When Viva Piñata Party Animals (VPPA) was first announced at E3 last year, I was excited about the title, as both my daughter and I were huge fans of the original game. What I didn`t pick up on at the time was that it would be a "Party Game" featuring the cast of characters from Piñata Island. When I agreed to review it, I was kinda disappointed to learn it went that route, as Fuzion Frenzy 2 was my last retail party game experience, so I wasn`t getting my hopes too high.

First and foremost, this is not your daddy`s Viva Piñata (circa 2006) as Krome Studios was brought in to handle the title instead of Rare. Although the cast of characters are the same, they take on their Saturday morning cartoon persona rather than their "lets go do the love dance in the worm house and mass produce worm babies we can sell" persona. It IS a party game, so mini-games du jour is what to expect while competing with Hudson, Fergy, Franklin and Paulie among others. No breeding, no planting and no whacking your piñatas over the head with a shovel here. This is a flat-out dogfight to earn the most candy!

The concept behind Viva Piñata Party Animals is a huge competition on Piñata Island called the Party Animals Championship Challenge. Players get to choose from one of eight piñatas (as seen on Saturday mornings) to represent them in the event. One cool thing I noticed is that the rest of the island inhabitants can be seen hanging around the courses cheering on the competitors, even though they aren`t playable characters.

The game can be played with up to four human players, but every challenge will always have four participants (human or AI) and always starts off with an end-to-end foot race before it progresses into the other various mini-games. Local multiplayer will be in split-screen, and the length of the challenge you choose at the beginning determines how many events get played. The control scheme is very straightforward, with the left thumbstick controlling direction and various buttons being utilized in the mini-games to control power ups, swinging of stick or selecting an answer among other things. There are around 40 different mini-games that are broken down into several variations with slightly different look and feel, as well as 12 foot races to choose from (or get randomly generated

The first thing you notice when you get into a challenge is that Piñata Island is simply gorgeous. Whether it is racing around the paths and trails, playing at a fixed location or just checking out the background, the details are actually pretty spectacular. Krome did a fantastic job of not only recreating the island from the original, but bringing it to life through the fast action races and the fixed scene events. The audio track is also done well, although you start hearing the same corny lines being repeated after awhile.

Every competition starts off with a foot race in split-screen mode (locally) against your competition. The races are fun against the AI or other players and give some great visuals. However, the sheer amount and placement of power ups all but guarantee that anyone following the main path will be in it at the end. The key to winning the races is finding and utilizing the shortcuts and then hitting your power ups at critical moments, which could throw off the competition just enough to take the win. The power ups include a beehive that spews honey to slow down your opponents, wings to allow your Piñata to fly and water bombs that splash on the other racers screens, slowing them down while their vision is obscured. Hitting these are critical to winning the races, which in itself is needed to win the overall challenge. A poor showing early on is hard to overcome. The player that accumulates the most candy and bonus candy over the course of all the mini-game and rac...