‘Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival’; The Party Game That Builds Friendships!?
For a genre that’s meant to bring family and friends together for some lighthearted fun, party games have this terrible habit of making people hate each other. Never just letting the roll of the dice decide the game, it’s become commonplace for the genre to rely on mini games, item collecting, and the ability to sabotage other players. While entertaining, it’s wise not to play with people that you actually want to stay friends with when the day is over.
Which is why after playing Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, I was pleasantly surprised to find that none of that tomfoolery was present when it came to our animal friends. Supporting up to four players with each Amiibo serving as a game piece, (much like Mario Party 10‘s Amiibo Party mode, complete with the annoying need to tap your character with each dice roll,) the citizens of the village aren’t out to harm their friends, but instead, spread happiness throughout the town. Each section on the board represents an activity, whether it’s shopping, styling your hair or participating in a competition. After an adorable scene plays out describing the event, it will award either Happy Points or Bells, with the latter being used to cash in for more of the former. The player with the most happy points at the end wins, spreading some much needed joy to the bloodthirsty world of virtual board games. That’s not to say that there aren’t ways to end up losing points or for other players to gain an advantage, but don’t expect three on one gang beatings either.
Each space describes an activity in town, like a trip to the salon!
In addition to this mostly passive method of play, the maps themselves are inspired by Animal Crossing‘s calendar system. With each turn taking up one day, the scenery and weather will change with each passing day. Though the amount of time a game takes can be customized, the standard matches will run through one full month, complete with special events for any holidays that happen to fall in that time frame. It manages to capture the spirit of why the series is so popular within a completely different genre.
With all of that said, that’s not to say that the mini games aren’t there. More specifically, Amiibo Festival has a dedicated mini game mode, pushing the theme of friendship even further by forcing the animals to work together in what can only be described as Nintendo’s version of Lost. Trapped on an island, the animal team has a certain amount of turns to gather materials to build a raft for their escape while quelling their hunger at the same time. Using materials to build tools like fishing rods for food, shovels for digging up hidden Pitfalls that would cost you your turn otherwise, or saving them for your great escape, this side game asks the animals to pool together their resources to meet a common goal. The catch? This mode can only be played with those Amiibo cards you might have seen pop up in stores for minutes at a time. While the game comes packaged with a few, it’s not enough to play the full island game, so you’re going to have to drop a few extra Bells if you want the complete experience. This goes double for the main mode, which will obviously need two more figures outside of the bundled Isabelle and Digsby if you want to experience four player games.
Mabel would be getting shoved off the podium if this was Mario Party.
With only a week away before the festival hits our doorstep, we can’t wait to put some time into the full game. It’s unique take on the party genre that Nintendo revolutionized so many years ago has the potential to be a huge hit with families or the type of gamers who want a more passive experience. My only concern so far is whether or not the less competitive nature of Amiibo Festival will take away from some of its long term appeal. Still, it’s impossible to deny that the game is shaping up to be a crowd pleaser for fans of the series, and we’ll make sure to deliver our full impressions once Animal Crossing returns to consoles on November 13th.
