Amiibo Detestible - Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival

...
...
Well...
Yeah...
Hello beautiful people of the Internet...
And not so beautiful ones...
This is...
Uh... This is not good!
Uh, yup...
But this isn't enough, oh no. Let's take a moment to... 'appreciate' the wonders... of how a game this bad can exist!
Now, now Sin, calm down a second... I assure you this game isn't... you know... it's not that bad.
Yeah right! Just... ugh! This is Animal Crossing... (sigh) Amiibo Festival...

The faces of Tom Nook and K.K. Slider here are accurate depictions of the average Amiibo Festival player.
Bask in the indifference.
The face of Isabelle here is an accurate depiction of the average Ren playing this game.
Don't make it sound like I enjoyed this disappointment!

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, released in November on the WiiU, is another example of Nintendo re-skinning their existing IP's to try and turn a further profit. Similar to the Mario Party games, AC:AF is a board game where players aim to collect as many points as possible. In this case, it's money and happiness, which make perfect sense for this game. Animal crossing is like the tamest game for all ages ever made after all. It's just hard to find any enjoyment in the sweet charming world of Animal Crossing in this one. Like I get it Sin, Mario Party, although they've been getting worse and worse since Mario Party 7 came out, is still a widely popular and fun game. So why not get more worth out of the board game concept? Why? I'll tell you why. Because this is not the way to do it!

AC:AF is nothing short of what I would call a 'bored' game. Yes, it does have it's charms, Ren will continue to blather on about them, but it really is just a slow little board game at the cost of £40 or so. The gameplay consists almost entirely of touching an Amiibo to the WiiU gamepad to roll the dice, and choosing which way you move. That's it. There's not even any mini-games, you know, the GOOD part of Mario Party! Calm down a second Sin, jeez... You know board games just like this were a really popular things back in the day, no mini-games or anything. Yes Ren but we paid for a video game. We paid for fun! The game is so simple I could have made it myself pretty damn easily. Where do Nintendo get off selling this thing for full price! AND while you're not restricted to play without using preset guest characters, the game encourages you to buy Amiibos in order to save progress properly if you play a lot. So basically Nintendo have sold us the game Monopoly, except it only comes with the car shaped playing piece and if you want any more you'll have to buy them separate for half the price of the game!

Amiibo. Now with 70% extra rip off.
And no extra gameplay.

Okay yes so it's an overly-expensive electronic board game, that's not to say there's no enjoyment to be had out of it. Animal Crossing games have always been a relaxing experience and this is no exception. The whole point of the game is to move around the town landing on spaces that will trigger events that earn 'happy points' and money, simple as that. The spaces make it immediately obvious what will happen if you land there. Although it's completely down to luck how much you gain or lose, sometimes you'll gain 500 Bells, others 5,000. There's no real way to tell and it drains even more strategy from a largely monotonous game. In addition, the events are so... so... just so dumb that while you'll get a little enjoyment out of them for a while, they'll quickly become dull and repetitive to anyone that isn't a small child. Animal Crossing games have always been fun for all ages, but this one breaks the trend, because I can't see a way that anyone other than a child can enjoy this one for more than one game. "Today I took a shit in the woods. The cops got mad at me but it helped some guy's flowers grow so instead they paid me for it"

"Sin's Chest" "Definitely not Ren's cock"
HEY!

So it may be a bad game but that doesn't mean there's nothing great here. There's a certain kind of Animal Crossing magic taking place here. The game is played around a calendar basis, with a standard game spanning one whole month. each turn is a day in the calendar, and on particular days certain events take place, for example Jingle the reindeer will always come to town on the 24th turn on a December game. It's a nice unique Animal Crossing addition to the game and there's a little bit in there that will make you want to play through all the months to see what there is. Other events also take place daily throughout the week, with half the spaces on the board being related to special NPC's you'll recognize from actual AC games. Katrina the fortune teller comes to town to change your luck and a number of other characters appear. Those events are repetitive as hell though, and you'll wish you never land on those spaces again after the first time trust me. It's always the same, and slows the pace of the game immensely. There's no fun in always knowing what's coming in a party game. 

Ha. Ha ha. I can hardly contain my laughter.
(Excessive laughing)
(Sigh...)

You've been nothing short of ruthless today Sin.
Well I mean I couldn't help it. Mario Party is dull enough. It's deserved for Nintendo leaving us with this filth in place of a game I've been waiting for.
Hey, admit you were still taken in by how wonderful it looks on WiiU.
Oh yes of course, it looks good, but if I can't go fishing properly and build up a lovely collection of fossils then this Animal Crossing is no friend of mine. I barely liked Happy Home Designer too. When are we getting a REAL Animal Crossing game again? I neeeeeeed that stuff.
Sin really loves the little things in life.
Shut up.

Ren Score: 4/10
Sin Score: 2/10

(It's Christmas next week, we'll probably be busy indulging in new games to review for you guys, so there definitely will be no post next week! You have every right to be deeply disappointed in him)