|
Written by Mark Stanisz, THE CANADIAN PRESS
|
|
Wednesday, 19 December 2007 |
A scene from the game Viva Pinata: Party Animals for Xbox 360. In "Viva Pinata: Party Animals," developed by Krome Studios, gamers take part as animated pinatas in a series of races and contests with the goal of finishing atop the leaderboard in the Party Animals Championship Challenge. THE CANADIAN PRESS- HO
Related Items
No related items found
Sometimes the best thing to do when checking out a video game is to go straight to the "experts" - in this case my eight-year-old son and twin six-year-old girls.
All three had the opportunity to test out "Viva Pinata: Party Animals" and "Bee Movie" - both rated E for everyone. And judging from their peals of laughter and constant button-mashing, they were smitten by both.
One of Emily's all-time favourite games is Nintendo's "Animal Crossing" on the GameCube, but she said "Viva Pinata: Party Animals" is better.
Better, explained Emily, "because in 'Animal Crossing' you only got to walk around and in 'Viva Pinata' you do races and competitions."
In "Viva Pinata: Party Animals," developed by Krome Studios for the Xbox 360, gamers take part as animated pinatas in a series of races and contests with the goal of finishing atop the leaderboard in the Party Animals Championship Challenge. There are dozens of mini-games to play, and up to four gamers can play at once.
"Bee Movie" features Barry B. Benson - voiced by Jerry Seinfeld - as the main character on a whimsical journey to save the production of honey while avoiding various pitfalls such as kids on bicycles, a swamp of famished toads and terrified homeowners.
Published by Activision and developed by Quebec City's Beenox, "Bee Movie" is available on a variety of platforms.
Both titles feature beautiful pastel cartoony worlds filled with lots of sparkly action and background sound to go with reflex-type mini-games.
"My favourite game was where you have to shoot these little guys and whoever shoots the most wins," Matthew enthused about "Viva Pinata: Party Animals." Emily preferred a game called Caramel Apple Gobble because she enjoyed chomping down on some candy apples. Sarah cherished a mini-game where you get to chop open pinatas and candy spills out which you collect.
None of the kids found the games too difficult on the whole - although there were individual mini-games one or the other had difficulty with.
For example Matthew couldn't grasp how to take photos in "Bee Movie" - the left trigger is used to focus and the right to release the shutter - without a bit of 'non-expert' help.
"When you get to go in the rain it was hard because you can't fly in the rain," said Matthew of "Bee Movie." Emily said getting to drive taxis and compete in the challenges was fun while Sarah agreed with Matthew about the part in the game where you fly trying to avoid rain and can even use a slow-motion ability similar to bullet-time in the "Max Payne" games.
Sarah thought "Viva Pinata: Party Animals" was arduous for a simple reason: "I can't finish the race in time."
Emily judged "Bee Movie" as the more exacting of the two because "you have to do these hard challenges. And the guy with the moustache - he grabs sharp pins and he tries to hurt your guy."
Emily and Sarah have seen "Bee Movie" in the theatre, while Matthew has not - and Emily said some of the parts are the same but she likes the game better. Sarah, meanwhile, said the game is "a little bit different - I like the movie better because it shows all the different parts instead of playing."
But when it came down to the nitty-gritty details of which game to pick if they could only select one, the children were - perhaps predictably - divided.
"Viva Pinata: Party Animals," was Matthew's favourite overall due to better graphics, while the girls said they would choose "Bee Movie" mostly because they could drive vehicles.
 |
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
