Notes: Australian school holidays started today, so I should have a lot more time to play games, watch movies and write reviews (as if I didn't do all of those enough of that already.) Please leave any thoughts or advice you may have, as I'm always looking to write better.
The words "children's game" don't exactly inspire vivid imagery. Most games for little'uns are movie tie-ins and extremely shallow experiences. Perhaps the logic is that kids won't care much about bugs and repetition so long as there's a picture of Spiderman on the box. Rare's Viva Piñata isn't like those. It's something fresh and original in the genre, with amazingly deep and fun gameplay, and some of the best artistic direction I've ever seen.
The game takes place on Piñata Island; a colourful and cheery place where the world's Piñata are born, live, and aspire to brighten up the birthday parties of children around the globe. At the beginning of the game you arrive on the island only to find your newly purchased patch of land in a complete mess and a girl named Leafos standing there, crying her eyes out. She explains that she's sad that the garden you own is in such disarray and that none of the island's Piñata are living in it, before giving you a quick tutorial and setting you on your way to become the greatest gardener anyone has ever seen.
A Horstachio, in it's natural habitat. Let's see if we can get a little clos... Oh, damn, he saw us.
The aim of the game is to build up your garden with plants, grass, ponds, trees and whatever else you see fit to attract different varieties of Piñata. Your main tool is the shovel. It's used to soften hard soil so you can grow things in it, dig seed holes, dig ponds, tap things, whack things, cut down trees and dig up treasure. You also have an everlasting packet of grass seeds, to plant grass (duh) and a watering can to water your plants. The shovel starts off as a rusty piece of crap, but is upgraded as you play, as can be the seed packet and watering can.
Using these simple tools you can shape your garden to have ponds, trees and plants and attract whichever kinds of Piñata you like. Each species has different likes, dislikes and requirements to become a resident of your garden. Flutterscotches will only stay if you have a few daisies in the garden, whereas Pretztails will only stay after eating a Cluckles or Bunnycomb. Cinnamonkeys like having a few trees around to climb in, and Doenuts like tall grass to hide around. Some piñatas are sour (wild) and must be soothed before their friendlier, tame versions visit and inhabit your garden. All of these differences make attracting Piñata challenging and like a significant achievement once you get that one species you really wanted.
There's a lot to think about when creating your garden. Plants cannot be put too close together or their growth will be stunted, some species of piñata will fight with each other at any given moment and plants will eventually be exhausted, die and not produce any more fruit or flowers. You have to keep tabs on all of your plants to make sure they don't get too much or too little water, and if you're going to use fertiliser then you'll want to make sure you're using the right kind in the right amounts, or the plant will get sick and not produce as much. There are benefits though; fruits, vegetables flowers and other things can be used to attract new Piñatas to your garden, or be sold for profit. The garden you're given can only have a certain amount of stuff in it at any one time, meaning you'll eventually have to remove something in order to progress.
If you want to boost the population of a certain Piñata, you've got two options. You can keep ordering them from the island hunter, at great expense, or romance them. Romancing involves getting two or more Piñata of the same species, meeting some requirements to get them in the mood (usually having house built for them and then feeding them something, but it can vary), and then completing a 2D minigame. The aim is to guide one of the Piñata to their mate through a maze whilst avoiding destruct-on-touch loathers. I don't like the minigame much, as the piñatas are a little hard to control with one stick, but the romancing movie you get afterwards is nice enough reward.
It's a lot like Hot Coffee, really, except for children.
With each new plant successfully grown, piñata attracted, colour variant found or anything else significant done you gain experience petals, and with 12 petals you gain a level. Each level unlocks new seeds, piñatas and garden items. So long as you're not completely lost without a set objective, you should always have something worth doing in Viva Piñata, and have fun doing it.
Viva Piñata looks amazing with it's bright and colourful art style. Each piñata has distinct personality from the way they look and move. Whirlms, the very first kind of piñata you attract, are some of the most adorable things I've ever laid eyes on, but I was bouncing around in my seat with glee when I directed it to something on the other side of the garden and it curled into a ball and rolled the whole way there in the cutest way imaginable.
I was particularly impressed with the texturing and modelling of the Piñata in the game. From a distance they look good, but zoom in and you'll see the little bits of papier-mâché that the Piñata are made of, and see it swaying in and out as they breathe. Trees (oak, in particular) are grand, towering plants but what I didn't notice until recently was the intricate carvings on the bark. Clicking the right stick in one of my gardens led me to notice the leaf patterns in the grass. Fruits, vegetables, leaves and seeds all look great, but again, zoom in and you see detailed patterns. All the little things add up, and there are plenty of them littered throughout the game.
