(andPOP) - What kind of sick sadistic mind comes up with the idea behind Viva Piñata? Let’s take a Latin themed doll who’s only purpose is to be beaten and broken at parties filled with candies, and make it into a cartoon about where and how they live while they patiently wait to be shipped to parties where they receive their reward? It seems to me that this sadistic concept is an awful lot like the Ewan McGregor movie “The Island”… but a lot more colourful.
Developed by Rare and published by THQ, Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise was released on September 8th, 2008. In this game, there is no story, no adventure, no real ‘end’, instead you tend a garden, satisfying requirements to get new kinds of piñatas to visit and then satisfying more requirements to make them stay as residents. From here, you satisfy a few more requirements to make them ‘mate’ (complete with video of disco party) and hatch an egg. As you increase the number of residents and requirements, you will gain new abilities and your garden will grow in size. If this sounds familiar, chances are you’ve played the older XBOX 360 version in which, you guessed it, you tend a garden, satisfy requirements and expand.
The controls and layout are pretty intuitive, touch screen, menu, item pull-downs, a map that lets you zoom on specific piñatas and more make it easy to navigate and do what you want, when you want it. The only beef I had with this was the main menu and option menu, which seemed a little rushed and convoluted. The game itself is pretty addictive, I wasn’t sure how I would feel starting this title up but the next thing I knew, three hours had passed and I was just trying to get to the next expansion of my garden. There are over 60 piñatas to collect, a great tutorial set of training missions, the option to transfer items through a multiplayer feature (in order to get special piñatas ala Pokemon red/blue) and a playground mode which lets you sort of jump right into things when you’re short on time.
The graphics are great for a Nintendo DS title, there are plenty of direct-from-cartoon cut-scenes, and with the 2D rendered background and colourful models prancing everywhere, it looks great. I especially find that when mating, each piñata set has a totally different set of disco moves to create a baby piñata and that each one is a full out cut-scene from the cartoon. Creepy! It’s not all fun and games in Pocket Paradise however, there are in game ‘battles’ which while you don’t control, plays a little like a primitive Pokemon battle, but hey, sometimes killing off some of your piñatas are the only way to satisfy a requirement.
The game sounds great, with every cut-scene of course having a voice-over direct from the cartoon, the use of voice-overs are not overdone or reused over and over again so players won’t easily get annoyed. As well, the music and sound effects to tell you what’s going on in other parts of your garden do not irritate, but let you know that, ‘hey, somewhere in your garden a baby is born, or a fight broke out, or an evil sour snail has wandered into town’. Again, if the music sounds a little familiar, chances are you’ve played Viva Piñata on the XBOX 360.
All in all, Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is great for most ages, for the youngsters it can start off all nice and sweet but get very intense and overwhelming when you have 50 piñatas and 20 vegetables to worry about at the same time. On the other side, it can start off pretty boring for the older audience and take a good hour or two before the challenge begins, as well, it’s a very bright and colourful game, maybe a little too childish for some of those older gamers who have no inner child in them. If you’re still playing with your old Tamagotchi and want to move up to the next level or live in a condo that doesn’t let you have access to a garden of your own, perhaps this is the perfect title to pick up this holiday season and let your green thumb grow. Clocking in at a good 15-20 hours before you might grow tired of this, it might be a good title to at least try out, and the good news is, if you have an XBOX 360, you can try out the demo on Xbox live or probably buy it used for a fairly cheap price.
Gameplay: 4.0/5
Graphics: 4.0/5
Sound: 4.0/5
Replay Value: 4.0/5
