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Home Games Viva Piñata: Party Animals

Viva Piñata: PA

Minigames
Releases: 10.30.07
Microsoft Game Studios
Krome Studios
ESRB: Everyone

Viva Piñata: Party Animals

Using your own head as a piñata might be more fun

by Sarah Schutz

I loved the first Viva Piñata. Tending my colorful garden and breeding each and every of the plentiful piñatas gave me more pleasurable hours of gameplay than most games. A new Viva Piñata game brought high hopes that quickly came crashing down, tumbling into tiny bits of dismay, with no candy goodness to be found. Party Animals may have the same colorful piñata veneer, but inside there is nothing but repetitive, lackluster gameplay.

Viva Piñata is essentially a collection of party games you can play with friends at home or Xbox Live friends. While the idea works in theory, the poorly designed games and lack of anyone actually playing the game online leads to a useless addendum to any gaming collection. The minigames come in several different varieties, all of which do a slightly different version of inane candy collecting. Piñata racing is a main focus of the competitions, piñatas running quickly isn’t as much fun as it sounds. The tracks are simple and while you can collect power-ups to trip up your enemies or give yourself a boost, they don’t save the races’ ho-hum skill levels.

The original Viva Piñata made a surprise impact on older gamers because of its visual appeal and depth of gameplay. Party Animals lacks the gameplay challenge, so would seem to be more attractive to the younger gamer. I, however, am inclined to think that even the younger gamer knows when she has been duped and will be smart enough to reach for one of the myriad party games on the Wii or a Mario game that will provide so much more colorful gaming satisfaction.

I fell asleep thinking about playing this game.

It’s pretty from afar.

Up close it’s a big old mess of erratic minigames.

IGN

5.6

GAMESPOT

5.5

PLAY

N/A

1UP

5.5


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