Viva Piņata: Party Animals Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 7 November, 2007

Party's over.

Version tested: Xbox 360

There's footage of me (in one of those Eurogamer TV Shows Johnny makes when he's not hob-knobbing with Jo Wiley) positively agape with delight at the sight of all my old Viva Piņata friends dancing merrily across Microsoft's E3 mega-screen. This is because I love Viva Piņata. I cuddle it when I go to bed. It was one of the best games of 2006 and I have many happy memories of playing it on cold winter evenings, the warming sights and sounds of a flourishing garden coaxing me further into the night. What the camera failed to capture, however, was what happened next. As the true nature of Party Animals became apparent, my jaw undropped itself and clenched, the smile disappearing from my face in a cascade of furrows and despairing creases. Mini-games. Why not just piss on my face?

That said, we shouldn't be surprised: Viva Pinata was originally conceived as a way of helping the Xbox 360 appeal to kids and families (so much so that poor old Rare had to avoid using the hard disk in case people bought Core Systems), and seems to have failed to do that. Some of the Rare folks blamed the marketing budget going to Gears of War, but VP was a bit complicated anyway - not that it bothered its seemingly unintended beneficiaries, us. And so Party Animals, thrown together by Krome Studios using familiar assets from VP and the (surprisingly watchable) TV show, goes in completely the opposite direction, delivering a mixture of dull foot-races and dull mini-games and handing out Gamerpoints like candy.

There are two things you can do with Party Animals: you can play a selection of randomised mini-games interspersed between foot-races with people sat in your lounge, and you can play a selection of randomised mini-games interspersed between foot-races with people sat in other lounges around the world.

'Viva Piñata: Party Animals' Screenshot 1

You can play as four of the better-known characters from the TV show. And girl versions.

Notice how I used the same words twice in a row to make the paragraph seem longer. Annoying, wasn't it? In which case you will probably also find it annoying that you can't create custom playlists of mini-games, and so encounter the same ones over and over again, not to mention encountering the same elements in multiple games because they're all much of a muchness. Take Messy Mayhem and Ruffian Tumble - both involve Ruffians, both involve whacking things to collect candy, and both are rubbish - or Raisant Stomp and Red Raisant Blast - both about stamping on ants, except one of them has red ants as well. Other mini-games include Tail Time, where you have to pin tails on Zumbugs by positioning the cursor in one place and hitting A occasionally, before moving it to the other side of the screen and hitting A occasionally; and Caramel Apple Gobble, where you press A repeatedly to chomp on an apple, tweaking the analogue stick once per bite so you don't munch on the same part twice. That's it.

'Viva Piñata: Party Animals' Screenshot 2

Randomising the access to mini-games seems like a bit of a mistake.

One of the better ones is Piņata Mess-terpiece, where you have to run around a circular game area leaving a trail of paint, trying to outdo other players doing the same thing by repeatedly painting over their bits. This is as strategic as Party Animals ever gets, and I would probably have found it more appealing had this exact idea not been done better in Mercury Meltdown on the PSP last year, and probably in about 400 other places at other points in time. Another homage is Who's Left, which is like that Brain Training DS mini-game where people walk into and out of a house and you have to say how many remain inside. I say it's like that - the main difference is that this is astonishingly easy.

If Mess-terpiece is the benchmark, then, not much is done to rival it. Quick Candy Colours is about being first to hit whichever face button corresponds to the colour of the sweetie on-screen. Ruffians Smack Ahoy is Wac-A-Mole with suicide bombes. There's also Short Fuse, where you realise you're paying GBP 40 to play hot potato. And I can't be bothered to list any of the others. There are 40 or more in total. If you played them all in order, you would see them all within an hour or so. But you can't, because it's random, so instead you will have to play it for longer than that.

