Animal Crossing: New Leaf Amiibo Update Detailed In Strangest Nintendo Direct Yet

As promised, Nintendo has revealed the new features in Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo with a new Direct broadcast. In what is unquestionably the strangest Direct presentation we've seen in quite some time, Nintendo spends nearly 17 minutes discussing what's coming along with amiibo support. The Direct wasn't all fluff, however, as it turns out there's a significant amount of new content to cover.

First and foremost, this update to New Leaf will add a new campground area to your town. The campground is where a lot of the amiibo-based content takes place. Using any of the 50 new Welcome amiibo cards (which launch on December 2), you'll be able to invite characters from previous Animal Crossing games to visit your town's campground in their RVs.

By visiting their RVs, you can interact with these villagers and buy items for your home that you can't find in the main game. Interact with these villagers enough and you'll be able to invite them to live in your town. Each RV you visit will have its own theme, and by scanning amiibo from other games like Splatoon or The Legend of Zelda, you'll be able to unlock special crossover content in New Leaf.

There's also added support for the 16 existing Animal Crossing amiibo figures. By scanning the actual figures on your 3DS, you'll invite these characters into your town to play special mini-games and unlock new items. Nintendo has developed two mini-games for this update, called Desert Island Escape and Animal Crossing Puzzle League, and previews both of them in the Direct presentation.

There are also new features that don't require amiibo figures or cards. The first is the addition of MEOW coupons, which are awarded for completing town initiatives and can be exchanged for items at the campground. There's also a new camera mode that allows you to snap augmented reality pictures with Animal Crossing characters.

Nintendo is adding a new storeroom to the game, giving folks who may be drowning in decorations and items a place to store their extra stuff. Finally, new touchscreen functionality is being added to New Leaf, allowing you to arrange furniture in your house using the stylus.

This sounds like quite the hefty update, and it's available now through the 3DS eShop. The update itself is free, but if you don't have a copy of New Leaf, you'll be able to buy a packaged edition of Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo on December 2. If you're a fan of New Leaf and have managed to amass a collection of amiibo, you'll definitely want to have a look at these new features.