Viva Pinata I recently discovered that there was a PC version of Rare's XBOX360 game, Viva Pinata. Like Theme Park, but you run a garden and have to attract and please a multitude of pinata-like animals. Deep and addictive gameplay, reminiscent of old-school management sims, with a bit of Harvest Moon and Pokemon thrown into the mix. May 18, 2019  Hi my name is Lily could someone give me a date or number of viva pinata party animals. What date is the game going to become backwards compatiable. Please answer this is my favourite game playing when i was little and now i cant play it because our xbox 360 doesnt work anymore and now i have an xbox one so please let me know.

We like nata. I mean, we really, really enjoyed the quirky mix of farming and animal reproduction.

It was really pretty and deceptively complex too - unquestionably a product of the house of Rare - and about the best thing the once mighty development house has released in the last few years. So it came with some degree of trepidation to learn that the Viva Pinata licence had been farmed out to the talented but distinctly foreign development team Krome - Australia's largest studio. Did they manage to keep the flavour and charms of the original?After a few hours' play with the title, even the most forgiving player will still struggle to comprehend what's going on here.

It's not so much that is a dud game - it's just that it's looking somewhat redundant, and has more than a whiff of 'cash-in' about it. That, and it lacks a lot of the compelling structure of many other party games out there. The whole experience feels haphazardly tied together and the whole structure of the game suffers for it. At a basic level, off the back of the 4Kids television show and product tie-ins, a party game seems like a great idea. It is - and the game starts off well enough. You can choose from eight characters from the show - male and female Horstachios, Fudgehogs, Pretztails and Fizzlybear. What, no spice weasels?

The game kicks off with an introductory cutscene that kind of outlines the premise for the game. The contestants are all being televised and each round of the competition (particularly the racing) makes up a segment of the show. This cutscene leads straight into your first race. The load screen gives you a handy reminder of the controls, which are actually kind of complex, given the young target market. Acceleration is set to the right trigger, while A jumps you, B sends you into a powerslide and X fires off whatever items you've collected - which we'll delve into shortly. Party Animals features a little over 50 mini-games, about half of which we enjoyed.

Some, like the circular arena-based game of spotlight (stay in the light and collect candy as it falls) treads very closely to several others that take place in the same setting; there's a lot this kind of retreading. This figure also includes 12 raceways that you compete on intermittently between mini-game bouts. First off, the racing is pretty fun. The courses are full of multiple routes, speed pads, offensive and defensive items. You can double your size, use wings to propel you over obstacles, strap a jet to your back and launch yourself forwards.

There are cluster rockets and honey-slicks to add a bit of aggressive tactical spin to the racing too. Our beef is not with the racing mechanic - we've played far worse - but in how it is slotted into the game. Racing from start to finish in a cross-town format doesn't feel like a mini-game because it isn't.

It deserves its own section on the menu, like a mini Grand Prix or something along those lines. The rapid change from racing to mini-games back to racing is jarring and doesn't give the racing the attention it deserves. By the time you've enjoyed the track's tricks and come to grips with the smaller finesses of the weapons and items, the race is over and forgotten. The mini-games, which really should be grouped together, away from racing action, pit you in all sorts of situations. Some, like counting how many pinatas are hiding behind a screen using simple maths seem almost chore-like. Others, such as smashing apart pumpkins for candy and some of the more physical challenges are far more fun. There are your run-of-the-mill 'avoid the obstacle (snowball, spinning arm) while collecting candy' tasks too.

A few are downright fun, even - trying to cover up as much white space with your own splotches of paint while painting over your competitors' colour becomes a cutthroat challenge. One of the more intriguing aspects of the game is that you're not always playing as a pinata. Sometimes, you're playing as the aggressive, tribal Ruffians or manipulating coloured cursors, baseball bats and more. That definitely adds another angle beyond the sugary cuteness. Plus, breaking out with a baseball bat on an inanimate pinata in a tree raises all sorts of strange questions about cannibalism and whether pinatas are actually aware of what they are. But I digress. These games are mostly fun, disposable stuff.

But the lack of focus or structure really makes us wonder why anyone would bother. If you're going to follow Mario Party to the bank, you can't leave out the essential between-games gameplay. Mario Party had board game-style maps that explained why you were competing in the various bite-sized gameplay scenarios. If Krome is going to divide mini-games up with races, why not place characters on Pinata Island and have them race between mini-game locations? Give us a sense of placement and structure before asking us to gather as much candy as possible for no real payoff other than coming in first overall after a dozen or so rounds. This makes us sad, because with a bit more thought applied to the game mould itself, this could be a real gem. Krome clearly had Rare's full asset catalogue on hand because the game does look very good.