Doing so will also give you a chance to muse on the strengths and weaknesses of the racing game bits. These involve running around courses that take you across beaches, through towns and treetop villages, over icy bridges and even hurl you over roller-coaster Ruffian railways. There is no question that each environment is gorgeously realised, bursting with happy themes and lively incidental detail, and you will certainly have plenty of time to appreciate these things as you plod through them collecting a mixture of sub-Mario Kart power-ups, keeping an eye out for the telegraphed shortcut that nobody will ever miss more than once. Winning is largely down to these things, and in competitive multiplayer it's pretty important, as your podium position feeds a certain amount of extra points into the results of subsequent mini-games, so a first-placed racer can still be feeling the benefit a few minutes later.

'Viva Piñata: Party Animals' Screenshot 3

The racing is important to the scoring in subsequent mini-games.

It's hard to say how well that element plays out over the long term, because I was unable to convince my previously willing friends to play more than a couple of full games of Party Animals. Some of them actually left when I proposed another, leaving me to plod through against the AI, which puts up so little resistance (even when you select the option to keep things artificially competitive) that you might as well be playing on your own. Which is a bit of a drawback for programming designed to try and suppress the fact that you are playing on your own.

Anyway, despite my initial reaction to the announcement, I imported this, and popped it into the disc tray hoping against hope that it was more than it seemed. It isn't. It's actually less. There's very little challenge or strategy, and very little imagination has gone into anything besides the visuals, which were done by other people anyway. Xbox 360 wasn't a good system for kids and families before this came out, and nothing's changed. Teach them to play Viva Piņata instead.

3 / 10

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Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #1 4 years ago

    Glad I'm really not interested in it.

    Love the franchise though (even if there's only one game).

  • ccfb #2 4 years ago

    "Mini-games. Why not just piss on my face?"

    I can't believe you'd publish that. You're out of control Bramwell.

  • holy_bazooka #3 4 years ago

    ouch!

  • morriss #4 4 years ago

    Surprise, surprise.

    Hopefully Rare will make VP2 soon and we can all forget this ever happened.

  • Eraysor #5 4 years ago

    VP2 better get made soon. Also: Crash Bash FTW!

  • TriggerHippie #6 4 years ago

    Ouch indeed! I like VP but this was never going to burden my postie.

  • Lukus #7 4 years ago

    Oooh, that's bad!

  • Garulon #8 4 years ago

    "so much so that poor old Rare had to avoid using the hard disk in case people bought Core Systems"

    Erm, almost every 360 game doesn't "use" the hard disk in case people buy Core (or indeed Arcade) systems. Halo 3 and Gears for example, both work fine if you rip out the HDD.

    Watch this crap sell bucketloads :(

  • the_dudefather #9 4 years ago

    was anyone anywhere looking forward to this or expecting it to be good?

  • Saladin #10 4 years ago

    Mini-games are the bane of the current gen systems. The Wii is rife with them, and with the new Arcade system, the 360 looks likely to go the same way.

    Fucking mini-games.

  • mazzl #11 4 years ago

    a viva pinata adventure game would have been the way to go.....
    but nooo..... stupid mini games....

  • goz #12 4 years ago

    'Fucking mini-games.'

    Like the Kama Sutra?

  • SeesThroughAll #13 4 years ago

    Somebody is fed up of mini-game compilations, I can tell. ;)

    Can Tom review all Wii games from now on? :D

  • thedaveeyres #14 4 years ago

    My wallet is breathing a sigh of relief. I don't think we'll see the likes of the original VP again on the 360.... more's the pity.

  • Monkey_Puncher #15 4 years ago

    Sounds like Rare aren't done with the franchise yet, they see a future with real Viva Pinata games. This though is a stinky turd that probably should never have been made, I had enough of mini games about the same time that Mario Party 3 was released...

