Game Card
Viva Pinata: Party Animals (Xbox360)
- Publisher:
- Microsoft Games
- Developer:
- Krome Studios
- US Release:
- 30.10.2007
- EU Release:
- n/a
- Number of players:
- 1 - 4
- Type:
- Other
- Reality Factor:
- Fantasy
- Extra:
- Virtual Life
Review
We play Viva Pinata: Party Animals...
Although actual piñatas are hollow by design, it’s a contemptible shame that their spin off game is equally devoid of substance. Viva Piñata: Party Animals struggles to recapture the innovation of its progenitor, nor provide the slapstick escapism of good humoured mini-games.
Viva Piñata certainly wasn’t a game for everyone, but there’s no denying the remarkable innovation and depths of fascination provided by what was essentially a gardening and wildlife sanctuary simulator. And the success naturally meant sequels would be waited for on pins and needles. What we have here is a spin-off, rather than a sequel, and as is often the case, the rampant homogenisation of beloved characters has watered down the ingredients to saline flavoured, unwholesome junk food.
That’s not to say Party Animals hasn’t retained the vibrant, playful visuals and atmospheric audio of its spiritual predecessor. Certainly the papier-mâché animals look great and dance their endearing jigs about the screen with the charm and eccentricity that first grabbed our eyeballs in the gardening simulator. But their antics have been savagely reduced from being living, breathing eco-system components to shallow vehicles for repetitive, uninspired mini-games.
Ah, mini-games. These are rapidly becoming the scourge of the industry. The Wii has successfully pulled off several mini-game compilations, though their success is due wholly to the innovative controllers. Without those controllers, the gameplay (such as that seen in Party Animals) is reduced to running in circles and mashing buttons; desperately trying, and failing, to keep your attention on the screen.
With up to four players (either huddled around one X360 or online, which would have been a superb feature if the game was half decent) Party Animals pits the Mexican mammals against each other in a variety of unimaginative challenges and an endless stream of repetitive foot races. Every third game is a simple jaunt around a simple race course, with so little happening it becomes dull after the third race – and even a mid length game contains about ten of these lacklustre chases.
The mini-games consist of variations on no more than three or four themes, and few of them ever really inspire much excitement. Whacking random items and collecting candy (which substitutes points) is the basic tactic for most games, and skill comes into play so rarely that winning becomes a matter of who can jab the most buttons the fastest. The games might require hitting a hanging box as it swings past, chasing small piñatas around a ring and picking up the candy they excrete. Or some kind of timed jumping and picking up of more candy. I’m boring myself even talking about it.
When there’re only a couple of players, the computer takes control of the additional party animals to keep the action at least moderately competitive. And yet, these NPC’s suffer from wildly divergent intelligence; drunkenly re-enacting scenes from the Three Stooges during certain games, then suddenly achieving such impossibly high scores in the next that third place is the absolute best a human player could aim for. Essentially this removes the system controlled players from all the games, and a party with only one person isn’t much of a party at all.
It’s clear this is intended to try and steal a few young gamers from the Wii dominated market, but Party Animals makes the fatal mistake of underestimating its audience, be they young or… not quite so young. The packaging suggests 40 different games, but the consistence of the overall banality means I couldn’t nearly be arsed to count them, and neither could I persuade my original quartet of gamers to stick around long enough to ensure we’d tested them all out. When I found myself alone at the Piñata Party, I too decided to make my excuses and leave.
If you want a great kid’s game for the Xbox 360, the original Viva Piñata holds far more potential and appeal than this trite and shameless peddling of a previously valuable franchise. In this arena, the X360 is never going to compete with the Wii (and never really intended to), yet the original title could teach young gamers that great games don’t have to be mini – they can be involved, engrossing, dynamic, and considered, evolving as you play and requiring intelligence over dexterity. Not so here, I’m afraid.
If you don’t have a Piñata game, the original is the only choice. If you already own and enjoy Viva Piñata, don’t sour your opinion of it with Party Animals.
Top Game Moment: Superficial is the only word for Party Animals, but that at least means that 90% of the games are a delight to behold.
