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Party Animals (video game)

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Party Animals
Developer(s)Recreate Games
Publisher(s)Source Technology
Producer(s)Luo Zixiong
Composer(s)Patric Catani
EngineUnity[1]
Platform(s)
Release20 September 2023
Genre(s)Brawler, party
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Party Animals is a multiplayer physics-based brawler/party video game developed by Recreate Games and published by Source Technology.[2][3] The game was released for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 20, 2023.[4]

Gameplay

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Party Animals is a physics-based competitive brawler game where players play as various animals including puppies, kittens, ducks, bunnies, sharks, dinosaurs and even unicorns.[5] Animals can punch, toss, jump, kick, and headbutt each other. They are also able to pick up an assortment of weapons.[6] Upon taking a certain amount of damage, players are temporarily knocked out. In most cases, they recover and return to the fight, unless they are tossed off the map or into various hazards.

Party Animals offers 3 modes and 23 maps. The game modes are Last Stand, Team Score, and The Lab mode. In Last Stand, players attempt to be the last animal standing while eliminating other players; Team Score divides 8 players into teams of 4, with each team competing to complete an objective; The Lab also has 2 teams of 4, but teams will instead attempt to eliminate the other team just like Last Stand.[7]

Characters

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Party Animals has a base pool of 45 characters from which players can choose.[8] Nemo, a corgi character in the game, is its mascot. Many animal names, such as "Barbie" for a gorilla and "Bacon" for a pig, incorporate contrast and dark humor into the game.[9] There are also many other characters, including Underbite the lizard, Tiagra the tiger, Macchiato the cat, Otta the otter, Morse the moose, Harry the duck, Coco the alligator, Carrot the rabbit, Valiente the cow, Moonmoon the owl, Hachi the shibu inu dog, Uni the unicorn, Garfat the cat, Lloyd the goose, Max the husky dog, Levi the cat, Googoo the pidgeon, Karatan the rhino, Curtis the iguana, Lou the beagle dog, Fluffy the golden retriever dog, Sparky the bull terrier dog, Hammer the hammerhead shark, Bruce the great white shark, Bob the bear, Yurusa the bat, Kiko the cat, Kato the husky dog, Tuskarr the walrus, Lotus the dragon, Sunny the bulldog, Snow the samoyed, Kola the koala, Dundun the pallas cat, Spike the hedgehog, Shin the Elephant, Gopher the marmot, Dodo the dodo bird, Maneki the lucky cat, Sam the german shepherd dog, Fuguee the red panda, and Fubao the panda. They have also done several collaborations with characters from other media- including Ori and Naru from Ori and the Blind Forest, Cabbage Dog from Vegetable Fairies, The Lamb from Cult of the Lamb, and Om Nom from Cut the Rope.

Development

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Party Animals was developed by Recreate Games, a game studio founded by Luo Zixiong, the former design director at Smartisan.[10] The game was first teased on Twitter in September 2019.[11] Open demos of the game were available to the public in June and October 2020 for short periods of time. Developers revealed in a July 1, 2020 press release that the game will be released on consoles in the future.[12]

On May 25, 2022, the developers released an update stating that "the game is still in development and the target release date is hopefully within 2022, with possible delays due to quality and compliance approvals."[13]

During Summer Game Fest on June 8, 2023, the developer announced the game's release date of September 20.[4][14]

Reception

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Party Animals received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, based on 16 reviews listed at review aggregator Metacritic.[15] Critics wrote favorably on its gameplay and visuals.[7][17] On Steam, user reviewers at launch were "Mostly Negative" due to its monetization mechanics, which aggressively priced in-game skins, and lack of an offline mode, which contradicted the game's description.[18] The developers responded that a mistranslation resulted in the erroneous description for the game.[19]

During the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition in 2020, the game's playtest reached a concurrent player peak of 135,834, making it the fourth most played game on Steam.[2] It amassed a large numbers of viewers on Twitch, having over 113,000 viewers watching gameplay streams.[20]

Accolades

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Award Date Category Result Ref.
The Game Awards December 7, 2023 Best Family Game Nominated [21]
Best Multiplayer Game Nominated
Game Developers Choice Awards March 20, 2024 Best Debut Honorable mention [22]
British Academy Games Awards April 11th, 2024 Multiplayer Nominated [23][24]

References

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  1. ^ Saver, Michael; Pung, Julia; Stanton, Devon (4 January 2024). "Made with Unity: 2023 in review". Unity Technologies. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b Bailey, Dustin (12 October 2020). "Free demo for Party Animals tops 135k concurrent players on Steam". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions #01". Recreate Games. 7 October 2020. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Party Animals - Official Release Date Announcement Trailer | Summer Game Fest 2023". IGN. 8 June 2023. Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Party Animals' Free Demo Reaches 135K Concurrent Players". GamesPress. 16 October 2020. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  6. ^ Khan, Aqdas (26 October 2020). "'The Funniest Game on Steam': Everything you need to know about Party Animals". TheSportsRush. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Wacholz, Charlie (15 September 2023). "Party Animals Review". IGN. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  8. ^ Rolls, Olivia (20 September 2023). "Party Animals Characters List – All Furry Friends So Far". N4G Unlocked. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  9. ^ Nightingale, Ed (9 June 2023). "Our "happy experience" playing Party Animals". Eurogamer. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  10. ^ Ye, Josh (15 October 2020). "After Genshin Impact, Party Animals is the latest hit from Chinese game developers". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Party Animals @happyhappynemo". Twitter. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  12. ^ Smith, Georgina (11 October 2020). "What is Party Animals and is it coming to consoles?". Dexerto. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Party Animals - DEV LOG 01 - Steam News". Steam. 25 May 2022. Archived from the original on 9 December 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  14. ^ Cripe, Michael (8 June 2023). "Party Animals Delivers Adorable Co-op Brawling This September". The Escapists. Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  15. ^ a b "Party Animals". Metacritic. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  16. ^ Tyrer, Ben (19 September 2023). "Party Animals review: 'Delivers ample amounts of chaos and chuckles'". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  17. ^ Spear, Rebecca (21 September 2023). "Party Animals Xbox review: Adorable fun impeded by sluggish mechanics". Windows Central. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  18. ^ Bellingham, Hope (20 September 2023). "Co-op hit Party Animals already has over 100k Steam players, but 'mostly negative' reviews as players cite server problems and no offline mode". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  19. ^ Kennedy, Victoria (21 September 2023). "Party Animals developer addresses "confusion" around playing offline". Eurogamer. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  20. ^ Lugris, Mark (16 October 2020). "Party Animals Shatters Records On Its Fourth Free Trial Day On Steam". The Gamer. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  21. ^ Spangler, Todd (13 November 2023). "The Game Awards 2023 Nominations: Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3 Lead the Pack With Eight Noms Each (Full List)". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  22. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (16 January 2024). "Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3 top GDC Award nominations". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 16 January 2024.
  23. ^ "Bafta Games Awards 2024: Baldur's Gate 3 and Spider-Man lead nods". BBC News. 7 March 2024. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  24. ^ "20th BAFTA Games Awards: The Nominations". BAFTA. 7 March 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
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