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Viva Piñata arrived as the underdog in last
year’s big Xbox360 Christmas Line-Up, and, as is the case with many
titles in the modern videogaming market featuring sophisticated,
adult-orientated depth yet cartoon-esque, child-friendly visuals, as
the underdog it remained. Lack-lustre sales and a minimal online
following resulted in the title dropping in price at many
high-street retailers within only a few months of release, and
leaving Microsoft with an expensive cross-media experiment that
resulted in only an averagely successful animated series in the US.
RARE’s big hope for a resurrection of their mid-nineties respect
fell flat on its face – perhaps not so much within industry and
their peers, but certainly with their audience.
Perfect Dark Zero and
Kameo: Elements Of Power
may
have been enough to attract that eagerly-awaiting Nintendo64
audience, but Viva Piñata unfortunately failed to expand upon
the company’s following.
Meanwhile, RARE have moved-on – with the announced
release of the next title in the much-loved Banjo-Kazooie
series, and rumours abundant concerning the likes of another
Killer Instinct – and Viva Piñata itself has also
progressed, not least in the announcement of a NintendoDS release
for the series, but also in that of a second Xbox360 instalment;
Viva Piñata: Party Animals.
Viva Piñata: Party Animals, however, has not been
developed by RARE and, in actual fact, has little relation to its
predecessor. Concentrating its efforts on relating closer to the
4Kids Entertainment animated series, Krome Studios have developed a
Mini-Game compilation featuring the stars of the show, whilst
seemingly utilising RARE’s original assets and Engine for the
visuals and sound, as well as relating to an earlier production of
theirs for one of the games major events.
Viva Piñata: Party Animals progresses in an
a-typical fashion for Party Games of its ilk. Choosing between a
Short, Medium or Long game will alter the quantity of Mini- Games
played between each Race Event. The Race Events take place between
each section of Mini-Games, and feature weapons and track layout’s
that are strikingly similar to RARE’s
Diddy Kong Racing. Even
though the races take place on-foot, and are of the point-to-point
variety, as opposed to laps around a circuit, it’s almost impossible
to shake the feeling that these often-intense battles are little
more than a watered-down
Mario Kart wannabe. Certainly, the
races are very well realised and, above all else, fun; yet the
affect they have on the Scoring System for the Mini-Games seems
somewhat erratic at best. When a Race Event has been completed, your
finishing position dictates how many bonus points you earn from each
of the Mini-Games, varying depending on your placement in each of
those events. However, the game never makes clear exactly how much
of a benefit placing first in a Race Event has on the overarching
task of scoring the most points over the whole game, nor exactly how
much bonus can be earned.
The Mini-Games themselves have a great amount of
variety. However, many are recreations of those that have gone
before in the likes of the Mario Party series, and the
tagline claiming that title features over 50 Mini-Games may be
somewhat misleading, as many of the games are just unlockable,
slightly harder versions of those that have been played before.
Still, variety is the order of the day, and Viva Piñata: Party
Animals hammers that nail well. Events include shooting at
moving targets, breaking pumpkins in order to collect the most candy
hidden within and trying to remain in a moving spotlight while
collecting candy and attempting to knock the other three players
into the darkness – causing them to drop some of their collected
candy. With
Fuzion Frenzy 2 and the dire Rayman: Raving
Rabbids being the titles' only competition on its host format,
it clearly excels, however for Xbox360 owners, there’s currently
very little choice.
Viva Piñata: Party Animals ticks all the right
boxes aesthetically, with colourful and dense backgrounds and
effects and particularly well rendered Character Models. That the
game
 doesn’t call for much of the Xbox360’s horsepower is irrelevant
when the visual and aural component already perfectly compliments
the gameplay; but unfortunately, in the graphics-hungry Xbox360
market is also likely to be the title’s undoing. No amount of gloss
and sheen would endear the title to the aficionados of the likes of
BioShock and
Assassin’s Creed; by far the Xbox360’s
dominant market.
Last year’s Viva Piñata garnered some recognition
from the industry, but little from the retail market. As much as it
saddens me to say, I simply can’t see this year’s Viva Piñata:
Party Animals fairing any better. While not being as original or
cunningly devised as the first release, Viva Piñata: Party
Animals remains an enticing game and, bar its few flaws, is
resoundingly good fun. However, the videogaming market – and that
which the Xbox360 specifically has created – appears as though it
intends to overlook Party Game titles such as this, unless they hit
home on Nintendo’s Current-Generation beast, Wii.
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