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Viva Pinata: Party Animals hands on

Company

Team XBOX recently had the opportunity to get a hands-on of the E3 build of Krome's upcoming title, Viva Pi?ata: Party Animals for XBOX 360.

Krome's lead designer on the project, Cameron Davis, said that the mini-games were designed to be easy to pick up and play, with most only requiring one button. In addition to this the AI skill would modify dynamically to match the player skill, thus lowering the barrier to entry while providing a challenge for those players more accomplished.

The full title will include 50 mini-games and races, with a multiplayer mode that will allow up to 4 players who can drop in or out at any time. Players compete for candy, and subsequently their success is measured by their "candiosity".

Our demo only gave us access to a few different minigames to try out. Among them are ?Short Fuse,? in which pass an explosive around like a hot potato before it blows up (it?ll go off if you hold it too long); ?Hungry, Hungry Pi?atas,? where you compete in a caramel apple-eating contest; ?Big Bug Stompin?,? where pi?atas butt-bop crawling insects, as well as the other competitors (in hopes of jarring some candy loose); and ?Ruffian Tumble,? in which the pi?atas remotely control bruising characters in a ring and try to knock each other out of the playfield.