Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival

Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is a party game for the Wii U, announced during Nintendo's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 presentation on June 16, 2015. The game was released on November 13, 2015 in North America, on November 20 in Europe, and on November 21 in Japan and Australia. The game came packaged with Isabelle and Digby's amiibo figures and three amiibo cards.

Not much was revealed about the game during the Expo, other than a few minutes of gameplay. The game's main game mode is a party board game in which a variety of Animal Crossing characters travel around a board and collect points, similar to the Mario Party series. Homes designed for villagers in are able to be transferred into the game.

A series of new amiibo figurines, including Isabelle, K.K. Slider, Tom Nook, Mabel, Reese, Cyrus, Lottie, and Digby, were released with the game, as leaked a few days prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo event. Blathers, Celeste, Kicks and Mr. Resetti were revealed as additional amiibo. A third and final wave of amiibo consisting of Rover, Kapp'n, Timmy & Tommy (as one character), and a variant of Isabelle wearing her Summer Outfit was released in 2016 making the final character roster have 16 characters (for the Board Game mode).

Board Game
Between one and four players can play the Board Game mode, where participants compete to earn the most Happy Points. Prior to beginning a game, each player must tap in an amiibo on the GamePad, in order to select the character they will play as. Players that do not tap in will use a Villager as their avatar. After choosing characters, the players select a month to play, which determines the events that can occur during the game (such as Bunny Day and the Fishing Tourney.)

A player's turn begins with a die roll to determine how many spaces they will advance. After moving forward, an event will occur, causing the player to gain or lose Happy Points or Bells; collecting 1,000 Bells earns a player an additional Happy Point. When the game ends, the player with the most Happy Points is declared the winner.

Certain characters from the such as Katie and Joan will make regular appearances on the board and interact with the participants of the game.

Minigames
In addition to the primary Board Game mode, includes a collection of minigames, which are unlocked as the player accumulates Happy Tickets. All of the minigames require the use of amiibo cards. There are eight minigames in total:


 * Desert Island Escape (one player, three amiibo cards) The player must escape a desert island by getting the materials needed before running out of days to escape.
 * Acorn Chase (one player, three amiibo cards) The player must navigate their way through a maze, while watching out for the lawnmower resembling Cornimer.
 * Quiz Show (one to four players, 1-4 amiibo cards) A place for the player to test their Animal Crossing knowledge.
 * Balloon Island (one to four players, 1+ amiibo card(s)) The aim is for the player to tap their amiibo card to get as many points as possible popping balloons, but they should be careful not to fall into the sea.
 * Mystery Campers (one player, six amiibo cards) Similar to a code-breaking board game called Mastermind, the player's task is to try to guess which villagers are camping in tents, and which tent they are in.
 * Fruit Path (two to four players, 1+ amiibo card(s)) The player must try to get as much fruit as they can, while trying to avoid falling into pits.
 * amiibo Card Battle (two to four players, six amiibo cards) The player should tap one of six amiibo cards, and try to get the highest dice number, but if the card they tapped has a starsign that matches the one displayed on the crystal ball, then the reverse happens.
 * Resetti Bop (one player, three amiibo cards) A cross between rock-paper-scissors and Whack'a'Mole, the player must try to whack a Resetti doll that loses to a villager's corresponding rock-paper-scissors symbol.

Reception
received generally unfavorable reviews from critics according to video game review aggregator Metacritic, on which the game received a score of 46 out of 100 from critics. Nintendo World Report gave the game a 4.5 out of 10, calling the game "boring" and "nothing more than a simple board game", along with stating that its content "lacks variety and fun". IGN shared a similar sentiment, calling the game a "snooze fest" while giving it a score of 5 out of 10. While criticized for its gameplay, 's visuals were generally praised by reviewers for their "Animal Crossing charm".