Jeff's Gaming Blog

Amiibo Festival Impressions

My copy of Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival recently arrived in the mail, and I gave it a try today. It comes bundled with two Amiibo figures, Isabelle and Digby. It also comes with three Amiibo cards: Goldie, Rosie, and Stitches. That’s a much better group of villagers than what I got when I bought a pack of the cards separately for Happy Home Designer.

The board game is the only mode available from the start. The game does not take place in real-time; each game takes a month of game time. Each turn is represented as a day, and the game ends at the end of the month (which will usually be 30 or 31 turns). A normal game lasts about an hour and 15 minutes, although you can set a time limit if you don’t have that much time available.

An Amiibo figure is required for at least one player, but it’s not a one-time thing. You must hold your Amiibo up to the Wii U gamepad every time it’s your turn; it’s how you roll the die. That seems really unnecessary to me–it’s like you constantly have to prove that you own an Amiibo just to play the game. Why? It’s overkill.

The object of the game is to earn the most happy points (music notes) by the end of the month. You can also earn bells along the way, and those can be converted to happy points at the end. You roll the die to see how many squares you advance on the board. Landing on a pink square is a good thing–you’ll score some happy points or bells. Landing on a purple square is a bad thing–you’ll lose happy points or bells. Each space will have a story behind it. Maybe you’ll catch a fish, which is worth a certain number of bells. Or maybe you’ll find out that you accidentally broke your zap helmet, and you’ll lose bells as you pay to repair it. A variety of things can happen, but they rarely seem to be interactive. You just take what you’re given.

A number of Animal Crossing characters make cameo appearances. For example, Shrunk may appear on a certain day. If you land on a special event space on that day, he will give you a card (after you suffer through a corny joke of his). The card may be used to roll a specific number. You can use it to make sure you land on a good space rather than risking a regular roll of the die.

If Katrina the fortune teller is visiting, landing on a special event space lets you choose a card. I got a card that gave me a bonus any time someone rolled a 1–but the effect only lasts for one week (7 turns).

Joan also appears on Sundays to sell turnips, which you can then sell on Mondays through Saturdays. Each space you land on will have a turnip price. You can choose to sell at that price or hold on to your turnips until later in the week. Any remaining turnips will always be sold on Saturday, though.

There will also be seasonal and holiday events. On fishing tournament days, every space is transformed into a fishing space. Whoever catches the largest fish (fishing is automatic) will get the largest bonus at the ceremony. During the harvest festival, spaces will change into ingredients; everyone works together to collect all of the ingredients needed for Franklin’s dish.

I ended up winning my first game, and I was told that my happy points will be saved to my Amiibo. As I earn more, new outfits and emotions can be unlocked. How exciting. More importantly, I’ve unlocked the ability to play the board game in other months, to experience different seasons and events. There are also other modes to play, but I haven’t unlocked those just yet.

So how is the board game? In a word, boring. Choosing when to sell turnips and when to use your special cards is really the only semi-strategic moves you can make; everything else is just random. In that way, it’s much like a regular boring board game. And most of the time is spent waiting as the other characters make their moves. There aren’t any fun mini-games, at least not so far. This is nowhere near as fun as a Mario Party game.

Perhaps the other modes will be better. But so far, this game seems like a dud. I do enjoy the graphics and the Animal Crossing charm. But that just makes me want a real Animal Crossing game. The graphics alone aren’t going to cut it.

I will have more coverage of the game in the coming weeks, including a video and likely more blog entries as I try out the other modes. I’ll eventually post a review as well, but not until I’ve thoroughly explored the game. So stay tuned!

Here is a gameplay video of the board game as it appears in the month of April. April Fool’s Day and Bunny Day (Easter) are shown.

Splatoon Get-Together #2

I held my second Splatoon get-together yesterday (the first since private lobbies were added). Meli was the first one to enter the lobby, and I had intended to wait before starting the match. But being my first time using a private lobby, I clicked “set teams” not knowing that it would take me to a point of no return. I’ll share the results of each match, along with some notes about some of them.

Match 1: Flounder Heights. In the one-on-one match, Meli splatted me once (and I didn’t splat her at all), but I inked more turf and won the match.

Match 2: Kelp Dome. Tom41 and Ash joined in, so we had a 2-on-2 battle.

Match 3: Camp Triggerfish. Qwerty (Nintendude) joined in, and we had an odd number of players for the first time. That’s one problem with private lobbies, the unused spots aren’t filled by random players, so you often get uneven teams. Even though my team was outnumbered, it felt like I was inking turf almost nonstop and I was surprised we lost by such a large margin (60.7% to 25.5%).

Match 4: Camp Triggerfish. I was letting the game select the maps up to this point, but after it selected Camp Triggerfish (my least favorite map) for a second time in a row, I decided I would pick the maps manually from now on. One funny thing I noticed in this match is that I killed Qwerty with an inkstrike near the beggining of the match–just like I did in the previous match, haha. I was on the team with three players this time though, so it was an easy win.

Match 5: Flounder Heights. One note of frustration: I got inkzooka’d FOUR times in this match: 3 times by Qwerty and once by Meli. Ouch.

