The Worst Animal Crossing Game Still Deserves a Sequel

Combining the aesthetics and charm of the Animal Crossing series with the addictive gameplay of the Mario Party series seems like an easy recipe for success. However, Nintendo massively dropped the ball with Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. What should have been a successful game ended up being a failure, with fans calling it boring and nothing more than a cash-grab way to sell Animal Crossing amiibo. However, the potential was there, and the Nintendo Switch 2 is the perfect chance for Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival to try again.

Where Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival succeeded was in capturing the charm of the series. From the art design to the seasonal themes and the inclusion of fan-favorite characters, the game embraced the cozy, laid-back vibe of Animal Crossing. A sequel could retain this ambiance while addressing the original’s shortcomings by introducing more interactive mini-games, player agency, and strategic elements that elevate the party-game formula.

All Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival would take is a few simple changes and a sequel could do wonders. These changes apply to both the in-game mechanics and the ridiculous need to use amiibo to both play and roll the dice. This heavy reliance on amiibo was one of the game’s most glaring issues along with the boring, slow, and tedious gameplay.

Removing the heavy reliance on amiibo and amiibo cards is the first thing Nintendo must do. Not only was this design choice cumbersome, but it also made the game significantly more expensive considering the number of amiibo for Animal Crossing and the added cost. Instead, Nintendo should simply allow players to use the various controllers for the Nintendo Switch 2 like its other games and allow players to unlock additional content via amiibo. This incentivizes collecting the figurines but does not make them necessary.

Where the most drastic changes are needed is in gameplay. While the Animal Crossing series is known for its laid-back and relaxing gameplay, this does not suit a party game. Instead, Nintendo can utilize the peaceful aesthetic and combine it with thrilling mini-games inspired by the Mario Party series. However, because of Animal Crossing’s gameplay, Nintendo has a way to make Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival 2 stand out.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons introduced tons of new gameplay mechanics, and mini-games could take inspiration from these and those from past games. Collecting bugs, fishing, diving for treasure, picking up trash, and planting flowers are just some ideas Nintendo could use for mini-games. Taking these ordinary ideas and putting an exciting twist on them keeps the core gameplay true to Animal Crossing while making mini-games engaging.

One of the main aspects of the Animal Crossing series is building up a town or city and welcoming new villagers. As such, players should be able to earn Bells by playing mini-games and completing challenges. These could then be used to unlock new villagers to play as and buildings to decorate the player’s town. These could provide various customization bonuses such as cosmetics for villagers and new mini-games.

With so many amiibo and amiibo cards for Animal Crossing, these could be used to unlock villagers automatically. They could also provide unique dice and populate the game boards with these characters. This would remove the need to use them to play the game, but still give a benefit to those who collected them.

When considering designs for boards, multiple boards are a must. These can be based on different seasons and environments. One town could be a summer beach while another could be a winter wonderland. Depending on the season, players could select months that determine what type of events occur. These could offer special bonuses and mini-games, such as ones fitting Christmas or Halloween.

The Bell and Happy Points system is fine, but it needs more quality of life. And to be streamlined. These essentially act like coins and stars from Mario Party, so making this more straightforward in-game would go a long way toward improving Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. Additionally, more unique spaces, possibly taking over other spaces when Visitors appear, would add more variety to play.

There are excellent bones in Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and Nintendo could learn from its mistakes with a sequel. This title would be a great bridge between Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the next mainline Animal Crossing game on Nintendo Switch 2. It remains to be seen if this spin-off title will receive a second chance, but there is a lot of hope despite the first game’s many flaws.

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