Rolling the dice with Animal Crossing
Judging from the standpoint of an avid Animal Crossing player and enthusiast, the 
concept of new games coming into my beloved franchise is not always welcome. There have been particularly good games (i.e. Wild World, the original game) and mediocre offerings (Happy Home Designer and City Folk). Amiibo Festival is a little bit of both: It’s a fun take on the Animal Crossing universe, but it needs a little bit of polish and more things to do to keep the concept of a board game based on the franchise interesting.
I’ve always referred to Animal Crossing as the series about doing nothing. Amiibo 
Festival takes that concept and turns it on its head. With Festival, you’re tasked with moving around a typical Animal Crossing town in the form of a large board game. The town is transformed by spaces that can be events, Stalk Market sale stops and visits from the usual assortment of guests that visit a normal town in the franchise.
What makes the game fun is the usage of all things Animal Crossing. Game time is determined by a calendar that utilizes events commonly found throughout the series, and villagers that you would encounter in town show up to help out player characters. The player characters themselves are Amiibo figurines that you purchase and input into 
the game. For example, GI has about 25 Amiibo, eight of which are Animal Crossing related (Digby, Celeste, Isabelle, Villager, Tom Nook, Mable, Rover and K.K. Slider) that can be used to play through a session. These characters can collect points to unlock new outfits and modes in the plaza based on game performance. The tie-in to the series benefits the otherwise-tired Mario Party formula and enhances the charm of what would probably be a tiresome exercise in board game management.
Using some of that inherent charm of Animal Crossing, Amiibo Festival plays well and looks great. There is a notable pastel sheen over everything in-game, but it still looks just like you’d expect Animal Crossing to look: Bright, colorful and smooth. Because we’re long past the janky block graphics of the original game, Amiibo Festival is closer in style to the latest game in the series, New Leaf, and it works in its favor. The soundtrack is also in line with the New Leaf era and it’s servicable. It’s not the main feature of the game, so I’m not expecting it to reach the realm of New Leaf’s great tracks, but it’s not unpleasant so it works just fine for what it’s asked to do.
My main complaint about Amiibo Festival, however, has more to do with the polish of the final product and some of the additions. It feels as though there isn’t enough to do in-game, quite honestly. While the board game is fun, it’s not enough to keep me interested long-term. The additions in the plaza — mini-games that use Animal Crossing ideas — are cute but get old quickly, and some are outright frustrating, even for a longtime player like myself.
The trivia section, for example, tests your knowledge of the series. Setting aside the fact that there shouldn’t be a time limit to answer questions that test your prowess of a series that has at least seven games, the questions are incredibly obscure most of the time and require that you have encyclopedic memory and understanding of how the series works. Most people just looking for a fun board game aren’t going to know the answers, let alone know them quickly. I have been playing Animal Crossing since the “Population growing!” days of 2003, and I had trouble with quite a few of the questions asked. There should be more to do, more interaction with the town that you play in and more of an attempt to dig deep into that well of seven games.
Amiibo Festival is a unique take on a series that has managed to endure and improve over the past 15 years with new concepts and innovation. If there is some consolation prize for staying on this board, it’s knowing that while it could use some polish and fleshing out, Amiibo Festival is a good roll of the dice and gamble that paid off for the Animal Crossing franchise.
publish that will be a smash hit by being more creative and sticking to the basics, they churn out five or six copies of the same game without breaking any new ground (i.e. Street Fighter V). I won’t even mention how they studied the Konami code of disposing of one of their greatest game series and its leader. With this view of Capcom off my chest, let’s look at a game that is original and has become a successor to the classic games Ghosts ‘N Goblins and Adventure Island: Maximo: Ghosts to Glory.
protect his kingdom, finds out that his main lady Queen Sophia is captured by his once-trusted adviser, Achille. To make matters worse, Achille has developed a drill that has pierced the underworld, allowing him to create an army of undead monsters to terrorize the kingdom. All is not lost as is seems that as Maximo was free-falling, the Grim Reaper makes a deal for him to return to the living world in exchange for returning the lost souls to the underworld. Maximo accepts and begins his quest to free Sophia and restore the peace taken by Achille. 