Race tracks feature massive horizons filled with bubbly villages, trees, mountains and smaller details that will impress. It's a good thing too, because it's the presentation that's really going to sell the game to its intended under 12s market. That, of course, is the ultimate argument in the game's favour - this is not a game for critics or experienced gamers. If you go in expecting a challenge, you're going to be disappointed. In fact, the game kind of belies its lessened difficulty by including an option to 'keep things close' between you and your AI nemeses - presumably for people like us. Moreover, the game practically gives away its achievements. Ten points just for competing?

From a several millioncitizens megalopolis to a hyped seaside resort, to an industrial city,everything is allowed in Cities XL 2012! Imagine and conceive cities of all types and sizes.

Twenty for coming first? Unlocking five achievements at once? Odd and not uncommon. Are kids more discerning today than five or ten years ago? When it comes to games, we think that's a big yes. So, will the game make enough of a splash with the licence alone, seeing as the gameplay is only partially up to scratch? That, friends, is a game of wait and see.

Viva Piñata: Party Animals is a video game developed by Krome Studios for the MicrosoftXbox 360video game console, part of the Viva Piñata series. The game was announced in July, 2007, and was released on October 30, 2007 in North America, November 15, 2007 in Australia, November 16, 2007 in Europe, and December 6, 2007 in Japan.

Unlike the original Viva Piñata, Party Animals is based on elements from the television show, including its characters and voices. Furthermore, the title provides a minigame based experience, similar to the Mario Party series, rather than the sandbox environment of the original. There are over 40 minigames, as well as kart-style races which are conducted on foot.

Gameplay[edit]

Similar to other casual Xbox 360 titles such as Fuzion Frenzy 2, Viva Piñata: Party Animals is framed as a game show, where contestants compete against each other while announcers provide colorful commentary.

A game of Party Animals consists of three or more race events, each followed by one or more randomly selected challenge mini-games (depending on selected game length). The goal is to be the player who has earned the most candy ('Candiosity') after the final challenge is completed. Games always feature four player characters, although only one of these need be human-controlled. Multiple individuals can play on a single console (causing races to be conducted split-screen), or players can play online via Xbox Live.

Players earn candy based on their performance during the challenge mini-games, with fixed awards for first, second, third, and fourth places. The races themselves do not earn players candy, but instead determine a bonus which influences the winnings from the challenge events which follow. As a result, candy awards are always a combination of these two separate placements, with players required to do well in both event types to guarantee overall victory.

There are eight playable characters: Hudson Horstachio, Paulie Pretztail, Fergy Fudgehog and Franklin Fizzlybear, as well as their newly introduced female counterparts.

Development[edit]

Viva Piñata: Party Animals was developed by a team of roughly 60 people at Krome Studios, the first Australian studio to develop a first-party game for Microsoft.^[1] The involvement of Rare, responsible for the original Viva Piñata, was limited to supplying artwork and information about the game's visual style, while Krome retained full control over the design.^[1]

When asked why the studio was chosen, Microsoft VP Shane Kim explained, 'They've got a long history in the industry and we have a ton of respect for their work', referring to Krome's previous efforts on series such as Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and Spyro the Dragon.^[2] In the same interview, Kim also noted that the Viva Piñata franchise was important to the success of the Xbox 360 in the casual game space. He summarized, 'Our aspiration is to win this generation, and in order to do that, we know we have to appeal beyond the core gamer segment'.^[2]

Reception[edit]

Viva Piñata: Party Animals was not particularly well received by the gaming press, despite the appreciation of its vibrant visuals. IGN criticized the fact that many of the mini-games were simply minor variants of each other, with most being aimed at young children. The review remarks that, 'A few of them will be enjoyable for those under the age of seven, but if you're any older than that there's absolutely no challenge to be found within Party Animals'.^[6] The GameSpot review similarly frowned upon the lack of true variety, noting that '.. the [minigame] variants end up feeling so similar to one another that the game might as well just have six minigames'.^[4]

Somewhat more positive remarks were earned from TeamXbox, where the reviewer felt that the better mini-games balanced out the poorer ones. The review concludes, 'The wide range of minigames almost guarantees everyone will find at least something they like in the title, and I’ve yet to find anyone who didn’t get a thrill out of the game’s fast paced racing'.^[7]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abKolan, Patrick (2007-07-31). 'Viva Piñata: Party Animals AU Interview'. IGN AU.
2. ^ ^abSinclair, Brendan (2007-07-12). 'E3 '07 Q&A: Microsoft's Shane Kim'. GameSpot.
3. ^'Viva Pinata: Party Animals (xbox360: 2007): Reviews'. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
4. ^ ^abDavis, Ryan (2007-10-31). 'Viva Pinata: Party Animals for Xbox 360 Review'. GameSpot.
5. ^Theobald, Phil (2007-11-05). 'GameSpy: Viva Pinata: Party Animals Review'. GameSpy.
6. ^ ^abAhearn, Nate (2007-10-30). 'Viva Piñata: Party Animals Review'. IGN.
7. ^Chapman, David (2007-10-30). 'Viva Piñata: Party Animals Review (Xbox 360)'. TeamXbox.

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