Viva Piñata

Review by IanBear

Viva what?

Viva Piñata is indeed a game about piñatas. Yes, piñatas. The things you whack with a stick? Yup… that’s the one. So, have Rare gone barmy, or do they pull it off? Well, the answer is a resounding yes! The game is an addictive cross between Sim City and Pokemon that not only plays well, but looks gorgeous too. Two words of caution, however. The DLC is not worth it as there are already a lot of pre-loaded items to buy for your piñatas. Secondly, don’t bother with the limited edition. The box is cheap and the extra disk features only a load of free stuff that is already on the marketplace. The only worthwhile extra, an episode of the TV show, has since gone live as well. Therefore you pay an extra £5 for a box, which feels cheap and nasty anyway, so just go for the normal edition!

Sim garden!

Now this sounds boring, but really is as complex and fun as any city management game, just on a much smaller scale! Garden creation is easy, and each one will be unique thanks to the tools at your disposal, which include a shovel, watering can, and grass seeds. Using them, you can create ponds, grassy verges, dig holes for plants and trees, and smash up any rubbish or unwanted buildings. You can also beat away any unwanted visitors using the spade, or even break up fights between you own piñatas. You also need to be careful with how you create your garden; you have only limited space but need houses for your piñatas to rest and mate, trees and plants, water to attract amphibious piñatas, flowers to attract bug piñatas- the list goes on, and you can see this is a very deep game should you choose to explore it all. In fact, the micromanagement can be so complicated that you can use the money you get from selling fruit and piñatas to the factory to buy helpers, who will water your plants and pick your fruit automatically.

Gotta catch em’ all!

The Pokemon elements are twofold. Firstly, some of the RPG elements are there. By attracting new piñatas, breeding them, and completing requests, you gain experience points, which level you and your garden up. They also give you better tools (this sound lame, but is actually really useful because then you can do much more with your garden!). the second element is the piñatas themselves. There are over 50 types of the critters, and they all have different requirements, firstly to settle, and then to mate through the hilarious ‘romance dance’ mini-game and cut-scene. The piñatas all look distinctive and it is a joy to see them settle down, because they change from a bland black-and-white colour scheme to be vibrantly coloured with a little cut-scene. This is a nice touch. You can also rename them to give them a little more of a personality. The piñatas are also modelled really well, and are fabulously animated to boot. It is like you are controlling your own version of the animated series (which actually looks worse than the game in places, testament to how good the game looks rather than anything else!).

Multiplayer?

The only downside to the game is the fact that Xbox Live has been largely ignored. Whilst there is DLC, there is no multiplayer as such. The only live feature is a post office, where you can send piñatas and items to other players over the internet. This can actually be a bad thing, as you can send whatever you like, so you could get someone sending you a load of evil piñatas to come and trash your garden, which isn’t very nice frankly, but will happen. However, the feature can be useful if you really need a piñata but you just can’t attract one or you can’t afford one. However you feel about this feature, there is no doubt that Rare should have found a way to better use Xbox Live.

Conclusion

Viva Pinata is a real return to form for Rare. It is fully accessible for children, yet deep and involving for adults and hardcore gamers alike. It features gorgeous graphics and a charismatic cast. It is a game you can invest hours in, yet still have so much more to do. The achievement points are also great, ranging from the very easy, to real tough ones that encourage you to explore all of the options available to you. Don’t be embarrassed by the cutesy style of the game, there are jokes for adults too, and as the game is so damn good anyway, it would be a crime not to buy it!