Maximo retains the elements from Ghosts ‘N Goblins and Adventure Island but allows freedom to explore all of the stages thanks to its 
tutorials for players to master Dante’s moves and his signature weapons. In addition to the tutorials, four different combative arts called “styles” are available to Dante, giving him various abilities to increase the power of various guns, striking weapons, dodge attacks, and unleashing hand-to-hand combat with devastating results. Once Dante defeats a certain boss, he will be able to use them in the form of unique, various weapons. There is a lock-on feature to directly target enemies that, with practice, will be a valuable tool to rip enemies apart. Also in the special edition, there are two modes of play: Normal, which is basic 
elements from the original platforming masterpieces Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3. Joining those are secondary greatest hit Super Mario World and the more recent hit New Super Mario Bros. U. All four games represent some crowning achievement for the everyday plumber and thus have some merit for making you revisit these set pieces to create your own masterpiece.
nitial two and ultimately the majority of your creation library are unlocked via a time system that goes by days. You can speed it up, but it’s intended to make you the creator spend several days trying out the system and getting a feel for new elements in a paced environment. I can appreciate the sense of not wanting too many elements all at once, but the system is a little slow and frustrating when I have a million ideas that I can’t fully implement for several days initially.
perform “Issen” (lighting slash) on various enemies, allowing him to continue forward, giving him a brief minute to defend himself or retreat. Another element is the requirement to solve certain puzzles to obtain certain items or gain access to certain areas. For these puzzles, I highly advise utilizing patience and strong memorization as they have a much stronger effect in Onimusha 2 than in the first game. The final new element is role playing that enhances the storyline. Jubei can not only interact with non-playable characters, but also gain allies who will give information or assist him in boss battles provided he is in constant contact with them or if his allies are not involved in their own plans to defeat Nobunaga.
While the challenges may be different, there isn’t much else different about the games. The music and graphics from the 8‑bit era remain intact and about the only thing that’s changed is the slick modern packaging of the Ultimate Remix itself and the addition of leaderboards and championship mode. So, don’t come into this expecting depth or some magical upgrade to modern day standards of graphics.
repertoire of the Prince, such as the Prince Hop and the King Shock, but otherwise you’re still rolling along to pick up items to make your katamari grow. The series isn’t known for its growth and this is a major reason why. While it’s easy to control the Prince and maneuver the Katamari, there still should be some innovation at this point, five games in.
much like playing any platformer of the past 20 years and the control scheme is simple and intuitive in letting you figure out what to do and how to apply it later. Where it falters is the jumping mechanics. While obvious and simple, the jumping does feel slightly off and floaty, which is a problem in a game that relies on that mechanic to carry it. It’s annoying to have to re-do sections of a level solely because of a missed jump, and that detracts from the core experience.
times and keep eyes on the product. At its core, it’s a game about samurai and other warriors fighting to the death. What sets it apart from the competition — even from within its own stable with brethren King of Fighters — is its production values. The games have always been gorgeous and there’s a level of detail that hasn’t been seen in other series except for the likes of Tekken. Within the collection of that is Anthology, all of the naturally gorgeous artwork and level of detail is on display. It’s important that this be emphasized because that’s what Samurai Shodown is about at the end of the day: Samurai fighting to the death while looking fantastic.
soundtrack is an excellent concerto of Japanese bamboo flute and shamisen. This may not float your boat, but for a package that focuses on samurai, this is an excellent choice to make up the backing soundtrack.
with, the music, characters and graphics are top-notch and the story is simple. My only complaint is that there’s one cheap-shot character that loves to pounce. For all of the SoulCalibur clones flooding the market these days, I proudly say Samurai Shodown Anthology has great replay value, and it 
It’s simplified even more thanks to the Wii’s Classic controller, GameCube controller, third-party arcade sticks and the regular Wii remote. You will love the character roster consisting of each companies’ top franchises such as Street Fighter, Rival Schools, Viewtiful Joe, Lost Planet, Darkstalkers/Vampire and Mega Man for Capcom while Tatsunoko is represented by Karas, Tekkaman, G‑Force and Yatterman. There are other characters that can be unlocked via use of money (Zenny) earned in each game, which also will allow purchase of alternate endings, costume changes and other unlockable surprises.