E3 '07: Viva Pinata becomes Party Animal

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--A second helping of Viva Pinata is coming before the end of the year, as Microsoft's Peter Moore revealed at the company's presentation at the E3 Media and Business Summit.

A brief trailer was shown for the new game, which showed the colourful animals playing a variety of minigames, including one where a group of the animals pushed their boats toward the end of a pool in a race…by burping.

Titled Viva Pinata: Party Animals, the trailer told gamers that they should aim to be "The Ultimate Party Animal." While the original Viva Pinata was the product of Microsoft-owned Rare Ltd., development duties for Party Animals have been entrusted to Krome Studios.

The first Viva Pinata, a 360-exclusive title, was released in November 2006 and featured a variety of colourful Pinata animals in an open-ended, family-friendly gardening game. Microsoft also revealed during the briefing that a PC version of the original was on the way.

GameSpot will bring you more details on Viva Pinata: Party Animals when they become available.