Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash Fail to Chart in the UK

You'd think that a game with Mario in it would sell regardless of quality, or at least, that's what people have always said. I'm not impressed with either Mario Tennis or amiibo Party, and I don't think a lot of people are. Mario Tennis has too little content for its €50 price tag, amiibo Party is just an amiibo cash grab. Too bad, because both games definitely had potential.

Not surprising but the big question is whether the same happens for Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Nintendo shouldn't rushed them. ACF belonged on mobile and Tennis was released way too soon

@Grumblevolcano I really hope not. X is a excellent game that deserves good sales.

Even though the UK market might not be that big, I'm surprised that Mario Kart 8, pretty much no longer actively supported since May, is still selling well (better than Splatoon, actually, so I'm wondering if those are all bundle sales or if it even manages to sell retail versions). Should Nintendo reconsider the support schedule, at least of future Mario Kart games?

Mario Tennis is actually GREAT fun..training your amiibo and battling online is so much fun. Please give it a try.
I played animal crossing festival once and although it's cute...its very childish. Will probably put on ebay. Not as good as Mario Party by a long shot.

Ultra Smash looks like a game ready for a stream of updates a la Splatoon, yet with Splatoon they announced that would happen before release, so I'm not hopeful for Tennis...

Drop the market already

What do expect from an Animal Crossing Spin-Off that sucks?

And a Mario Tennis game which has absolutely NO CONTENT AT ALL??
This game would actually be pretty good, if just only they were minigames or a Story mode....

man, nintendo, get it right... This makes me sad!

Doesn't seem that surprising. They were both pretty unremarkable games.

(although it's not like the general public usually agrees with me on stuff like this )

I love all these reviews of Animal Crossing Festival from people that haven't played it with the target audience. For something that many people haven't bought there does seem to be a lot of 'expert' opinion.
The game is fine. The amiibo makes the product look more expensive to a parent, not cheaper. The gameplay is shallow but accessible to the very young and their families.

Biggest problem with Amiibo Festival is price. By not offering it unbundled as a download it's just too much for something that looks like a game for young children.

There better be a main series Animal Crossing on Wii U next year and it better support ALL Animal Crossing amiibo figurines and cards...

Two cynical cash ins and yknow people can see that. Hence they decided to vote with their wallets.

Who would have though.
Two games no one wanted dont sell well.
This wasnt really fortune telling to see this comming. Mario Tennis felt rushed from the beginning, when the mushroom powerup was the "go to feature" of this iteration.
And the AC bordgame just disappointed way too many fans desperatly waiting for a console version of a proper animal crossing game.
Not to mention that all these amiibos for it are extremely intimidating for every collector.

@Octane This pretty much.

Unsurprising, really. Again, with zero advertising for Ultra Smash or Amiibo Festival, how does Nintendo expect consumers to be aware of either title? Splatoon was advertised everywhere, and even the most gaming-averse parents have heard of "that paintball game with the squids." In comparison, I visited both Smyth's (where I bought my copy of Amiibo Festival plus the other 6 AC amiibo figures) and Game, and whilst both stores had the figures on shelves, neither store were displaying the game itself on shelves, so even if you were just passing the Nintendo section, you wouldn't be aware of the game's existence. Smyth's had the game hidden behind the counter, and I couldn't see it in Game at all.

Epic fail, Nintendo.

My own opinion regarding Amiibo Festival is that it's fun with friends but the single player experience is bland when playing the board game. Gaming the Stalk Market seems to be the only (intensely, in my case) strategic element to the board game. The Desert Island Escape minigame is great, but not enough to redeem the whole package. Overall? Worth a buy only if you're the most hardcore Animal Crossing fan, otherwise it's clear this package is designed to sell as many amiibo as possible, and actual content is an afterthought. Which is a real shame, because the game is gorgeous to look at, and the music is as pleasing as ever.

Shocker.

I member of my family who is a Big Animal Crossing fan bought the new 3ds and the Wii U Animal Crossing games.

Her review or the 3ds one is 'not very good'. And the new Wii U Amiibo Festival, review 'poo'.

It arrived Saturday and she e-bayed it Sunday. She took a £10 loss to get rid of it before e-bay becomes flooded with them.

