In this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo event, one of the most surprising details came from game bigwig Nintendo. The Japanese game publisher has announced that a spin-off of the highly-successful "Animal Crossing" title will be making its way to the Wii U before the year ends. The upcoming game, "Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival," will be a showcase of most of the familiar characters from the original series. 

Although no other details were revealed during the event, most observers guessed that the upcoming title's gameplay might be like that of "Mario Party," wherein the characters progress by completing mini-games spread across a board visualized as locations in villages. In the game, the players can actually control the animals instead of being given a traditional player character. The board is also synced with the game's turns, each turn being one full day in the village. 

As it turns out, the main focus of "Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival" is on the figures themselves. It was designed to showcase both the title and the amiibo figurines that would definitely come with the game. 

According to the makers, the original characters would look "cute" as their amiibo selves. Speaking to game observer site US Gamer, series director Aya Kyogoku said that she thought there should definitely be "Animal Crossing" amiibo toys, and she and her team decided to create a game that requires the figurines to play.

"Initially when the Amiibo was announced, there was nothing really said about 'Animal Crossing' Amiibos or any plans for that matter," she said. "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."