Game Overview
Pinata's turn competitive! So, you loved Viva Pinata, and were addicted to creating the most desirable garden whilst trying to attract cute loveable pinata's of all sizes. Well, there is none of that now, Microsoft have realized that what they have in Viva Pinata is a chance to do what Sony did with Crash Bandicoot and Nintendo have done with Mario and make the most of it's popularity by giving the fans the chance to play as their favorite characters in different style games, expect Viva Pinata Football and Viva Pinata Tennis sometime in the next couple of years! For now though it's Party Animals which is a shot at nailing the multiplayer market.

With a choice of 8 Pinatas to choose from you are required to take part in races which consist of one lap against another 3 Pinatas, races take place around forests, towns all with very vibrant colours and scenery and generally look really good. Once you have completed the race you then take part in a mini game, this can range from eating apples as quickly as possible or trying to stay on a spinning disk whilst collecting candy. Your positions in both the race and the mini game will establish points awarded to you, that is one round. Before starting the game you'll select how many rounds you want to play.

The entire game on a whole, does get a little repetitive after a while and the "Pinata Pundits" repeat themselves over and over again until you have had as much as you can possibly take from them and decide to stream some tunes from your PC. The racing, although fun at first, gets a little frustrating as there really aren't many tracks and as for the Mini Games, although they are enjoyable at times, they are incredibly simple and really doesn't require much brain power to pick up a victory.

Understandably though, this game probably isn't aimed at adults and more towards the younger generation however there is definitely a level of humour that will appeal to both children and adults, so the fact that the mini games are so simple does disappoint. It's a great game to sit down with your son, daughter, nephew or niece and attempt to outwit them, probably not possible though as kids seem to get the hang of these kinds of game pretty quick.

Single player, quite honestly, is pointless. There is a good array of achievements available which require you to play single player for a short period of time but multiplayer is what Party Animals is all about. If you haven't got any mates then there is Xbox Live where you can put yourself up against people from around the world which obviously increases the difficulty of the game but the repetitive nature of the game still rears it's ugly face. We played a few online games and came up against some Dutch players who were quite offensive when we wiped the floor with them in every event, which was quite surprising considering it's predominantly a kid’s game. So an official BlokesOnly warning, don't let you kid speak to Dutch people when handing their arse to them on a plate! They don't like it and your little one might learn a few choice words!

Our Conclusions
Party Animals is an enjoyable game for all of about 2 hours whilst you mop up some achievement points. The graphics are excellent and the colours as you would expect are very vibrant and give everything a happy look. Ideal to keep the kids quiet on a Sunday afternoon or after Christmas dinner but rental at best for adults looking for a game to purchase.

Overall Score: 6/10

Thanks to Nik at JCPR and Microsoft.