Both the 3ds and the Wii U games were designed as a platform just to sell Amiibo toys and cards. ££££££££$$$$$$$$

I hope that Nintendo Life's review does not try to defend this rubbish. Otherwise there will be a lot of disappointed Animal Crossing fans on Christmas morning.

Nintendo are asking £112 on their website for the game and some Amiibo toys.
This is a Gamers website not a Toy collectors website; lets not stray down the wrong road of confusing the two.

Got Ultra Smash cheap and deservedly so. Content at the price I paid though. Saw KK in a Smyths and had to pick him up though!

I wonder how many of you actually played Amiibo Festival Because the game is pretty delightful, albeit slow-paced, but definitely relaxing and generally happy. It's for the family gaming sessions with folks that don't grasp Mario Party's mini games. Yeah, from the perspective of a übergamer this game must be stupid and silly, but it's a fine piece of entertainment Also, the hidden gem is the island escape, it could be it's own game for 3DS for example, it's pretty good!

@zool Nintendo are asking for less than £50 for the game. They are asking for over £100 for the game and a stack of extra Amiibo plus case. i think that's too expensive, but they are not asking for £100 for the game.

@KomrathDE This.

The one example of toys-to-life that makes sense and it's being criticised by people who haven't even played it. Of course if you don't like board games you wouldn't be interested in it, but if you do it's a good game.

@the-madprofessor It makes sense in theory, but the execution is shallow, forced and it's being represented in it's marketing as some sort of Mario Party-esque game, when it is nothing of the sort. It's slow, disjointed and feels exactly like what people are accusing it of; a way of pushing Amiibos at the expense of gameplay. I'm sure there will be fans that will enjoy this; there were a lot of Sonic fans that actually liked Sonic Shuffle. That doesn't make it a good game, and sales reflect the confusion, poor reviews and lack of interest.

I just hope Nintendo is pulling a Splatoon with Mario Tennis, and releases update after free update post game, otherwise yeah, its tough to justify full retail price for that.

A LOT of pressure on Xenoblade then. The one Wii U game that has to be really good and hold Wii U owners over till next year. It's not going to attract many kids sadly, but hopefully the older gamers will all go buy it....I hope.

@Angelic_Lapras_King It has to hold up for 3 months to be exact. The next big wii u game is in March

To the surprise of nobody.

Good. Both games are a joke. Worst holiday lineup ever. Fortunately, Xenoblade X is coming.

Well both Mario Tennis US and Animal Crossing AF seem to have been sent out to die by Nintendo.

Games that are very poor in content and receive practically no advertising are bound to fail,especially when released during the peak holiday shopping season, going up against heaps of AAA games everywhere.

@Grumblevolcano I think Xenoblade will be different. For a start, it doesn't look awful.

Honestly I'm not surprised. Animal Crossing looked like a complete failure from the get go and Mario Tennis is probably the least exciting Mario sports game. Mario Strikers would have a killer holiday title but what kind of company would listen to its fans/consumers.

Looks like Zenoblade should be a good game though. Problem is 60-70% of people who own a Wii U won't buy it because they are kids/families.

Kinda glad to be honest.

I was hoping Amiibo Festival, at best, would take on the old Mario Party formula that Mario Party abandoned. Nope, it's just an half hearted attempt to cash in on Animal Crossing fans. I'll at most look for Isabelle sold separately either if Nintendo decides to do so or simply looking on Ebay, that's about the extent of my interest.

Mario Tennis is a shallow attempt at a Mario Tennis sequel. I'm actually glad this failed for a reason other than the lack of effort put into it. This might send a message to Nintendo that things won't sell just because they stick Mario on the front, hopefully making them tone down the Mario spammage.

Nintendo fans don't buy borderline shovelware. Shocker.... not.

I bought Tom Nook and KK Slider amiibo. Thats about as close as I will get to owning amiibo festival.

@whodatninja For those that like and don't mind RPGs. If that's not really your thing, all you've got to go with is that, those filler games in MT and Amiibo Party, or Cloud in Smash...

@Angelic_Lapras_King And that is why I'm trying to get an Xbox One this holiday season.

I'm not really into JRPGs as it is(Dragon Quest is the only one that holds my intrest) and the rest of the Wii U's lineup this holiday season looks weak.

Not to mention, the Wii U is not getting Black Ops III, Fallout 4, or the other games that I want to play this holiday season.

Well, at least Cloud will keep me around playing Smash.

This is well deserved, Nintendo.

Well we've had a glut of poorly selling Nintendo games lately. I hope Nintendo learns from this, good job they delayed Star Fox Zero - it might turn out to be really good. I wonder how Federation Force is going to sell now - that could be an even bigger joke.

Bring on XCX I say

Good. Neither of those two games, especially Amiibo Festival, deserve to even come close to the top of any sales charts in any region.

Obvious cash grab is obvious... obviously.

People don't buy poor games.

@RupeeClock @sillygostly Don't get your hopes up. The next installment of Animal Crossing game will certainly use the figures and cards, Nintendo will want even more AC fans to buy the cards and figures. I hope the cards will allow us to bring in said character to live in our village (like in HHD) instead of cycling through villagers to find one we like. That would be wonderful. But the next installment will be on the NX, just like the next Metroid, the next Mainline Mario and the next Retro Studios game. Zelda being the only exception (most certainly launching on both). Putting a AC game on Wii U just wouldn't make any business sense, when they can use that game to help sell the NX.
Would I like it on Wii U, sure, would I like it on NX, sure both are fine for me. What's the better situation for Nintendo, putting it on the NX.
It's still a possibility but just don't get your hopes up.

I for one quite enjoy playing Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, especially the board game, desert island, and quiz show.

The game won't be liked by most, but by no means is a bad game.

On topic the UK has never cared for Nintendo with the Wii being the sole exception.

I would also like to add that I'm enjoying Amiibo festival, it's something different to play and I like that there's new ideas being thrown out there. It's not a Mario Party clone in my opinion, it actually does a lot different to Mario Party and I think the game play is closer to Fortune Street/Boom Street than Mario Party.

Then again I've already been collecting the Animal Crossing Amiibo cards for a few months and that adds to the experience of Amiibo festival.
I spent £82 on the game and 5 amiibos and got a free amiibo case aswell so the game realistically cost me £20 after deducting the value of those items.

Me and my partner are Animal Crossing fans anyway so we weren't gonna turn down this game and we wanted to pick up the Amiibos.

Haven't picked up Mario Tennis yet but I'm tempted because it's £39.99 to download and it comes free with Mario Tennis 64 which I haven't downloaded yet.
Also Toadette, Boo and Rosalina are all playable in that game so it's a huge plus!

@Flopsy86
Someone gets it.
Amiibo Festival is growing on me each time I play it.
I just need to figure out how to build buildings on the board.

I think it's still too soon for a true Animal Crossing game.

I obviously haven't spent much on Amiibos and cards.
Though I do plan to get a few of the AC Amiibos, I have Nook and Digby right now. I plan to trade Isabelle for Mable (I really don't like Isabelle's character) when my cousin comes.
I also plan to get Blathers, Nooklings and a few others.

I can't wait for Xenoblade but otherwise this holiday is pathetic. Nintendo is obviously having too much changes and stuff going on. I really hope they don't go down the road of shovelware and useless mobile apps. A full AC game on Wii U would actually sell a couple of consoles and sell well but no. Amiibo Festival it is.

Mario Tennis was missing too much...being another rushed Wii U game. I even thought Mario Kart 8 didn't have a lot of play through like the previous titles (I still miss the 2-player kart riding of the gamecube version). I'd like to see a new Mario Golf title for the consoles...it's been since gamecube, and I really thought it was a game that would have been perfect on Wii, but sadly, it never happened. Other than that, almost all of the Wii U titles feel like rushed small games...there's nothing really huge that focuses on days and days on end of playing...most can be beaten within a few hours. Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Maker were the only ones that I felt they took their time on.

I really hope that the NX does well, and I hope nintendo starts to take their times on the games and release them more. Hopefully, if the NX gets a bigger audience, we'll see an Animal Crossing title and more goodies, but with the Wii U, the audience is small, so I can see why they're not releasing big budget titles (they'd have to be a number one hit from the start to get the money, due to the small audience). I love my Wii U, but I'm just waiting for the NX right now.