Party Animals Stream Summary - 06/03/24

I had no idea what I was getting myself into with Party Animals, the game that narrowly won the first Random Sel-X vote off by a dice roll. To be honest I had no idea what to expect from this game as I had only heard of it in passing, and true to my word I never once fired up this game before the live stream itself, as such I was fully expecting Party Animals to launch into a title screen from which I could perfectly springboard into the game once I was ready to go live.

This was not the case.

Instead I was greeted with a disembodied voice that I was not at all listening to as I was panicking about the technical difficulties I was having with my camera whilst my character, a floppy doggy apparently named "Nemo" was locked in a dog crate. After that it was a case of just going with the flow as I went through what I can only describe as an obstacle course full of lizards wanting to beat me up, robot dogs trying to whack me over the head with a big mallet and familiar looking cubes...

The painting spoke to me on a spiritual level

After the trials and tribulations of getting my backside kicked on many occasions I was then told to jump into a big hole, at which point I was dropped into some Aztec looking level and, I'll be honest, I had no idea what was going on. A game that looked like a cutesy brawler that was akin to the likes of Power Stone was suddenly turning into a strange free flow platforming beat'em'up sort of thing. I decided to try and explore this "level" and ended up being killed by what looked like poison gas before being magically transported to an actual title screen. It think it is fair to say that I was confused as all hell.

It was at this point I thought that maybe I should at least attempt to come up with my Gold/Silver/Bronze goals and there happened to be 4 weekly challenges that popped up on the screen. Seeing as this was a very short, party game where I had no idea what was happening that I probably would not stream this again, I thought these would make a great template for setting goals, so my medal thresholds were decided as follows:

🥇: Complete all 4 weekly challenges

🥈: Complete 3 out of 4 weekly challenges

🥉: Complete 2 out of 4 weekly challenges

I then clicked "quick match" and discovered that Party Animals is an online only game, something I don't typically dip my toes into and I thought that was a real shame to be honest, but not to be deterred I jumped in anyway. It took a few games before realising that Party Animals is just an anarchic party game with different stages that have different rules. The first stage I played took place in a wind tunnel that blasted the arena with strong winds at regular intervals, and it was your job to try and raise the barriers to ensure you didn't get caught in the wind (as you lose if you do) whilst trying to knock your opponents into it. It was crazy but also a lot of fun.

I was determined to make that bat fly

It also took me an embarassingly long time to work out that Party Animals was a team game so I spent the first few rounds wailing on my team mate (I'm sorry Flynnorex if you're reading this!). Not that I didn't get my comeuppance as that crazy cat was indiscriminate with a baseball bat themselves.

Team work was not an option for this homicidal kitty

Despite our apparent deep rooted hatred from one another, me and Flynnorex made for a shockingly effective team as we won two different games working together. Well, I say working together, I just think this maniacal moggy probably could have won this all on his own. I certainly didn't want to be anywhere near him so I dread to think how our opponents felt!

Even when he won there was murder in his eye...

Fittingly, you can continue wailing on each other on the winner's podium screen in a scene that very much reminded me of the Flash Forward minigame from Mario Party 10/Mario Party Superstars.

Careful guys, Nintendo are on a suing streak at the moment...

After these two games I joined a new server where I played one last stage of just beating the stuffing out of rival critters, though this time it was on ice and there were a lot of weapons. Then I played a few stages that were very different and involved trying to get balls of various sizes into the opposing team's goal. I kept voting on these to get a better medal in all honesty but they turned out to be incredibly fun and, more importantly, completely insane!

The first of these games involved a small, electrified ball that you needed to pick up and throw into the opposing goal with the catch being that it sends out a shockwave now and then that send your little guys flying if they're caught in the blast. It was best of 11 games and with the scores tied at 5 all, in the last game I was able to get my very first goal for my team by using said shockwave to cunningly boost the ball into the opponent's goal and securing victory for the reds!

The second game involved an actual football that was so big you couldn't pick it up. Instead you had to punch and kick the ball into the opponent's goal. This was a little less exciting to watch as it was best of 5 but, once again, my team secured victory. Happy days.

The game provides plenty of interesting ways to play with balls

After these two games I made the decision to call it at that point. Between having an incredibly random leg cramp (that still hurts a day later) and it being 12pm I decided it was best to accept that I was not going to achieve a gold award as I sucked knocking people out in this game, but as it turns out I was quite good at slapping them as you can see from the challenge tracker.

3 out of 4 challenges completed

And that is, how they say, that. I shan't be revisiting Party Animals next time as it's a 2 hour completion game and there really isn't much more to explore to be honest, and so with that bombshell, as I completed 3 of the 4 weekly challenges I shall award myself with a...

🥈 SILVER MEDAL 🥈

Votes for the next Random Sel-X game are currently open now closed, and as Party Animals is now officially done the deadline for the next round of votes will be Saturday 9th March 11:59pm. Leave a comment on the linked post to have your say in which game I play next!

- D J Driver