This E3, a lot of people were expecting Nintendo to announce a new Animal Crossing project, probably for the flagging Wii U. A lot of things had pointed at such a thing happening, so anticipation was running high. And then, at E3, Nintendo announced not one, but two Animal Crossing games. Except none of them were really Animal Crossing games- they were Amiibo based spin offs, one each for the Wii U and 3DS.
Speaking with USGamer, series director Aya Kyogoku explained that the decision to create Animal Crossing spinoffs arose largely from the development team’s desire to see Animal Crossing Amiibos. Yes, that’s right- these two games were built as nothing else but vehicles for more Amiibos that Nintendo wanted to put out.
“One thing that we focused on was, ‘What kind of game play experience can we create using Amiibo figures and Amiibo cards?'” she said. “We also went in with the approach that we didn’t want to be limited in the scope of what we can do based on what Animal Crossing in the past has been. So this is the result of our endeavor and coming up with a new game play experience with Amiibos and Animal Crossing.
“Initially when the Amiibo was announced, there was nothing really said about Animal Crossing Amiibos or any plans for that matter,” she explained. “But as the Animal Crossing team, we were confident that if there was one, it would be really cute… honestly, we just wanted Animal Crossing Amiibo. We wanted the company to make Animal Crossing Amiibo, so that’s why we made a game that works with them.”
I mean, I guess I appreciate the honesty, and yes, Amiibo integration with Animal Crossing is great, but this admission that they basically made two entire games for no other reason than to push Amiibos made me lose quite a bit of respect for Nintendo.