The Animal Crossing games are known for their cozy and relaxed gameplay that involves making friends with anthropomorphic animal villagers and living a peaceful life in whatever setting players are plopped into. One cannot talk about Nintendo’s most successful franchises without mentioning Animal Crossing, but that doesn’t mean it has never missed the mark. Great as the series may be, there is one Animal Crossing title that was critically panned for being repetitive and lacking in important areas. Despite not being well-received, its concept was at least interesting, and maybe Nintendo should consider reusing it in a future project.
Animal Crossing has had a few spin-offs that deviated from the series’ usual gameplay formula, and some found success. However, the one that barely found any was Amiibo Festival, a game that required players to have figurines and cards to use its core gameplay features. While it’s generally considered one of the franchise’s rare misses, the title’s concept of a party game based around Animal Crossing is something that some fans still appreciate Nintendo trying out. Given that it has been over nine years since its release, it may be time for a new game that takes the ideas of Amiibo Festival and refines them.
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What a Title Inspired by Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival Can Do to Be Successful
While Amiibo Festival was a bold spin-off for the Animal Crossing franchise that failed, there were things it could have done that might have allowed it to rival other party games, like those in the Mario Party series. Should Nintendo decide to create another similar title, then it needs to consider things like:
- Putting in more mini-games based around events that many fans of the franchise are familiar with, such as the Bug-Off, Fishing Tourney, and Bunny Day.
- Including better opportunities for customizations that allow players to change the number of turns, alter the amount of points needed to win, set the seasons that a board will be themed around, etc.
- Removing the need to use cards or Amiibos tied to Animal Crossing to play so that it’s accessible to everyone right from the start
If these ideas were implemented in a future spin-off Animal Crossing party game, it could become the hit Nintendo was expecting Amiibo Festival to be. Given that the company loves innovation, and has a reputation for creating quality titles, it may just happen in the future.
How a Future Animal Crossing Party Game Spin-off Coulld Still Use Amiibos
If the Switch 2 has an Animal Crossing game with a concept similar to Mario Party, it could still implement Amiibo Festival‘s core feature of using Amiibos and cards, just to a lesser degree. Instead of making them a requirement to play the game, Amiibos and cards could be relegated to providing purely cosmetic bonus content. That way, people can choose to get them if they want, not because they have to in order to gain access to things that could drastically change gameplay like additional mini-games or modes. Also, Nintendo stands to benefit, as it could revive fans’ passion for collecting Amiibos and cards, which could prompt more being developed for Animal Crossing and other franchises.
Should a new Animal Crossing game try what Amiibo Festival failed to accomplish, it should have a much easier time doing so now, considering what can be learned from the original title’s reception. All Nintendo has to do is refine what worked in the nine-year-old game, remove the parts that didn’t, and add a few new mechanics and features so that the possible title can succeed where its predecessor didn’t.
- Released
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November 4, 2015
- ESRB
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Everyone // Comic Mischief
- Developer(s)
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NDcube, Nintendo EPD
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo