Viva Piñata: Party Animals

Viva Piñata: Party Animals is a 2007 party video game developed by Krome Studios for the Xbox 360 as part of the Viva Piñata series. The game was released on October 30, 2007, in North America, November 15 in Australia, November 16 in Europe, and December 6 in Japan.

Unlike the original Viva Piñata, Party Animals is based on elements from the television show, including its characters and voices. Furthermore, the title provides a minigame based experience, similar to the Mario Party series, rather than the sandbox environment of the original. There are over 40 minigames, as well as kart-style races which are conducted on foot. The game received generally mixed reviews by critics upon release.

Gameplay

Similar to other casual Xbox 360 titles such as Fuzion Frenzy 2, Viva Piñata: Party Animals is framed as a game show, where contestants compete against each other while announcers provide colorful commentary.

A game of Party Animals consists of three or more race events, each followed by one or more randomly selected challenge mini-games (depending on selected game length). The goal is to be the player who has earned the most candy ("Candiosity") after the final challenge is completed. Games always feature four player characters, although only one of these need be human-controlled. Multiple individuals can play on a single console (causing races to be conducted split-screen), or players can play online via Xbox Live.

Players earn candy based on their performance during the challenge mini-games, with fixed awards for first, second, third, and fourth places. The races themselves do not earn players candy, but instead determine a bonus which influences the winnings from the challenge events which follow. As a result, candy awards are always a combination of these two separate placements, with players required to do well in both event types to guarantee overall victory.

There are eight playable characters: Hudson Horstachio, Paulie Pretztail, Fergy Fudgehog and Franklin Fizzlybear, as well as their female counterparts, Hailey Horstachio, Petunia Pretztail, Francine Fudgehog and Florence Fizzlybear, featured in the TV series episode "Hudson's Better Half".