocol to insert characters into the game, with eight different Amiibo toys bundled with the game's release.[9] The characters each have personal characteristics, including a house associated with the character as designed in Happy Home Designer.[9]

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival was released exclusively as a retail product, and was not digitally available on the Nintendo eShop in any region.

Reception

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Unlike its predecessors, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival received "generally unfavorable" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic, with an aggregate score of 46 out of 100.[10] IGN rated the game at 5 out of 10, saying that the Amiibo integration is "cumbersome" and "hard to play with" and that the gameplay is a boring and slow "snooze fest" — having almost fallen asleep while playing. The game was praised as "undoubtedly charming", relaxing, and best played with friends.[11] Nintendo World Report gave the game a 4.5 out of 10, citing "Boring, repetitive gameplay" and "Tak[ing] an hour to get anything good."[12] GamesBeat gave the game 3.3 out of 10 and condemned it for being "a blatant attempt to get you to buy more Amiibo, and it’s not even a good one at that."[18] In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 32 out of 40.[13]

The game is Nintendo's sixth lowest-rated game of all time on Metacritic, as of 2022.[19]

The game proved to be a commercial failure, selling only 20,303 copies within its first week of release in Japan.[20]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Nintendo of Europe on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  2. ^ "Japanese Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival introduction trailer, release date". Nintendo Everything. October 2015. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Eguchi, Katsuya; Kyogoku, Aya (July 9, 2015). "Nintendo's Aya Kyogoku on Evolving The Series". USgamer (Interview). Interviewed by Jeremy Parish. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Kaihatsu Jouhou" 開発情報 [Development Information]. Nintendo Japan (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 30, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  5. ^ a b Sarkar, Samit (June 16, 2015). "Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival coming to Wii U, plus four new Animal Crossing amiibo". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 18, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  6. ^ "Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer cards work on Wii U". GoNintendo. June 16, 2015. Archived from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  7. ^ Josh M-J. "E3 2015: Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is a Free Download but Requires amiibo to Play". nintendofeed.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  8. ^ "Be the life of the party with Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, coming to Wii U on November 20th". Nintendo of Europe SE. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  9. ^ a b Nintendo Life (July 10, 2015). "Animal Crossing Series Director Explains the amiibo Focus of Happy Home Designer and amiibo Festival". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  10. ^ a b "Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 30, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  11. ^ a b Plagge, Kallie (November 18, 2015). "Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival Review". IGN. Archived from the original on November 20, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  12. ^ a b Ronaghan, Neal (November 18, 2015). "Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival (Wii U) Review". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1407". Gematsu. November 17, 2015. Archived from the original on November 23, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  14. ^ Clark, Willie (January 11, 2017). "Animal Crossing: Amiibo festival is a boring, random mess". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on November 20, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  15. ^ Schilling, Chris (November 26, 2015). "Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 3, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  16. ^ Wahlgren, Jon (November 25, 2015). "Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival Review (Wii U)". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 3, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  17. ^ Andriessen, CJ (December 3, 2015). "Review: Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival". Destructoid. Archived from the original on October 3, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  18. ^ Clark, Willie (November 18, 2015). "Animal Crossing: amiibo festival is a boring, random mess". GamesBeat. Archived from the original on November 20, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  19. ^ Leggett, Kitty (October 7, 2022). "Nintendo's 10 Worst Games, According To Metacritic". CBR. Retrieved April 24, 2025.
  20. ^ Whitehead, Thomas, 25th November 2015, "Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival Has Modest Impact in Japan as 3DS Sales Improve" (http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/animal_crossing_amiibo_festival_has_modest_impact_in_japan_as_3ds_sales_improve Archived September 17, 2020, at the Wayback Machine). Nintendo Life. Accessed 26 December 2016.
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