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| Quite what’s going on here it’s nigh on impossible to say. The game’s filled with cut scenes and quirks apparently designed to camouflage the shallow depths of gameplay | When you’re not ambling through Mario Kart-esque races, the actions generally confined to single screen arenas |
Viva Piñata certainly wasn’t a game for everyone, but there’s no denying the remarkable innovation and depths of fascination provided by what was essentially a gardening and wildlife sanctuary simulator. And the success naturally meant sequels would be waited for on pins and needles. What we have here is a spin-off, rather than a sequel, and as is often the case, the rampant homogenisation of beloved characters has watered down the ingredients to saline flavoured, unwholesome junk food.
That’s not to say Party Animals hasn’t retained the vibrant, playful visuals and atmospheric audio of its spiritual predecessor. Certainly the papier-mâché animals look great and dance their endearing jigs about the screen with the charm and eccentricity that first grabbed our eyeballs in the gardening simulator. But their antics have been savagely reduced from being living, breathing eco-system components to shallow vehicles for repetitive, uninspired mini-games.
Ah, mini-games. These are rapidly becoming the scourge of the industry. The Wii has successfully pulled off several mini-game compilations, though their success is due wholly to the innovative controllers. Without those controllers, the gameplay (such as that seen in Party Animals) is reduced to running in circles and mashing buttons; desperately trying, and failing, to keep your attention on the screen.
 |
 |
|
| Collecting candy in Party Animals is akin to winning tickets from those rubbish games at the arcade, and the prizes are equally unsatisfying | Yeah, yeah. Another foot race. If you’re prepared to persevere with Party Animals, get ready for a constant stream of repetition |
With up to four players (either huddled around one X360 or online, which would have been a superb feature if the game was half decent) Party Animals pits the Mexican mammals against each other in a variety of unimaginative challenges and an endless stream of repetitive foot races. Every third game is a simple jaunt around a simple race course, with so little happening it becomes dull after the third race – and even a mid length game contains about ten of these lacklustre chases.
The mini-games consist of variations on no more than three or four themes, and few of them ever really inspire much excitement. Whacking random items and collecting candy (which substitutes points) is the basic tactic for most games, and skill comes into play so rarely that winning becomes a matter of who can jab the most buttons the fastest. The games might require hitting a hanging box as it swings past, chasing small piñatas around a ring and picking up the candy they excrete. Or some kind of timed jumping and picking up of more candy. I’m boring myself even talking about it.
When there’re only a couple of players, the computer takes control of the additional party animals to keep the action at least moderately competitive. And yet, these NPC’s suffer from wildly divergent intelligence; drunkenly re-enacting scenes from the Three Stooges during certain games, then suddenly achieving such impossibly high scores in the next that third place is the absolute best a human player could aim for. Essentially this removes the system controlled players from all the games, and a party with only one person isn’t much of a party at all.
It’s clear this is intended to try and steal a few young gamers from the Wii dominated market, but Party Animals makes the fatal mistake of underestimating its audience, be they young or… not quite so young. The packaging suggests 40 different games, but the consistence of the overall banality means I couldn’t nearly be arsed to count them, and neither could I persuade my original quartet of gamers to stick around long enough to ensure we’d tested them all out. When I found myself alone at the Piñata Party, I too decided to make my excuses and leave.
If you want a great kid’s game for the Xbox 360, the original Viva Piñata holds far more potential and appeal than this trite and shameless peddling of a previously valuable franchise. In this arena, the X360 is never going to compete with the Wii (and never really intended to), yet the original title could teach young gamers that great games don’t have to be mini – they can be involved, engrossing, dynamic, and considered, evolving as you play and requiring intelligence over dexterity. Not so here, I’m afraid.
 |
| It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to. And you will |
If you don’t have a Piñata game, the original is the only choice. If you already own and enjoy Viva Piñata, don’t sour your opinion of it with Party Animals.
Top Game Moment: Superficial is the only word for Party Animals, but that at least means that 90% of the games are a delight to behold.
