Animal Crossing Puzzle League

Agent S recently asked me to dig up the time capsule that she had me bury last month. So I returned to the northwest corner of town, dug up the capsule, and returned it to the superhero squirrel. It contained a teacher’s desk, and she gave it to me as my reward.

Agent S: For helping me out, you should get what I stuffed in there! Please take this teacher's desk.While I’ve discussed many of the bigger features of the New Leaf update in the previous two blog entries, there are still many small changes as well. For example, you can sit in the RVs and honk the horn…scaring the camper in the process.

Nat gets scared when I honk the horn in his RV.And if you press the A button near the fire pit at the campground at night, you’ll do a little dance!

The fire pit dance at the drive-in campground.

If you have beans (not coffee beans, but the beans you throw), you can toss some (in the daytime) to feed the birds.

Feeding birds at the drive-in campground.

While visiting Arrested, I pretended to use the water pump to cook my beans in the fire.

Jeff, using the water pump: I can cook my beans.

Just in case you’re wondering, some of the special visitors I’ve seen at the campground the past few days include Nat, Zipper, PavĂ©, and Pascal.

Pascal: Hey, man. Do you, like, live in this town? It's a pretty far-out place. Hope it's cool for me to crash here.Yesterday, I used my magic lamp to summon Wisp. I then had Wisp scan my Isabelle Amiibo figure that came with Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. That caused Isabelle’s RV to appear in the front spot at the drive-in campground. That’s Pascal’s RV in the back, if the scallops on the side didn’t give it away.

Isabelle's RV at the drive-in campground.

Isabelle was inside, of course. I decided to order the Isabelle scooter for three MEOW coupons.

Isabelle's RV at the drive-in campground, with the Isabelle scooter inside.But while looking at the list of items I could order, I noticed a Wii U console and a “New 3DS – Isabelle.” The New 3DS and Wii U items are how you play the new mini-games, Animal Crossing Puzzle League and Desert Island Escape! You can get those items from fortune cookies at the Nooklings’ shop (if you’re lucky), but it may be quicker just to check the special RV visitors each day and order them with MEOW coupons. I ordered them both.

But before I ended my game last night, I took a look in town hall. Wisp was standing in for Isabelle! Summoning a special character like this swaps them out with Wisp, so that the character can’t be seen in two places at the same time.

Wisp standing behind the counter at town hall.Animal Crossing Puzzle League

Today, the game consoles arrived! Since I’ve already played a lot of Desert Island Escape on Wii U, that wasn’t my priority for today. I will talk about it in more detail soon, but for now, I wanted to play some Animal Crossing Puzzle League! Just put the New 3DS in your house, walk up to it, and press the A button to start it. It works just like the NES games in the original Animal Crossing.

My New 3DS and Wii U console in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

This puzzle game is essentially the same game as Panel de Pon or Tetris Attack. On a wall of colored squares, you control a cursor that highlights two adjacent squares. By pressing the button, you can swap those two squares. The object is to line up three or more tiles of the same color, which will clear those tiles from the board. Combos and chain reactions are also possible.

Gameplay shot of Animal Crossing Puzzle League.

I started the story mode, which is the only mode available at the beginning. You battle against other Animal Crossing characters, although it’s not in a traditional head-to-head sense. It’s really just a series of one-player levels where you must meet a goal to win. Typically, you just have to clear a certain number of lines before your stack reaches the top of the screen.

Tortimer: Well, I do believe it's game time. Let's go!

Some of the competitors are special characters like Tortimer and Isabelle, and others are villagers of mine. Bob didn’t seem to understand what exactly we were playing.

Bob: I, Bob, promise to give all I have to this pie-eating contest. No matter what the cost!

I beat all of my competitors (including Cornimer at the end), and I completed the story mode. I unlocked four other modes in the process, but I have not played them yet.

You Won Puzzle League!

When I started up New Leaf later on, I had three letters from Nintendo in the mail! They congratulated me on my progress in Animal Crossing Puzzle League, and three gifts were enclosed: a fruit-panel floor, a fruit-panel wall, and fruit-panel cushion.

The fruit-panel wall, fruit-panel floor, and fruit-panel cushion.

The fruit-panel cushion can be customized at Re-Tail to display an orange, a pear, a banana, a grape, or a peach.

My recent dream visitors have been Nonnie from Area 11, David from Sparta, Erin from Reversi, Allen from Pallet, Scott from Maverik, and B from Titania. Thanks for stopping by!

And just a reminder that Friday Night Forest is this Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This won’t be a theme night, so dress however you like.