Another thing I liked was the sound design. A lot of the sound effects in the game sound like they're taken for a child's toybox. Affectionate squeaks, pants and sighs are used well to communicate the Piñata's emotions, and human (if you can call them that) characters are voiced very well, despite the small (compared to other games) amount of talking. Music isn't on a constant loop, but instead comes on once or twice every quarter of an hour (a good thing retrospectively; it could have easily become annoying.) A lot of the tracks sound quite orchestral, or like they was pulled straight out of a nature documentary, but in the end it all fits together well with the feel of the game.
Viva Piñata also has a very obvious obsession with candy. You may have noticed some of piñatas I've named sound quite a lot like various kinds of sweets. Here are a couple more examples: Bonboon, Newtgat, Eaglair, Mousemallow. All sixty of the piñata species are named in some way or another after a sugary delicacy. Fulfilled requests from Piñata Central reward you with joy sweets, which your Piñatas can eat to make them happier. The game's currency to buy goods and services is chocolate coins. You can even smash open Piñatas right in the middle of your garden to harvest it's delectable candy innards.
There were a few things that I think could have been improved or tweaked. Once you reach a certain level Ruffians start appearing in your garden and being a nuisance. They do annoying things, like start fights, vomit dirt into your lovingly created ponds, break Piñata houses, tear down trees and leave sour candy lying around that makes your Piñatas sick. Watchlings can deter them, however they don't have a 100% chance of being sent off meaning Ruffians are going to get in and destroy a lot of your hard work sooner or later.
Dang hooligans! Git offa mah lawn!
Watering also raises a few questions. I wonder why aquatic plants still need to be watered, and why aquatic piñatas become sadder when watered. Only a certain number of items can be bought at once, making large transactions a little tedious, and your money and gardener level are carried between multiple gardens that you may start. If you want to start off from scratch, like I did for this review, you have to go into your Xbox360's dashboard and delete all your Viva Piñata data.
Viva Piñata is great for experienced gamers and young'ins alike. Anyone can enjoy the soft and cuddly atmosphere the game takes place in, and if you're the patient type you'll get some significant play time out of it. If you're looking for something original, colourful and fun, then I'd recommend you Buy It.
This is the tenth review I've submitted to the user review section. Celebratory picture time!
Yay.
The words "children's game" don't exactly inspire vivid imagery. Most games for little'uns are movie tie-ins and extremely shallow experiences. Perhaps the logic is that kids won't care much about bugs and repetition so long as there's a picture of Spiderman on the box. Rare's Viva Piñata isn't like those. It's something fresh and original in the genre, with amazingly deep and fun gameplay, and some of the best artistic direction I've ever seen.
The game takes place on Piñata Island; a colourful and cheery place where the world's Piñata are born, live, and aspire to brighten up the birthday parties of children around the globe. At the beginning of the game you arrive on the island only to find your newly purchased patch of land in a complete mess and a girl named Leafos standing there, crying her eyes out. She explains that she's sad that the garden you own is in such disarray and that none of the island's Piñata are living in it, before giving you a quick tutorial and setting you on your way to become the greatest gardener anyone has ever seen.
A Horstachio, in it's natural habitat. Let's see if we can get a little clos... Oh, damn, he saw us.
The aim of the game is to build up your garden with plants, grass, ponds, trees and whatever else you see fit to attract different varieties of Piñata. Your main tool is the shovel. It's used to soften hard soil so you can grow things in it, dig seed holes, dig ponds, tap things, whack things, cut down trees and dig up treasure. You also have an everlasting packet of grass seeds, to plant grass (duh) and a watering can to water your plants. The shovel starts off as a rusty piece of crap, but is upgraded as you play, as can be the seed packet and watering can.
Using these simple tools you can shape your garden to have ponds, trees and plants and attract whichever kinds of Piñata you like. Each species has different likes, dislikes and requirements to become a resident of your garden. Flutterscotches will only stay if you have a few daisies in the garden, whereas Pretztails will only stay after eating a Cluckles or Bunnycomb. Cinnamonkeys like having a few trees around to climb in, and Doenuts like tall grass to hide around. Some piñatas are sour (wild) and must be soothed before their friendlier, tame versions visit and inhabit your garden. All of these differences make attracting Piñata challenging and like a significant achievement once you get that one species you really wanted.
