Viva Pinata: Party Animals Updated Hands-On

Australia's Krome Studios has been hard at work turning Rare's original Viva Pinata Xbox 360 title into a party game, and from what we've played so far, it seems like they're on the right track. While our previous hands-ons have been mainly with individual minigames, we recently received some almost-complete code of Viva Pinata: Party Animals and have finally found out exactly how the party will play out.

Party Animals takes the world unveiled in the original Viva Pinata and expanded upon in the television show and turns it into a series of minigames for up to four players (both offline and online). This new game will feature eight characters to play as: TV show regulars Fergy Fudgehog, Paulie Pretztail, Franklin Fizzlybear, Hudson Horstachio, and their female equivalents of Francine Fudgehog, Petunia Pretztail, Florence Fizzlybear, and Hailey Horstachio. Each character has their own distinct personality, but there didn't seem to be any difference at all in how they controlled within the game.

Each Party Animals session is made up of a mixture of the game's 50 minigames and point-to-point races, with each race used as a way of going from one series of minigame challenges to another. Players can decide how long they want to play at the start by choosing one of three lengths--a medium length game, for example, consists of five races with two minigame challenges in between each race, while a long one has seven races and three challenges each. There's also a custom game option, so players can decide exactly how many races and minigames they want to play through.

The races themselves--as we found in our earlier previews--are pretty fun affairs which see all four Pinata participants take to colourful tracks on Pinata Island, including races through snowy environments, towns, jungles, beaches, and more. The vibe is very Mario Kart, with plenty of power-ups strewn about the course which can either boost your performance or impede your competitors. Control is simple--the triggers act as accelerate or brake, the A button is used to jump, X is to deploy power-ups, while Y switches through the two power-ups your Pinata can carry at any one time. Some of the power-ups we saw include Fiesta Missiles which can be used to stun any Pinatas in the lead, Buzzlegum Honey Sticks which leave a gooey trail behind you for your foes to become stuck in, Flutterscotch Wings which allows your Pinata to fly over obstacles, and many more. And the races are more than just filler between bouts of minigames--how you place in each race affects the rewards you receive for each minigame.

As for the minigames, Krome says more than 50 will be included in the final version. We've seen quite a few before, too, including the burping challenge of Blown Away, which sees the Pinatas racing to blow a tiny sailboat across the finish line using only burps. In our latest play through, we spotted another gas-based challenge called Burping Balloons. This game required players to rapidly tap on the A button to make their Pinata guzzle a fizzy drink, then press and hold one of the four face buttons to burp into a tube which then blows up a balloon--players will need to time when they burp into and release their balloons in order to make them float up into a moving vacuum tube. Another new minigame we saw was called Who's Left. In this game, players have to closely watch as Pinatas walk in and out of a wooden house. After a set period of time, players will have to say how many Pinatas are left in the house by pressing one of the face buttons.

From our extensive early plays, Viva Pinata: Party Animals looks like it will be a welcome addition to the Xbox 360's admittedly small family game line-up. The game is set for release in October in the US, with other territories to follow.