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WiiU

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival To Be Free To Play

by Donald Theriault - June 17, 2015, 1:35 pm EDT
Total comments: 12 Source: TheBitBlock

...but you still need Amiibos.

It appears that the only cost of entry to the Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival is itself the Amiibo.

According to Youtube personality TheBitBlock, the game will be a free download that just requires the Amiibo to start.

Retail bundles for the game are listing on websites, but the bundle has already been confirmed to include two Amiibo and three Amiibo cards.

Talkback

ejamerJune 17, 2015

Does that explain why gameplay seems to be... missing?  Video I saw showed basically no meaningful interaction.

ejamerJune 17, 2015

(Not meant as a complaint - I'm still possibly interested and think the Animal Crossing Amiibo figures look adorable.  Just didn't see anything really happen during the gameplay sample.)

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterJune 17, 2015

So basically the game will be worthless the moment scalpers take up the entire stock of Animal Crossing Amiibo. Wonderfu.

Mop it upJune 17, 2015

I don't know if this is exactly free-to-play...

It's good they're doing this at least, I wasn't sure they would since they didn't with Happy Home Designer. If it requires the AC amiibos though then I don't think I'll play it.

SorenJune 17, 2015

Free-To-Look-At-The-Title-Screen

Good luck finding amiibo!

ZachyJune 17, 2015

This is something I think that they should've announced during the direct. I may have missed it so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Overall, what a weird show Nintendo did for this E3!

I guess this is "free-to-play" in the same way that Amiibo-Tap is free-to-play. However, unlike Amiibo Tap's always-on-a-timer experience, this actually seems like a full end-to-end game. And let's not forget that Amiibo Cards will work just as well as Amiibo Figures for the game! Yikes I just read this on an official description of the game: "Use Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards in fun minigames." So maybe there could still be that free-to-play IF you can find Amiibo muahahaha aspect at play here >_<




http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/media/40471/4/49.jpg

Axe23June 17, 2015

Quote from: ejamer

Does that explain why gameplay seems to be... missing?  Video I saw showed basically no meaningful interaction.

Just wanted to point out that during the Treehouse they mentioned that there is more to the game than the boardgame that they've showed off and they aren't talking about whatever that content is yet.

The game did look light on mechanics in the stream, but I did notice a lot of really cool touches that make the board come to life. For example, there's a day-night cycle and the game seems to follow a calendar progression with events on certain days of the week (in-game time). So you'll buy Turnips just like in the main series. Each of the spots on the board has a Turnip price and you have to try to sell your Turnips for a profit. Red showed up and sold cards that helped you in the game (advance 5 squares, roll the dice twice in a turn, etc). The Fortune Teller showed up and basically gave the players a boon or a curse (for the next five turns you'll lose money every time someone rolls a 2, etc). The calendar showed a fishing contest upcoming, but they didn't play that long.

In short, it looked incredibly simple and easy-going--like a REALLY attractive version of a kids board game. The presentation is really the reason to be at all interested in the game. It really does look beautiful, the music is the same fantastic music from the main series, and the writing of the events in the game is right in line with what you'd expect from Animal Crossing (I do worry there won't be enough of these though, it's going to get really old getting your hair cut over and over again...)

Unlike the main series I don't think the board game will appeal to as wide a swath of gamers. I'm really excited to play with my little girl, but I wouldn't be trying to play this with my 'gamer' buddies. Who am I kidding, I have no friends :-) Of course that assumes that I can even get hold of the Amiibos to play the game at all.... I am glad to hear that you don't have to pay for the software itself at least, but Nintendo's track record keeping these toys on the shelves has been really hit and miss.

Quote from: Kairon

I guess this is "free-to-play" in the same way that Amiibo-Tap is free-to-play. However, unlike Amiibo Tap's  always-on-a-timer experience, this actually seems like a full end-to-end game. And let's not forget that Amiibo Cards will work just as well as Amiibo Figures for the game!

Awesome! I missed that bit. This should help make sure I can actually play this. Although I think I will have to try and get my daughter one of the actual figures...they look fantastic! What...I swear, they're for her...they're FOR HER. I...uh... (runs away and hides with his collection of toys)



Quote from: Axe23

Awesome! I missed that bit.

Actually... despite that official image, I noticed this from an official description of it

"Use Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards in fun minigames."

So uh... now I'm scared again >_

KhushrenadaJune 17, 2015

Huh.

When this game was revealed and I was watching the trailer, I was impressed with how well the Animal Crossing world could be made into a board game and thought it was a rather neat idea. However, I never saw any mini-games played which suggested it wouldn't be like a Mario Party. From the other game clips shown, I was then wondering if it might be like a Fortune Street type game but there seems to be no property that is bought or sold but rather it is about acquiring happiness points. Ironically, buying property and renovating and building it up would be in-line with Animal Crossing along with buying and building other things like Public Work Projects. It also seemed like there was only the one map. I was then worried about the variety of game-play this might offer.

Considering it is free to play with only the Amiibo costing the player, I have a feeling it is pretty simple game play and there may only be 2 or 3 maps altogether. It looks like a weird game of Monopoly where you can't buy property and have to rely on Chance and Community Chest cards to advance. It also makes me wonder how much money Nintendo is making on Amiibo to put this idea forward. At the same time, it is the biggest thing to justify the purchase of an Amiibo so far after Mario Party 10. MP10 had Amiibo allow a traditional game mode to play. In the case of this AC Amiibo, buying it is like buying a game unlike other Amiibo which offer small or simple gameplay advancements or options and you hope it might be used in another game besides Smash.

For the first time, I'd actually be willing to buy some Amiibo but it still depends on the finished product. That said, I was also more interested in the cards for Happy Home Maker anyways so if they work I still may not bother with Amiibo as I like the compactness and potential cost savings of cards.

TOPHATANT123June 17, 2015

It's not just pure luck, I think there is some element of buying and selling turnips or something.

StratosJune 17, 2015

Quote from: TOPHATANT123

It's not just pure luck, I think there is some element of buying and selling turnips or something.

Khush, we better get our old turnip racket fired up again!

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