  • rashes #16 4 years ago

    screw this stuff... please make VP2

  • Darren #17 4 years ago

    Further proof that party games simply do not work on the 360. This game would perhaps have better suited the Wii where its target audience are less discriminating and where the innovative controller might have actually made the game more fun/funnier to play with family and friends. The demo was awful so it's no surprise to me that EG gave it the score they did. Shame really as Viva Pinata was terrific and now the license has been tarnished somewhat by a sub-standard game! Good old Krome, you can always rely on them to come up with duff games... :(

  • Darren #18 4 years ago

    Anyway, enough of this rubbish... can we have the Ratchet and Clank Future review please! :)

  • sd99 #19 4 years ago

    It might be a crappy easy party game - but maybe that's what really young kids actually want to play with their parents. Sure it might have the all the gameplay of a lemon, but young kids enjoy winning with their favourite characters - even if they have no idea what they're doing with the controller...

  • ghearoid #20 4 years ago

    um, is the DS VP going to be based on the original game or this mini-game one?

  • Dan_LXIX #21 4 years ago

    Ask an eight year old to review a game for eight year olds next time, or ask someone with kids. It may score more than 3/10 then.

    My kids loved the demo, and this will be in the sack of pressies on Xmas day.

    Pointless review

  • MrChuckles #22 4 years ago

    I got this free... It sucks.... And i am a fan of Mario Party...

    Then again, i got around 300 achievement points for about 20 mins play, so wasn't all wasted :-)

  • Darren #23 4 years ago

    Dan_LXIX - I've no doubt your kids love the game more because of the characters and charming visuals rather than because they think it's a great game. That's probably why the emphasis has been on the graphics rather than the gameplay in the first place. But saying that the game is suitable for kids because they don't know any better is a bit insulting really as there's no reason why this game couldn't have been better so it appealed to the young and old alike, like Viva Pinata did (or, rather, was supposed to).
    Edited by 1 at 07/11/07 @ 12:55

  • woodnotes #24 4 years ago

    Interestingly, GameRankings average:

    Viva Pinata: Party Animals - 62.9% (3/10 on EG)
    Mario Party 8 - 64.5% (4/10 on EG)
    Edited by 1 at 07/11/07 @ 12:29

  • Beek4257 #25 4 years ago

    @Squarejawheroe

    Exactly. No reason a GOOD partygame wouldn't do well on 360. This would suck on any system.

    Partygames seem to be really hard to do well, though. Check Mario Party 3 till erm ... 21(?) for reference. Or don't. DON'T!

  • sd99 #26 4 years ago

    Darren - the simplistic gameplay for kids isn't an insult - they just can't handle the complexities of adult games. It's like asking a kid if he appeciates a film like Memento - no chance. They want cartoons that they can scream at...

    No way would young children be able to cope with a management game like the original VP - it's way too complex for kids. Geez..

  • jonsaan #27 4 years ago

    @sd99 My 6 year old was massively into VP.

  • sd99 #28 4 years ago

    @jonsaan - what level did she acheive? :)

  • Xerx3s #29 4 years ago

    "so much so that poor old Rare had to avoid using the hard disk in case people bought Core Systems"

    Erm, almost every 360 game doesn't "use" the hard disk in case people buy Core (or indeed Arcade) systems. Halo 3 and Gears for example, both work fine if you rip out the HDD.

    Well not only that but it's not made by rare. ^_^

    /nitpicking mode off.

  • Peew971 #30 4 years ago

    MrChuckles - Can I have yours for free please? :)

  • GordonCaladan #31 4 years ago

    FGSFDS!

  • Darren #32 4 years ago

    @sd99 - You really undereastimate kids today don't you. My 6 year nephew was playing "complex" games like Sonic Adventure 2 on the 'Cube and loved Viva Pinata on the 360 at 8. He doesn't like Party Animals though as it's too "easy". Go figure... :p

    Whatever, by making a sub-standard "easy" game that only appeals to unfussy 8 year olds, Microsoft have wasted the license as it isn't going to sell very well is it on a platform where most of its owners aren't interested in this kind of thing? I mean Viva Pinata was critically acclaimed yet still sold poorly so I'd put good money on this new game selling even fewer copies. ;)

  • MrChuckles #33 4 years ago

    Peew971 - I'm afraid not, it's going some way to finance my Guitar Hero addiction... :-)

  • Peew971 #34 4 years ago

    Having played the demo of Party Animals and the full game of Viva Pinata, I'd say the simplicity and lack of difficulty in PA may actually help it sell more copies to families and kids than VP has. Hardcore gamers have plenty of other games to play with anyway.

