Nov 2nd marked another Nintendo Direct from the Japanese gaming giant, this time focused on a brand new set of features coming to Animal Crossing: New Leaf under the Animal Crossing Welcome amiibo free software update. The update, which went live alongside the Direct, is actually quite extensive.
Series producer Hisashi “Harvey” Nagomi opened the Animal Crossing Direct by introducing amiibos via a gigantic KK Slider. There’s a variety of features connected to amiibo support, too. The adorable genie spirit Wisp is back with amiibo cards. 50 villagers are coming to Animal Crossing: New Leaf via these cards, and adding in new villagers is as simple as tapping amiibo cards onto the 3DS. Wisp then calls the villager into the world, allowing the player to bring new neighbors in based on the cards they purchased. Some of these new villagers include Vivian, Ike and Stella.
There’s also “town initiatives,” where doing everyday things like shopping or catching bugs builds MEOW (short for Mutual Exchange of Wealth) Coupons. CAT Machines give you MEOW Coupons, and you can buy unique furniture from Higarashi himself (implemented into the game as the anthropomorphic dog Harvey) at his campground. Amiibo cards and figures can be used to bring villagers into the campground via their RV.
There’s also a secret storeroom introduced by Tom Nook. It doesn’t add a room into the player’s house, but rather acts as an invisible closet that they can access. This allows users to empty their pockets, which is the bane of every Animal Crossing player’s existence. Not to mention, the brand new update allows players to organise furniture via the 3DS’s touchscreen, so there’s no need to move furniture by hand anymore: just place it in. If only real life were that easy.
For Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer players, save data can also unlock 20 giant furniture items. And for those players tired with their town, they can sell it to Tom Nook for an enormous amount of bells: no need to erase.
There’s also a variety of spin-off minigames available through the update. For one, there’s Animal Crossing Puzzle League. The game is essentially a row matching game taking place in the New Leaf world. Then there’s also Desert Island Escape, a multiplayer turn-based survival simulator for Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival.
Sadly, it’s clear Animal Crossing would miss the Wii U, and it’s still a mystery whether Nintendo Switch will see an Animal Crossing release soon. But for now, there’s quite a bit of new features for Animal Crossing: New Leaf players.