You may remember a beta for the absurd Party Animals that released back in 2020 – a riotously fun party game that swiftly rose up the most-anticipated lists. Fast forward three years and we finally have a release date, as announced at last night’s Summer Games Fest: 20th September, on both PC (Steam) and Xbox consoles.
In that time, the Shanghai-based studio was majorly impacted by lockdown, but the game has gone through extensive development and has been confirmed for release on Xbox via Game Pass.
Party AnimalsPublisher: Source TechnologyDeveloper: Recreate GamesPlatform: PC, Xbox consolesAvailability: 20th September
The developer also apologised for the long wait. “This is our first time developing a game, and we underestimated the time it would take to fix the bugs,” said producer and CEO of Recreate Games Zixiong Luo. “Additionally, some necessary approval processes took longer than we planned. We are just as eager as fans to see Party Animals launch, and we want to ensure it’s as polished and bug-free as possible first.”
Finally, we’ve now had our grubby paws all over it and came away big fans of its silliness.
What is a fairly simple party game about cute animals battling for arena supremacy with floppy physics certainly brought out our wild and competitive side. Join me, Victoria and Liv as we relive our experience with the game, plus some extra insight from the developers.
Ed: Before we talk about playing Party Animals, I thought we should introduce ourselves. So, hi, I’m Nemo the space corgi and I didn’t come to party, I came to win.
Liv: Hi, I’m Sparky the bull terrier and I don’t need a gun to prove I’m the top dog here.
V: Hello there, I am a bit of an animal flip-flopper. I switched between Tiagra the Tiger, Coco the Crocodile and – the character that became my favourite – Carrot the Bunny. Don’t let my cute ears and fluffy tail fool you, though! I was in it to win it, and dressed for the occasion by adorning myself in gear worthy of a knight. Yes, I was a rabbit in an Armet. Bet you weren’t expecting to read that today.
Ed: I asked the developers some questions about the game, including why they chose a corgi as a mascot. Apparently the producer’s wife has a pet corgi called Nemo! “When we expanded the number of characters, we brainstormed names based on the animals’ traits,” said the developer. “We prefer to give them names with a sense of contrast, dark humour, or something easy to remember. For example, we have a gorilla character named Barbie and a pig character named Bacon.”
I love these names, they really set the tone of the game.
Anyway, were either of you familiar with Party Animals before we played?
Liv: I remember seeing a trailer for it once, and my first thought was “it’s just like Gang Beasts”, but with cute animals and funny props. Which makes it even better, in my opinion!
V: Same as Liv, I remember seeing a trailer for Party Animals and immediately thinking “Huh! That’s like Gang Beasts with weapon drops”.
Ed: Some friends of mine played the previous beta from three years ago, but it seems the developer has spent a lot of time polishing since then. They told me: “After the beta, we expanded our art and engineering teams and almost rebuilt the entire game to ensure quality.” They’ve also added new gameplay modes and a friend system to help players connect easily.
Liv: I definitely appreciate the range of animals and outfits, plus all the pop culture references. I dolled Sparky up as Neo from The Matrix, and wept every time his shades were knocked off in battle.
V: Yeah the outfit variety was a lot of fun. I particularly liked the Darth Vadar-inspired ensemble for Harry the Duck. He pulled off that cape with real panache – you could say it had a certain “je ne sais quack” about it.