  • sd99 #35 4 years ago

    @Darren - I'm not sure of the age range they're marketing this at, but my friends 4 & 6 yr olds tried my copy of Kameo and just ended up running around in no particular direction at all. As far as coordination for jumping etc, that was pretty non existant. I think VP:pA would be the ideal game for parents to play with their young families at xmas. Being easy isnt necessarily a bad thing.

    ps let your nephew play ninja gaiden - see how far he gets in that ;)

  • fattulip #36 4 years ago

    Shame, I was looking forward to this for my young kids. I might wait a while until it's mega cheap second hand and grab it then.

    I agree with those who say the xbox isn't a kids/family friendly system. It's true. But my two (4yr old and 5yr old) get by. They've both played VP a lot and got most of the gamerpoints. They love Lego star wars and they are into a lot of the xbla games (cloning clyde is a good one for kids) and my 4 yr old boy just beat GH2 on medium. We're looking forward to GH3 and co-op mode. So not designed for kids, but we get by.

  • BBIAJ #37 4 years ago

    @ Darren:

    Sonic Adventure 2 complex!?

    I worry about you sometimes, I really do!

    Thank God you don't review games for a living, that's all I can say really...

  • adamamosa #38 4 years ago

    The really sad thing is . . . . I can see this outselling the original VP. :(

  • hula hoops #39 4 years ago

    Wow, 3/10 ... I guess that would bring the average score EG has given this season to a slightly more normal level than before.

    Maybe we should have kid game reviewers in EG to review all kids game, no?

    But then again that would be child slavery!

  • darc #40 4 years ago

    Can somebody make that damn CoD4 advert go away? I keep thinking it's time to buy a new monitor. Just sayin'.

  • Darren #41 4 years ago

    @BBIAJ - And sometimes I worry about your reading abilities, I really do as this is the second time I've had to explain something to you when it's perfectly obvious what I meant. ;)

    Now pay attention...

    I put the word "complex" in quotes, indicating to anyone with a modicum of common-sense that I didn't mean it was complex for me but might be for someone who's only six years old, i.e. my nephew at the time. As anyone who's played the game will know it's not exactly the easiest game to play thanks to its awful camera and dodgy collision detection not to mention it requires you to press more than the A button like Party Animals does for most of its mini-games. Since people are stating that VPPA's simplicity makes it suitable for 8 year olds, it's logical to refer to SA2 as being more complex for someone who is only six. Understand now?

    I really shouldn't have had to explain that! :p

  • pmayes #42 4 years ago

    "...and very little imagination has gone into anything besides the visuals, which were done by other people anyway."

    I am so sick of reading this! Krome created all the visuals from scratch!

  • Mysjkin7 #43 4 years ago

    I'm filled with sorrow at the thought of this crap when there could've been a Viva Pinata 2 instead. There are still so many different settings to try out in a sequel. Imagine: Gardens in Antarctica! Penguins! Fur seals!

  • Number1Laing #44 4 years ago

    Sad. Viva Pinata is a brilliant game. It deserves better than this slop. I hope it gets some of the success it deserves on the PC.

  • Martin #45 4 years ago

    Didn't expect it to be great but had hoped it be better than this anyhow. :/

    I'd love to see a proper party game on the 360...

  • BrokenSymmetry #46 4 years ago

    "...and very little imagination has gone into anything besides the visuals, which were done by other people anyway."

    "I am so sick of reading this! Krome created all the visuals from scratch!"

    Yes, this can not be said enough. Krome created the graphics and engine for this game completely from scratch, by themselves. Too many reviews of this game assume that they simply re-used the existing stuff, and give too little cedit to Krome.