Unfortunately, these are more often than not pretty shallow and very rarely entertaining for more than a couple of seconds. In between races, you’re treated to (or tortured by, depending on your age) challenge events, which are mini-games. Like in Mario Kart, you can use and abuse power-ups, but the ones in Party Animals are rather underwhelming. Instead, you must play through them in the same order over and over, which quickly becomes a borefest. There’s a small number of racing levels, and you can’t even pick which you want to play. On a serious note, the game’s ultra shallow. The cute-and-happy thing is a little too in-your-face for anybody old enough to understand that only something sinister lies behind the rainbow-colored pinatas. If you wouldn’t describe yourself as a “child,” then Party Animals isn’t for you. In fact, it’s better than at least one racing game we’ve reviewed this year, so far. As far as bright, colorful and happy video games targeted at little kids go, Viva Pinata: Party Animals is not necessarily “bad,” but it’s not very “good,” either. When you’re done with the super short single-player mode, you can hop online, which is lag-free, too. This is a title that little kids will smile while playing. The racing levels are decently fun controlling your on-screen character is intuitive and easy. If that’s what you’re looking for, rejoice. Whereas the original Viva Pinata was grounded in simulation mechanics – breeding pinata characters and taking care of them – Party Animals is a racing/party game and is aimed at young children.įor a kid’s game, it’s not bad. Despite its name, Party Animals is nothing like its older brother, which released a year ago to mostly positive reviews. That’s what Krome Studios, the developer behind Viva Pinata: Party Animals, has done. Imagine if a developer set out to marry the two concepts behind Mario Kart and Mario Party. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. AMN’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you.