Hello everyone, I noticed a lot of people really don't talk about this game especially since it is considered infamous by many in the Animal Crossing community, but I thought I should share my thoughts and hear what everyone thinks about this game as well! 
As a big Wii U fan and collector along with being a huge Animal Crossing fan, I just had to give this game a try. I managed to snag a copy of the game for less than $3 and paid around $10 at Five Below for Kapp'n and Timmy & Tommy Amiibo figures (much better than paying $60 for it brand new back in the day lol)! Due to this, my thoughts on this game do not cover the minigames available after 2 rounds of the board game which require Amiibo cards to play (which is a bummer, but whatever), but I do plan on getting Amiibo cards in the near future to give them a try! Before explaining my thoughts and to explain how positive my experience was, I did win my first round, but got 2nd in the next round (& I'll explain later on how that happened). Before sharing my impressions here's how you play the game for those who have never played and are curious (for those who have already played, feel free to skip the next paragraph):
In Amiibo Festival, the goal of the game is collect as many Happy Points as possible before the "month" has cycled through or when the set timer (which I think is not available until you play the board game the 2nd time from what I remember) has run out to win. With these Happy Points, you can level up your Amiibo to unlock additional outfits and you also can earn Happy Tickets which are used to unlock the individual minigames (so yeah, you need to play the board game a good bit to unlock everything). You can earn these Happy Points by landing on certain spaces, interacting with players when you land on the same spot (but, usually something bad happens instead in that case), collecting the 4 stamps at each corner of the board, rolling a good number with the dice, during events that occur throughout the round over the course of the "month", from Taro Card bonuses (obtained by Katrina), and for every 1,000 bells in your wallet by the end of the game (1 Happy Point/1,000 bells). Winning the game seems straight forward, but it definitely requires strategy and also good luck to outdo the computers (they are surprisingly smart). Throughout each round, you will have visiting special NPCs (like Redd) and actual holidays and events (like the Bug Off) will occur as well that will each affect the game in a fun & refreshing way while also helping you as well. The only event I found that didn't help you is when Joan visits and takes bells from you because apparently some stupid kids destroyed her turnip patch, but she also does good things too (like give you extra turnips) so it depends on the round I guess! xD With Katrina, you are able to get Taro Cards which will give you special bonuses each time a player rolls a certain number with the dice. This can be very useful depending on how everyone rolls so it's a matter of luck. Another neat feature in the game is that you can get cards that do various functions like giving you a guaranteed roll of a specific value to changing the stalk market trends on turnip prices (this can be very fun depending on the card since you can possibly screw other players over with it xD). You can have as many as 2 at a time in your inventory and they unfortunately cost bells to use. You can acquire these cards by playing a game with Katie when she visits town (or you can trade cards with her), buy them from Redd, or get them when Dr. Shrunk is in town and you land on his event tile. All I can say is use your cards wisely because they don't come by often and could be essential to winning (especially if you need to land on a certain space to get the ultimate payoff on turnips). After all the strategies I tried, I found that fully utilizing the stalk market to your advantage by buying as many turnips as possible each Sunday and selling them in the best spot possible (out of all the likely options you will have available in a "week" worth of turns) is key to winning. Once you find the strategy that works best for you, winning every game is almost guaranteed as long as luck is on your side. If there is anything important I missed, everyone feel free to mention them below with your replies! lol Now, on to my impressions.
When it comes to my positive impressions of the game, I found the game to be very charming and inviting. The graphics, the dialogue, the simple fun it offers, and many other factors honestly drew me in and I played a couple rounds without getting bored in the process. I think one of the biggest gems of this game is definitely the dialogue, it is just so well-written and charming! It definitely makes me wonder where they go with dialogue with the next game... I also loved how laid back, but yet hectic at the same time the game was (especially if you were trying to sell your turnips). The game is designed to encourage you to smell the roses along the way, but yet you still have goals you need to achieve as well for victory.
When it comes to my negative impressions, I think the biggest thing for me is not being able to skip dialogue during a computer player's turn (especially when Dr. Shrunk came in town because he always took FOREVER compared to the other visiting special NPCs on top of the annoying music). Another complaint I had as well was when certain events occur that give a player a ridiculous advantage over other players and defying the overall balance the game overall has. An example of this was when a computer player somehow got 90,000 bells (which is a TON of bells in Amiibo Festival) from a single event, of them somehow growing a bell tree, during my 2nd round (I was winning big time before this happened). This also occurred right before Sunday as well where the computer player could easily buy 90,000 bells worth of turnips which could easily double their bell count! My last real big complaint is the fact that you have to have Amiibo cards to play the minigames even though the Amiibo figures have the exact technology inside of them! >_> I know a lot of people think using a Amiibo to roll the device or play the game instead of a simple button press is stupid, but I honestly found it neat since it was a interesting way of using the Wii U gamepad NFC reader.
Besides these flaws, I found this game good overall (not very good or excellent because of the flaws mentioned) as a Animal Crossing fan. I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like it, but if you try to enjoy it for what it is especially as a Animal Crossing fan, there is a lot to appreciate there! My hypothesis of this game's existence is that they were developing a Wii U AC game that never came to be due to the poor Wii U sales and Nintendo didn't want to waste the assets. I know this was a long read, but thank you to everyone who has taken time to read this! What are everyone's thoughts or experience with this game?
