I almost wish Desert Island Escape was available outside the game, like an eshop game to get you to buy amiibos. Because I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Its kind of boardgamey, fairly simple to play, but its great for just quick bursts of something mildly strategic.
Guess I should explain what its like. You get a choice of 3 villagers to form a team. You can spend 2 Play Coins to recruit a villager from your town. Alternatively if you have amiibos/amiibo cards you can scan them and get that villager on your team for free. Well..."free" because I assume you bought the amiibo/cards. As long as you reuse the same team when you play they don't make you rescan them, which is nice.
Different animals will have different skills so building teams can be important depending on the map you're on. If you have water to cross you better have an aquatic villager on your team. Horses can move the furthest but have limited visual range. Cats can fish without a fishing pole. Things like that. I don't have any aquatic animals but have beaten maps with areas only accessible by crossing water. So they arent required but might make your attempt easier.
So the island is a hex grid. There are a bunch of different layouts that stay the same but I believe where you find things are randomized. A lookout tower space will clear the fog around it to show you more of the island. Spaces with question makers can be one of several things: a pitfall trap, an enemy to fight, a fruit tree to shake for fruit, a beehive, or an item.
Items are rocks, string, cloth, and sticks. In between days if you have enough items you can make tools. A rock and a stick can make a shovel or a slingshot. String + stick = fishing pole. Cloth + stick = bug net. These tools can help you deal with the other event style spaces. For example, the bug net will basically remove the chance of bees stinging you if you want to collect honey. A shovel will prevent you from falling into a pitfall trap (which would end that characters turn). You can then bury the pitfall trap on a fight tile to avoid that fight. Slingshot gives you a better chance at winning fights, and the fishing pole lets you catch fish.
The other thing to find on spaces are the parts of your raft, which are 3 logs and a sail. Thats what you're really looking for. You only have 7 days to collect them all and only start with 3 days worth of food. So you must search quickly and also collect food or you will starve and everyone will die and that would be really sad in Animal Crossing. If you manage to build the raft in time you get a score at the end. Searching spaces earns you points as you play, as well as collecting items. The number of days remaining and how much food you still have are also big score boosts at the end. If you manage to pass a target score you will earn some MEOW tickets outside of this minigame that you can use to buy new stuff from the campgrounds.
Anyway, its super fun and you should check it out if you're able. You unlock it by getting a Wii U in-game, by buying it from an amiibo character you scanned into the campgrounds or buy getting lucky with fortune cookies.