There's a lot to think about when creating your garden. Plants cannot be put too close together or their growth will be stunted, some species of piñata will fight with each other at any given moment and plants will eventually be exhausted, die and not produce any more fruit or flowers. You have to keep tabs on all of your plants to make sure they don't get too much or too little water, and if you're going to use fertiliser then you'll want to make sure you're using the right kind in the right amounts, or the plant will get sick and not produce as much. There are benefits though; fruits, vegetables flowers and other things can be used to attract new Piñatas to your garden, or be sold for profit. The garden you're given can only have a certain amount of stuff in it at any one time, meaning you'll eventually have to remove something in order to progress.
If you want to boost the population of a certain Piñata, you've got two options. You can keep ordering them from the island hunter, at great expense, or romance them. Romancing involves getting two or more Piñata of the same species, meeting some requirements to get them in the mood (usually having house built for them and then feeding them something, but it can vary), and then completing a 2D minigame. The aim is to guide one of the Piñata to their mate through a maze whilst avoiding destruct-on-touch loathers. I don't like the minigame much, as the piñatas are a little hard to control with one stick, but the romancing movie you get afterwards is nice enough reward.
It's a lot like Hot Coffee, really, except for children.
With each new plant successfully grown, piñata attracted, colour variant found or anything else significant done you gain experience petals, and with 12 petals you gain a level. Each level unlocks new seeds, piñatas and garden items. So long as you're not completely lost without a set objective, you should always have something worth doing in Viva Piñata, and have fun doing it.
Viva Piñata looks amazing with it's bright and colourful art style. Each piñata has distinct personality from the way they look and move. Whirlms, the very first kind of piñata you attract, are some of the most adorable things I've ever laid eyes on, but I was bouncing around in my seat with glee when I directed it to something on the other side of the garden and it curled into a ball and rolled the whole way there in the cutest way imaginable.
I was particularly impressed with the texturing and modelling of the Piñata in the game. From a distance they look good, but zoom in and you'll see the little bits of papier-mâché that the Piñata are made of, and see it swaying in and out as they breathe. Trees (oak, in particular) are grand, towering plants but what I didn't notice until recently was the intricate carvings on the bark. Clicking the right stick in one of my gardens led me to notice the leaf patterns in the grass. Fruits, vegetables, leaves and seeds all look great, but again, zoom in and you see detailed patterns. All the little things add up, and there are plenty of them littered throughout the game.
Another thing I liked was the sound design. A lot of the sound effects in the game sound like they're taken for a child's toybox. Affectionate squeaks, pants and sighs are used well to communicate the Piñata's emotions, and human (if you can call them that) characters are voiced very well, despite the small (compared to other games) amount of talking. Music isn't on a constant loop, but instead comes on once or twice every quarter of an hour (a good thing retrospectively; it could have easily become annoying.) A lot of the tracks sound quite orchestral, or like they was pulled straight out of a nature documentary, but in the end it all fits together well with the feel of the game.
Viva Piñata also has a very obvious obsession with candy. You may have noticed some of piñatas I've named sound quite a lot like various kinds of sweets. Here are a couple more examples: Bonboon, Newtgat, Eaglair, Mousemallow. All sixty of the piñata species are named in some way or another after a sugary delicacy. Fulfilled requests from Piñata Central reward you with joy sweets, which your Piñatas can eat to make them happier. The game's currency to buy goods and services is chocolate coins. You can even smash open Piñatas right in the middle of your garden to harvest it's delectable candy innards.
There were a few things that I think could have been improved or tweaked. Once you reach a certain level Ruffians start appearing in your garden and being a nuisance. They do annoying things, like start fights, vomit dirt into your lovingly created ponds, break Piñata houses, tear down trees and leave sour candy lying around that makes your Piñatas sick. Watchlings can deter them, however they don't have a 100% chance of being sent off meaning Ruffians are going to get in and destroy a lot of your hard work sooner or later.
Dang hooligans! Git offa mah lawn!
Watering also raises a few questions. I wonder why aquatic plants still need to be watered, and why aquatic piñatas become sadder when watered. Only a certain number of items can be bought at once, making large transactions a little tedious, and your money and gardener level are carried between multiple gardens that you may start. If you want to start off from scratch, like I did for this review, you have to go into your Xbox360's dashboard and delete all your Viva Piñata data.
Viva Piñata is great for experienced gamers and young'ins alike. Anyone can enjoy the soft and cuddly atmosphere the game takes place in, and if you're the patient type you'll get some significant play time out of it. If you're looking for something original, colourful and fun, then I'd recommend you Buy It.
This is the tenth review I've submitted to the user review section. Celebratory picture time!
Yay.
