10 Video Game Spin-Offs That Insulted The Fans

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the best selling games for the Nintendo Switch, having moved close to 40 million copies of its relaxing, social sim goodness. What started as an obscure Japanese-only IP has blossomed into one of Nintendo’s most recognisable properties.

With City Folk on the Wii and New Leaf on the 3DS, the series’ popularity had begun to grow and fans waited patiently for the Wii U instalment. However, rather than the next mainline title, Animal Crossing became the focus of perhaps the most vapid attempt at selling plastic crack.

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival is a board game style spinoff title that has all the charm and warmth of the series on its surface but underneath is worryingly more insidious. The game heavily relies on players having as many Amiibo figures and cards as possible. Different game modes are locked behind specific figure purchases, meaning that the supposedly optional peripherals outright gate off content of a title that was sold at full $60 at launch.

Worst of all, even after buying all the necessary models, Amiibo Festival is just boring. There’s nothing much to do. Animal Crossing in general is not a series about skill, so this game relies on blind luck, rendering it tiring and pointless to sink time into.