Match 6: Walleye Warehouse. This was the worst. Tom and I were against everyone else, and with over a minute to go, the other team was just spawn camping. Hanging out at our spawn point to just kill us repeatedly. This is one of the worst stages for that, since the opening is so narrow, it’s hard to find a way out. Especially when you’re outnumbered. Very frustrating.

Results of the first 6 matches at Get-Together #2. — Results of Matches 1-6

Match 7: Saltspray Rig. Matthew and DJfrijoles joined the lobby…but unfortunately, we still had an odd number of players. It just went from 5 to 7. Even though I was on the team with more players this time, I had a rough match. I felt like I could never get going, dying six times. My team was doing a good job of controlling the upper portion of the map, so I was fighting for the lower part. Unfortunately, the other team seemed to have multiple members there and they kept splatting me each time. No matter where I went, they were there. Even though my team won and I was shockingly 2nd on my team, this was not a fun match. For me, dying repeatedly is even more frustrating than losing. That’s why I’m not a fan of ranked mode, it’s just a kill-a-thon most of the time.

Match 8: Arowana Mall. I was on the 4-person team and we were dominating early, but the other team fought back and made it reasonably close. We won 52.8% to 38.8%.

Match 9: Blackbelly Skatepark. I was on the undermanned team this time, along with Qwerty and DJfrijoles. We lost 65.2% to 28.4%.

Match 10: Port Mackerel. Tom left the lobby prior to this match, so we had an even 3-on-3 battle here. Or at least it started out that way–Matthew got disconnected during the match. I died more than I would have liked here, but Ash and Meli carried my team to victory.

Match 11: Moray Towers. Matthew returned, but now DJfrijoles left, so we had an odd number of players once again. Ash and I were the 2-person team, playing against Qwerty, Matthew, and Meli. Even though Ash and I lost pretty badly, 62% to 28.8%, this match was a lot of fun for me. There were a few times I escaped bad situations, and being chased by a Kraken made me feel like a ninja squid at one point leaping down level to level–even if I did fall to my death once. I know a lot of people don’t like Moray Towers, but it’s seriously one of my top three maps. I just love the thrill of sneaking past (or plowing through) an enemy, inking up their ramps, and being able to jump down to flee when necessary.

Match 12: Bluefin Depot. I was on the 3-person team this time, and we won without much trouble.

Match 13: Hammerhead Bridge.

Match 14: Urchin Underpass. This was the final match. I was actually going to stop prior to this match, until I realized we hadn’t played Urchin Underpass. Qwerty left before the match, so we had an even 2-on-2 match. It was Matthew and I against Meli and Ash. It felt like a close match early on, but Meli and Ash started dominating late.

Results of matches 7-14 from Splatoon Get-Together #2. — Results of Matches 7-14

Afterwards, I tried to figure out who Matthew and DJfrijoles were. But I discovered that they are not on my friend roster at all. I was under the impression that my open lobby would only show up on the lists of people on my friend roster, but that’s apparently not the case. Oh well. I have no problem with other people joining in.

Haunted House – Atari 2600

Each October, I try to revisit some Halloween games and/or try out a new one. This time, I went old-school…very old-school…to play Haunted House on the Atari 2600 VCS. It’s a game I’ve played before briefly, but I never really got into it. Until now, that is.

The object of the game is to venture into an old abandoned haunted house, find (and assemble) three pieces of a magic urn, and then escape out the front door. The problem is that there are 24 rooms in the haunted house (six each on four floors) and many of the doors are locked. Oh, and there’s no electricity, so you’ll be in the dark (except in the first mission, which is essentially a training stage). In fact, all that you can see of your character is your eyes! To see where you’re going, you’ll need to light a match. You have an unlimited supply of matches, but they only last for a limited time. And they’ll be blown out automatically if an enemy enters the current room. In case you’re wondering, the enemies you’ll encounter are tarantulas, vampire bats, and ghosts. If one of them touches you, you’ll lose one of your nine lives.

Somewhere in the mansion, you can find a magic scepter that will protect you from enemy attacks; it’s an extremely useful thing to have on-hand. There is also a master key hidden in the house that will open all locked doors. But there is a catch, of course. You can only carry one item at a time: the scepter, the key, or the urn (or urn pieces–they automatically combine when you find more than one). So juggling those items is crucial to completing your mission. Each floor of the house has multiple stairways, so you may have to take roundabout ways to reach certain areas when you’re not holding the master key.

The game has nine different variations, each more difficult than the last. The first one has lights on and all the doors are unlocked, but later levels have no lights, locked doors, more enemies, and so on. In some variations, the scepter won’t protect you from ghosts. Regardless of which variation you play, the urn pieces and other items are placed randomly, so the game will be different each time.

Of course the graphics and sound are extremely simple, but the effects are done well given the limitations of the system hardware. You’ll hear the gust of wind blowing out your match when an enemy enters a room and you’ll hear thunder (and see the house light up temporarily from lightning). Haunted House isn’t very difficult once you learn how to play, and the games will generally be quite short. But it is fun to play, especially this time of year. I haven’t completed all nine missions yet, but once I do, I’ll be back with a review. In the meantime, feel free to check out my other Atari 2600 reviews or my reviews of Halloween games. Have a great Halloween, everyone!