Gaming Today Reviews: Viva Piñata: Party Animals

My initial thoughts upon receiving Viva Piñata: Party Animals to review ran the gambit of curiosity to utter repulsion. However, being the type of gamer who insists on giving genres that I would not normally sully my Xbox 360 with the benefit of the doubt, I decided to give it a chance. Unfortunately, after the first ten minutes of playing my feelings of repulsion grew so intense that they quickly turned to rage and disdain for Ron our Site Editor. Considering the fact that he and I have been friends for many years, I was curious as to why he would do something so mean and spiteful to me. When I called to complain, all I heard on the other end of the phone was his twisted maniacal laugh before he told me to suck it up or lose my job. Okay, I am kidding about the losing my job part, but I am serious about the laugh. It was very unsettling.

If you are an adult gamer and you are thinking of playing Viva Piñata: Party Animals you may want to reconsider your decision and instead go for the wacky and macabre original title. This, the newest installment in the franchise, is nothing short of a game aimed at children. That being said, I think this is a fine game for the under 12 crowd but it lacks so much imagination, that even younger kids should become bored rather quickly.

Viva Piñata: Party Animals is chock full of minigames that repeat themselves over and over again. Once you have chosen your character, you start each level off with a race full of many twists and turns and jumps. The environments during these races are full of power ups and weapons you can use to gain the advantage over your opponents; however gaining these useful powers is a matter of sheer luck. I basically just ran as fast as I could and jumped here and there to beat the others never knowing when or where a power up really was. Like I heard another gamer complain – gaining these abilities is basically a crapshoot.

Once you have completed a race, you go on to challenge other piñatas in events where you collect as much candy as you can while staying in the light, aiming and firing, seeing who can smash the piñata first, squashing bugs, rhythm games, burping games, etc. After winning a level, you open up another one, and each one may be slightly different than the last of the same level, but it is still not that different. The repetition in this game gets old quickly and one would think that paying full price for a game would grant you access to a horde of minigames instead of the same ones over and over again – just with different environments.

Graphics: 8.0
I have to say that the graphics are top notch and very bright and vibrant colors make the game a joy to look at. The cartoonish style from the original Viva Piñata has been taken up a notch with this installment and the surrounding environments in each minigames are interesting and fun to watch.

Sound: 7.0
Sound quality and music is good overall and the antics of your narrating sports casters Pierre Parrybo the parrot and Pecky Pudgeon the smart-assed pigeon are pretty funny – during the first level. After that, they fall a bit short on the humor scale and become just as repetitive as the game itself. Children will find them hilarious if they can comprehend some of the archaic humor that seems to lean more towards a younger teen crown than a ten year old.

Gameplay: 6.0
Smooth controls and easy button configurations are a plus to the game, even if some of the events are nothing more than button mashing sessions. Depending on which character you choose to play, you can either become frustrated at trying to maneuver around or glad that you picked that weird piñata. I chose to play Hudson Horstachio the horse, which turned out to be closer to a jackass than a fast and furious equine. During races he was fast and could jump for miles, but when it came time to run around and catch candy, he was more of a hindrance than a serious contender. One of the minigames you play puts you in control of mechanical creatures called Ruffians. These little guys are supposed to run around and squash bugs (one example) and your main weapon of choice is knocking your opponents down. These weird critters are so hard to control that you get more infuriated by the second. I spent more time getting tromped by other Ruffians than anything. This control scheme was horrendous; therefore my initial enjoyment of nice controls was dashed to pieces like an inept piñata.

Replay Value: 4.0
I am on the fence about the replayability of Viva Piñata: Party Animals. Granted, you can play up to four friends at home and many others via Xbox Live, but even with this ability as a party game, it is still repetitive. Children, let alone adults, will more than likely become bored with it after a while despite the game’s claim of having over 40 different minigames.

Overall: 5.5
I honestly found it rather difficult to say anything nice about Viva Piñata: Party Animals. Yes, the graphics and sound are great, it is a nice and safe game for you to play with your children, and some children may find this a fun foray into the world of Xbox Live. With this being said though, pretty colors and funny looking critters do not make a great game. The imagination involved in Krome Studios development of this game was sub par at best and with the success of the previous title, it seems to me that all Microsoft was banking on with this game was nothing more than brand recognition. They failed miserably, and the only reason I did not give this game a lower score was because of the said graphics and sound. Without trying to sound repetitive myself, this game is nothing more than repetitive minigames, repetitive moves, repetitive everything. Microsoft should have spent more time creating a fun party game that deserves to be connected with the original Viva Piñata instead of trying to cash in on its popularity with a game that does nothing more than embarrass the gaming giant. However, this sort of fad seems to be happening even to the best developers and publishers as of late, and I sincerely hope this sort of “dumbing down” goes the way of the Dodo very soon.