Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival (Wii U) is, for the most part, a family-friendly, adorable board game. This would be a great game for families with young children, or anyone who loves the Animal Crossing franchise. The board game is okay for a single player, but the most outstanding part for me is the Desert Island Escape mini-game.
This game is somewhat controversial, but for very tame reasons. It was viewed by some as a money-grabbing opportunity by Nintendo. To play requires you to purchase Animal Crossing amiibo figures for each person who will be playing the board game. Conversely, there was an egregiously expensive starter pack for sale with the game and two amiibo (amiibos? amiibi? amiiboes?). In addition to the board game, there are a few mini-games which you can play if you purchase Animal Crossing amiibo cards.
Unfortunately, most of my amiibo figures and all of my Animal Crossing amiibo cards are currently stowed away in a storage unit. I was able to get some pictures of the main board game from my Wii U, but I have no live pictures of the mini-games. So I'm stuck using an old version of the Cemu emulator to try and capture most of the images for those. It is so broken that not only could I not actually even play some of the mini-games, but it won't load the best mini-game of the lot, Desert Island Escape, which is a shame.
While I'd love to provide a lot of pictures and a detailed review, this will not be an exhaustive review at this time. I'll probably revisit it once my gaming stuff is out of storage.
The board game
The board game itself is like a very watered down Mario Party where everyone loves each other. (Another complaint from some is this simplicity.) The premise is to collect the most 'happy points' in order to win. There is a money aspect (using Animal Crossing's currency of 'bells'), which awards additional 'happy points' at the end based on how fat your wallet has become. However, aside from that and the occasional bug-catching or fishing tournament, there really isn't any serious competition in this game. You casually travel across the board landing on spaces that either give or take away happy points and/or bells. When landing on a space, a vignette is shown that tells what happened to you on that space. It could be lunch with a friend, a day at the park, reading a book, buying too much coffee, getting stung by a bee, and so on.
There are also events that happen on a set schedule. When starting the board game, you are given the choice of what month to play in. Each month has its own set of events, such as a bug collecting day, fireworks events, fishing tournament, and so on. Additionally, a number of months have holidays which, if objectionable to some persons, can simply be avoided by just not picking one of those particular months to play in.
In addition to the aforementioned routine events, the game includes a number of random events, which involve someone coming to visit the board game town. You'll have one round (day) to interact with them by landing on specially marked spaces, and then they leave. Interactions may reward you with bells, cards you can use to move or affect the board in some way, or extra happy points. For the most part, landing on an event space requires you to interact with the particular character and do their event, unless money or card trading is required to participate, at which point you have the option not to proceed.
The game ends when either the month ends or a time limit you set at the beginning of the game expires. If you did set a limit, the host will warn you about the approaching deadline a day or two in advance so that you can either extend it or choose to stop. If you choose not to extend it, you typically get two days' worth of play before the end finally comes. What follows is a wrap up showing how each player ranked, and some stats you can view about the game you just played. You then save the happy points earned to your amiibo and head back to the plaza. (As the happy points you saved to the amiibo accumulate, you are granted more outfits and emotes for that character.)
The mini-games
The mini-games that you can play are accessed from the main plaza of the game. Initially they are all unavailable and must be bought by spending tickets. You are awarded a ticket for every 100 happy points you scored during the board game, and some for playing the mini-games themselves, once they are unlocked.
From left to right, these are the mini-games which can be purchased in the plaza.
- Acorn Chase: scan amiibo cards to change direction in a maze while trying to collect acorns and avoid a pursuing robot.
- Mystery Campers: sort of like wordle but with amiibo cards. Pick four cards and see how many are in the right position, then keep adjusting until you match them all correctly.
- Balloon Island: use an amiibo card to jump onto an island while hitting balloons.
- Quiz Show: Ring in using your amiibo card to answer a question before the other player does. You can get help from another character via card scanning as well.
- Fruit Path: use amiibo cards to move a certain number of spaces on a path, collecting apples along the way.
- amiibo Card Battle: Play using six amiibo cards to see who has the highest card or matches the astrological sign shown in the crystal ball in the middle of the table. This one — unfortunately for me — falls into the fortune teller's domain, and she and I don't get along. See my other Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival article for my take on her.
- Desert Island Escape: This is by far the most fleshed out game of these. You select three characters via amiibo cards who will assist in trekking across an unknown island in search of materials to use to build a raft and escape. Each type of animal has a special skill: Resetti can dig almost any distance, deer can sneak away from danger, cats automatically locate and catch fish, and so on. There are dangers, food rations, tool building, and more. This is the same Desert Island Escape you will find in the Nintendo 3DS version of Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
- Resetti Bop: Scan your amiibo card to whack balloon versions of Mr. Resetti with a large mallet to get points.
An issue for me
There is one issue with an animal in the board game mode that clawed me in the face every time I played it. Who is the pernicious panther of which I speak? How did I manage to neuter them? Check out the next article in this series for a deep dive into the game's mechanics and to see how AI helped to provide a means to remove this one obstacle to me enjoying the board game mode.Related links