Viva Piñata review (Xbox 360)

Rare. A company once synonymous with software of great quality. Right up until that day when Microsoft pulled out its wallet and ripped Rare away from the warm hands of Nintendo. The company that gave us Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye 007, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark and a countless number of other great games, hasn't seemed the same since.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero weren't exactly worth all those millions for Microsoft. And simply put, that's because the games just didn't live up to Rare's standard. The company's newest game, Viva Piñata, hasn't sold very well either, which I really can't understand, because this is truly a Rare breed.

Colours of the rainbow

In Viva Piñata you play an aspiring gardener who has to make flourishing garden to attract up to 60 different colourful Piñata animals. And yes, we are speaking of the Spanish-Mexican sweet-laden beating barrel.

Rare's Piñatas are a bit more cute then normal and also are alive. Each Piñata is shaped like one of real-life’s animals, only more cute and made out of paper straps. Not only cute, but insanely cute. This will probably make some of you sick to the stomach and others will feel warm in their hearts (mainly women). Viva Piñata's colourful world of dizzying sweetness covers over a more violently addictive concept that everybody can enjoy. If you dare to let out your inner child.

Gotta catch'em all

Rare have without a doubt taken a look at the Pokémon phenomena, and Viva Piñata is also in some ways a variation of this. After all, the goal is to "catch'em all" in the end. There is even an accompanying TV series.
Every object you place in your garden attracts a specific type of Piñata. You can plant flowers, trees, grass, dig little waterholes with your shovel and a whole lot more. All these plants have to be watered with your watering can. As soon as you have met the criteria, Piñatas will start showing up. Starting with the smaller worm-like ones, known as Whirlms. If you build a house for a specific species, and fill the romance-criteria, they will start mating. This evolves into a minigame, where you have to get from A to B without hitting to many bombs. If you succeed, the little animals do a dance for you, and then the stork arrives with an egg containing the little new one.

Nothing is holy in this game though. It is possible to get the mother/father Piñata to mate with one of their own children although this doesn't lead to any deformities. All species can apparently change their sex as well.

And so it continues. You expand your colony of animals, buy new plants and items for the garden in different stores in the nearby city which can be accessed through the games primary menu.

More and more Piñatas will join you in your garden as time goes by and with a little luck, some of the rare ones as well. Every time you do something good you get experience points. When you have enough of these you go up one level. This results in different kinds of bonuses from the master gardener, like an upgrade of your shovel, or more room in your garden. Believe me you will have your hands full in due time.

Be one with the squid

All of the above is merely the core of the game. While you do all of these things, you have to fertilize, harvest and sell your crops in order to make chocolate money to buy all the necessities. Your Piñatas need to be cared for or they won't mate or they will get angry.

If they get into a fight you have to pay the vet to rescue them. Aggressive Piñatas who need to be turned are also in the game. Others who ruin everything, challenges from Piñata Mountain and a lot more. Everything in the game is tied together. If, for example your Lickatoad eats a blueberry-seed it turns blue instead of green.

This is one of the many variants in the game, but maybe, there's a special species that only shows up, when you have a blue frog. Others might only show up if they can eat Blueberry Kermit (or whatever you've called him, since the game let's you give all your animals names). There is also a complex food chain in the game. You can keep your different Piñatas apart by putting up a fence. This doesn't always hold them back though.

Your own backyard ecosystem

Viva Piñata is in reality an ecosystem simulator. And I have to say that despite the somewhat slow and often a little illogical menu system the game plays like a dream most of the time. The closest comparison I can think of is the PC game StarTopia where you had to build a star base in almost the same way. It is only possible to manipulate your companions not to control them directly.

You can give out orders but don't think for one second that these will be followed every time. This makes Viva Piñata feel incredibly alive but sometimes a frustrating experience at the same time. To mention one of the more negative things, it is said that a bump on the head with the shovel or a can of water would stop a fight but this is rarely the case. The Piñatas also get stuck at times or they behave in a strange way because they can't get where they want to go.

For my taste it is all a bit to much at times. You never really get to just sit and relax with all you precious little animals before DevilSpawn 1 has gotten into a fight with Muttley32 or the nasty Dastardos has pummelled one of your sick Piñatas.

There isn't much fun in the Live part either. You can send crates to your friends, who can't see what's inside before they open it. And that's about it. You could have wished for a more intuitive Live implementation with the possibility to take a trip into your friend's garden. A bit like in Animal Crossing. But no.

Rare climbs back up

Even with the smaller technical moments of irritation, Viva Piñata is a triumph. The game can be enjoyed by all who dare to let out their inner child. And believe me, your girlfriend will love this. She will probably also swear and curse when she can't get PinkyPop and PeachyPooh to do enough mating.

Graphics are kept in a simple cartoonish style that works. Where Kameo couldn't decide whether to be pretty or weird, Viva Piñata keeps its childish fantasy look all the way. And even though the game is based on a pretty simple concept, all the 360's cylinders are firing with day/night cycles, fire, water, fog and of course all the pretty little detailed animals with their torn paper look. Go ahead and laugh, but once you've seen this game in action you won’t anymore. This is a living 3D-cartoon in real-time.

The sound offers a lot of cheerful effects, good music and exaggerated, but fitting voice acting. On top of that are all the insanely funny sounds all your animals make. Just wait until you hear the Doenut for the first time.

To hear a paper deer making sounds was one of the highlights in my gaming world for a long, long time. This should tell you something about this game, which is entirely in a league of its own.

Viva Piñata might not be for everyone, but once you're hooked you won’t let go.
And now I'm off, to find out how in the world I can get a visit from the crocodile...

Viva Piñata!

Translated by René Hansen.