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This game is perfect for the younger ones as well as the older. My 7 year old loves the colors and lights of the game.
for the kids, they are laughing out loud while they play this. It's like watching a cartoon for those who can't play when friends come over to play.
We can no longer buy one player games as chaos over who gets to play erupts. I have a 4 year old and 8 year old.
It is light-hearted and simple. This game is fabulous as the graphics on a HDTV are awesome, the sounds are lively and it does not cause any frustration because someone is not able to get to another higher level like some games.
My kids LOVE this game. While I love the mental challenge of Lego Indiana, etc.
And that is equally fabulous.
I bought this for my 5 year old to play with an older nephew on Xbox Live. They have a lot of fun with it together, but he tends not to play with unless someone else is racing with him. Overall though - its quirky and fun, and has some cute stuff that really appeals to younger set.
After searching around for a little while, I found Viva Pinata Party Animals. In Party Animals, once you have your candy, it can't be taken away. You have some shooting games, where you have a reticule and you aim to shoot moving targets, some games where you have to press buttons in rapid succession to match a pattern you just watched, some games that involve hitting pinata stars with bats to burst them open, games that are simply about reflexes, counting games, games where you have to fight everyone else off to collect the most candy, and several other types. There is a nice variety, although several of them are very similar. And yes, perhaps I'm better at it than everyone else because I'm a fairly seasoned gamer, but I think a game like this should be about equal for everyone, regardless of gaming experience. 3 is the highest number of mini-games you can do per race, so if you want to have a lengthy game, you're going to be doing 5-7 races just to get enough mini-games to be fun.
I would have preferred the ability to play more games per race, or possibly even just make the races a mini-game themselves.Which brings me to the races: they're fun, but pretty much pointless and easy for one player to dominate. It seems that no matter who I'm playing with, I win every single race. I originally purchased this game because my fiancee loves Mario Party for the N64, and I wanted to get a game for our 360 that she would enjoy as much. However, I think Mario Party has set a good bar for game makers to reach for when making party games.Don't let my negative statements about this game make you think that it's not fun to play, as it still is. In that sense, Party Animals plays less like a board game with some mini-games thrown in and more like a bunch of mini-games back to back.For example, in Mario Party, you can land on Bowser and he might either take away a star or all your coins, which can move you from first to last place. Once someone pulls ahead of the pack, it's pretty hard to catch them.Speaking of the mini-games, let's talk about those now. Notice that I did still give it 4 stars.
The way Party Animals is played is that you do a race followed by 1-3 mini-games, and the characters get different amounts of candy for getting 1st-4th place, and the person at the end of the game that has the most candy wins, etc. I read several reviews of people comparing it to Mario Party, so I purchased it from Amazon.After playing, I can say that the game is a nice attempt to recreate a Mario Party-like game, and while fun, it ultimately isn't as good.For starters, the way the entire game is set up is that you do a race followed by 1-3 mini-game challenges. Each type of game has 2-4 varieties, not all of which are very different.Overall, I'd say that Viva Pinata Party Animals is a great start for party games on the 360, but we need to refine this formula and produce more games that are a little bit closer to the Mario Party style. That's what makes party games fun - no one wins all the time.One thing that I like about Mario Party that's missing from Party Animals is the game board itself. You miss the nice luck/random chance element that comes with rolling the dice and being subject to wherever you land. Not that I simply want a Mario Party for 360 - I want something new and different. If you enjoy party games, this is definitely worth checking out.
This is one of the few family friendly games for my 360.Pros: One for the whole family. Cartoony graphics that keep the kids interested. Fun, short, easy to play "events" to keep the kids interested. Cons: Some of the events were a little frustrating for my 5 year old.
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