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New Viva Pinata: Party Animals details, demo arriving "very soon"
The impassioned youth of PinataIsland cornered Krome's Cameron Davis, lead designer on Viva Piñata: Party Animals and beat him like a paper mache party favor until he released his sweet details contained within. Announced at E3, Party Animals is a mini-game fiesta based on the popular children's show and critically acclaimed Xbox 360 title starring the dance partners of Mario Lopez. Players will be assisting one of eight playable piñata compete in the reality show, Viva Piñata Championship Challenge, which functions quite a bit like The Amazing Race. Of those eight playable characters, two will be brand new characters to the series, set to debut in the second season of the Saturday morning cartoon. The game will be presented in a television style format and feature the color commentary of Pierre Parrybo and Pecky Pudgeon. According to Davis, we should expect to see a demo "very, very, very soon, if not already." Viva Piñata: Party Animals is due out this Winter.
13 minutes of Viva Pinata: Party Animals
Our friends at Piñata Island -- these guys -- have gotten their candy-stained hands on a thirteen minute video of Viva Piñata: Party Animals. The video was taken with the lead designer, Cameron Davis, of Krome Studios, developers of Party Animals. The video shows off several of the mini-games, as well as the races, which serve as the transition between mini-games. All of the games -- save the racing sections -- are controlled via the left stick and a single button, which Davis says should allow anyone to pick up and play the title. The game also includes drop-in / drop-out versus play, so anyone can join or leave a game at any time. Finally, Davis reveals that the E3 demo should be available on Xbox Live Marketplace in the near future. Hit the "read" link to check out the video.
Joystiq hands-on: Viva Pinata Party Animals
As a game designed to appeal to a younger audience, Viva Piñata had one fault that probably stood out the most: other than the cutesy characters, it wasn't really designed to appeal to a younger audience. The game is fairly complicated and requires some pretty intense micromanagement in later levels (at least it does if you want to advance). Furthermore, VP does almost nothing to capitalize on the children's property around which it is centered. The various piñatas, which are wacky and wisecracking characters on the children's program, are little more than grunting, mindless animals in the game. With Viva Piñata: Party Animals, Microsoft looks to take on all these problems at once. We took it for a spin at E3 to see what sets it apart.
X3F hands-on: Viva Pinata: Party Animals
As a game designed to appeal to a younger audience, Viva Piñata had one fault that probably stood out the most: other than the cutesy characters, it wasn't really designed to appeal to a younger audience. The game is fairly complicated and requires some pretty intense micromanagement in later levels (at least it does if you want to advance). Furthermore, VP does almost nothing to capitalize on the children's property around which it is centered. The various piñatas, which are wacky and wisecracking characters on the children's program, are little more than grunting, mindless animals in the game. With Viva Piñata: Party Animals, Microsoft looks to take on all these problems at once. We took it for a spin at E3 to see what sets it apart.
Viva Pinata: Party Animals brings minigames
Microsoft is bringing home family fun again with a newly announced Viva Pinata game. The game will retain the original's fantastic graphics, but will add brand new gameplay that's bound to appeal to the younger crowd. The original struggled to target an audience due to its strategy-laden gameplay that alienated the children the cartoon would have appealed to. Taking a page from Nintendo, the new Viva Pinata title will be a game filled with minigames. Viva Pinata: Party Animals will be Microsoft's attempt at providing a Mario Party experience on the 360. Will it succeed?
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the website unleashed also
LucasArts has launched the website for their newly announced Star Wars title, The Force Unleashed. Developed for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Nintendo DS and PSP platforms, the game presents the first active collaboration between LucasArts developers and the film special effects team at Industrial Light & Magic. Putting players into the hooded cloak of Darth Vader's "secret apprentice," the game's events unfold in-between the last rubbish Star Wars movie and the first good one. Judging by the artwork on display, the action will likely feature countless stormtroopers being tossed about like paper dolls and at least one livid jedi throwing a force tantrum. Looks like Tosche Station was out of power converters. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is currently slated for release this November. Check after the break for a video demonstrating some of the technology used in the game. %Gallery-1662%
Promising first look at Hellboy
It's quite a ways off from coming out, but GameVideos gameplay movie of Hellboy for the PSP looks promising even in this very early stage. The title is being developed by Krome Studios who previously made Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and the most recent Spyro game. This is quite a departure content-wise from their typical release, but a character action game isn't so different from an action platformer. This is Krome Studios' first PSP game though, which may be the only snag. Here's hoping Hellboy fans can feel proud picking this one up when it comes out.
TY the Tasmanian Tiger confirmed for Wii
Because somebody out there has to care. In a follow-up interview to one conducted way back in February, Aussie developer Krome Studios confirms that their furry friend from down under will indeed make an appearance on Nintendo's next console. After commenting on the studio's current projects, Konami's Hellboy and The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, the tricky-to-pronounce Steve Stamatidiadis notes that "the Wii is the perfect platform for a TY game and you can bet your booties that we'll be doing one down the track."Since our considerably valued booties are on the line, we'd also wager that the Wii version of TY the Tasmanian Tiger will involve chucking the wiimote like a boomerang in order to defeat at least one evil robot kangaroo. With a talking animal jumping over platforms and such, the game will no doubt be a veritable explosion of creativity (and other Australian stereotypes). Somebody can't wait.[Thanks saigon!]