As a big Wii U fan and collector along with being a huge Animal Crossing fan, I just had to give this game a try. I managed to snag a copy of the game for less than $3 and paid around $10 at Five Below for Kapp'n and Timmy & Tommy Amiibo figures (much better than paying $60 for it brand new back in the day lol)!
Due to this, my thoughts on this game do not cover the minigames available after 2 rounds of the board game which require Amiibo cards to play (which is a bummer, but whatever), but I do plan on getting Amiibo cards in the near future to give them a try! Before explaining my thoughts and to explain how positive my experience was, I did win my first round, but got 2nd in the next round (& I'll explain later on how that happened). Before sharing my impressions here's how you play the game for those who have never played and are curious (for those who have already played, feel free to skip the next paragraph):In Amiibo Festival, the goal of the game is collect as many Happy Points as possible before the "month" has cycled through or when the set timer (which I think is not available until you play the board game the 2nd time from what I remember) has run out to win. With these Happy Points, you can level up your Amiibo to unlock additional outfits and you also can earn Happy Tickets which are used to unlock the individual minigames (so yeah, you need to play the board game a good bit to unlock everything). You can earn these Happy Points by landing on certain spaces, interacting with players when you land on the same spot (but, usually something bad happens instead in that case), collecting the 4 stamps at each corner of the board, rolling a good number with the dice, during events that occur throughout the round over the course of the "month", from Taro Card bonuses (obtained by Katrina), and for every 1,000 bells in your wallet by the end of the game (1 Happy Point/1,000 bells). Winning the game seems straight forward, but it definitely requires strategy and also good luck to outdo the computers (they are surprisingly smart). Throughout each round, you will have visiting special NPCs (like Redd) and actual holidays and events (like the Bug Off) will occur as well that will each affect the game in a fun & refreshing way while also helping you as well. The only event I found that didn't help you is when Joan visits and takes bells from you because apparently some stupid kids destroyed her turnip patch, but she also does good things too (like give you extra turnips) so it depends on the round I guess! xD With Katrina, you are able to get Taro Cards which will give you special bonuses each time a player rolls a certain number with the dice. This can be very useful depending on how everyone rolls so it's a matter of luck. Another neat feature in the game is that you can get cards that do various functions like giving you a guaranteed roll of a specific value to changing the stalk market trends on turnip prices (this can be very fun depending on the card since you can possibly screw other players over with it xD). You can have as many as 2 at a time in your inventory and they unfortunately cost bells to use. You can acquire these cards by playing a game with Katie when she visits town (or you can trade cards with her), buy them from Redd, or get them when Dr. Shrunk is in town and you land on his event tile. All I can say is use your cards wisely because they don't come by often and could be essential to winning (especially if you need to land on a certain space to get the ultimate payoff on turnips). After all the strategies I tried, I found that fully utilizing the stalk market to your advantage by buying as many turnips as possible each Sunday and selling them in the best spot possible (out of all the likely options you will have available in a "week" worth of turns) is key to winning. Once you find the strategy that works best for you, winning every game is almost guaranteed as long as luck is on your side. If there is anything important I missed, everyone feel free to mention them below with your replies! lol Now, on to my impressions.
When it comes to my positive impressions of the game, I found the game to be very charming and inviting.
The graphics, the dialogue, the simple fun it offers, and many other factors honestly drew me in and I played a couple rounds without getting bored in the process. I think one of the biggest gems of this game is definitely the dialogue, it is just so well-written and charming! It definitely makes me wonder where they go with dialogue with the next game... I also loved how laid back, but yet hectic at the same time the game was (especially if you were trying to sell your turnips). The game is designed to encourage you to smell the roses along the way, but yet you still have goals you need to achieve as well for victory.When it comes to my negative impressions, I think the biggest thing for me is not being able to skip dialogue during a computer player's turn (especially when Dr. Shrunk came in town because he always took FOREVER compared to the other visiting special NPCs on top of the annoying music). Another complaint I had as well was when certain events occur that give a player a ridiculous advantage over other players and defying the overall balance the game overall has. An example of this was when a computer player somehow got 90,000 bells (which is a TON of bells in Amiibo Festival) from a single event, of them somehow growing a bell tree, during my 2nd round (I was winning big time before this happened). This also occurred right before Sunday as well where the computer player could easily buy 90,000 bells worth of turnips which could easily double their bell count!
My last real big complaint is the fact that you have to have Amiibo cards to play the minigames even though the Amiibo figures have the exact technology inside of them! >_> I know a lot of people think using a Amiibo to roll the device or play the game instead of a simple button press is stupid, but I honestly found it neat since it was a interesting way of using the Wii U gamepad NFC reader.Besides these flaws, I found this game good overall (not very good or excellent because of the flaws mentioned) as a Animal Crossing fan. I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like it, but if you try to enjoy it for what it is especially as a Animal Crossing fan, there is a lot to appreciate there!
My hypothesis of this game's existence is that they were developing a Wii U AC game that never came to be due to the poor Wii U sales and Nintendo didn't want to waste the assets. I know this was a long read, but thank you to everyone who has taken time to read this! What are everyone's thoughts or experience with this game?
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