Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival: Turnip Prices and Teetering Friendships.

My friend was recently given Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival for his 21st, so naturally as a fan of the original games I had to try it out. We got a host of Animal Crossing veterans round, plus a couple of newbies, and gave it a test run.

For those of you who don't know, in Animal Crossing you spend your days building and improving a town full of colourful and cute characters as one of the residents. However, Amiibo Festival is completely different and can be thought of more as a digital board game with chances for random events occurring as you make your way around the board, collecting bells (currency) and Happy Point. The person at the end of the game with the most Happy Points wins, and bells can be converted into Happy Points at the end of the game.

Overall, if you're looking for a game similar to the others in the Animal Crossing franchise, this game isn't for you. However, if you want to spend an afternoon playing a board game that'll have you reminiscing over the best and most fun elements of the games, then you're in the right place.

I've played Amiibo Festival about 5-6 times now and I still love it. You take it in turns to roll the die by holding your Animal Crossing amiibo over the censor pad (or pressing 'A' if you don't have an amiibo) then choose the direction you want to go. Wherever you land, there's a little interaction with the animal villagers then you'll either gain bells or Happy Points or lose them, depending on what you land on.

On odd occasions, special characters can visit your town and there's a chance you can interact with them and gain special bonuses if you land on a space with their face on. Personally, I love when Redd the fox visits because you can get some great 'cards' that you can use to determine the amount of spaces you'll move that turn from him, though he doesn't stick around for long.

The game is played in months, with each round lasting one day. Depending on which month you choose to play in, certain days have special events like Toy Day (Christmas) and Halloween. There are also fishing tournaments and bug competitions where for a round all the spaces change to rods or nets respectively and you have to catch the largest fish or bug to earn happy points. What frustrated my friend most was when he landed on a space with a silver rod and caught a ten inch fish, I landed on a regular rod and caught a fourteen inch fish and won. There's a fair bit of luck involved here.

But my favourite (and equally least favourite) part of the game comes down to turnips. In normal Animal Crossing games, Joan the boar visits and sells you turnips on Sundays which you can then sell for a higher price to Tom Nook, much like in a stock market. In the normal games, there's not too much risk involved. In Amiibo Festival it is everything. The 'stalk' market will make or break your game. And possibly your friendships.

Buy as many as you can and sell them for as high a price as you can before the prices crash - and they will crash. Right after your friend has sold all of theirs and you're waiting one round, hoping to sell for a better price. Crash. Burn. Hurl your Isabelle amiibo out the window. Or your friends can buy the card that makes the prices fluctuate. They might land on a space buying at 320 bells while you've landed on one buying at 50 bells. On a Saturday. When the game automatically forces you to sell your remaining turnips.

That aside, I love this game. Personally it's right up my street. Cutesie and simple are great for a lazy day. There are even mini games you can play, as long as you have some actual animal crossing cards, though I'm really only a fan of the quiz mini game which tests your knowledge of Animal Crossing items. If you play the main board game enough, you can even unlock new outfits for your in-game amiibos or build extras into your town that unlock new routes around the board.

Overall, it gets an 6 out of 10 from me. It's lots of fun and there's many things to do, but like all board games there is a sense of repetitiveness. However, with the addition of levelling up amiibos and improving the town through playing again and again, it's still got great replay value and is totally kid friendly if you want to play it with a younger audience too (family time, huzzah!). I only hope in the future that they create a few more maps or include more spaces in the town to add even more new features or villagers to interact with!