I hope Microsoft didn’t do this game a disservice by releasing it the same week as the most anticipated game of the year, Gears of War. It would be a shame to see this gem of a game lost in the "Gears-mania" mayhem. I, like most 360 owners, picked up Gears of War upon its release last week. I initially didn't give the other two major 360 releases, Call of Duty 3 and Viva Piñata, a second glace. While I’ve been itching to play Gears non-stop, it’s hard to do with a three year old roaming the house. I thought that it might be nice to give Viva Piñata a whirl since it would give me and my daughter something to do together.
What I thought would be a colorful and simple children’s game turned out to be a compelling and deceptively complex strategy game. I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I quickly found I couldn’t stop playing it after my little girl went to bed, even with that unfinished campaign in Gears of War beckoning me...
"This game is extremely addictive - crack covered in milk chocolate and caffeine addictive."
Although the game is its own beast, the easiest way to describe the game is a cross between Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and Populous. Initially, you are given a rough square patch of land, a beat up shovel and tasked with creating a garden in hope of attracting wandering piñatas. With the shovel, you can "whack" dry/cracked soil to smooth it out and make it hospitable for grass, various plants, and trees. Over the course of a well done tutorial, you’ll meet new characters that live in a nearby village that can provide you with various items such as seeds, garden decorations and buildings.
After smoothing out a patch of soil and planting some grass, I had met the conditions to attract my first Piñata visitor – a Whirlm (worm). All Piñatas have cutesy names that combine food/candy and their animal names, such as Horstacio, Bunnycomb and Taffly. Each visitor that shows up in your garden will appear black & white in color, until you meet its conditions to stay and become a resident in your garden. In this case, the requirement for the Whirlm to become a resident was to have 10 picometers of soil or grass. You can check the "resident" conditions for any piñata that wanders into your garden by selecting them and pressing "Y". After these conditions were met, he became a resident in my garden and changed from black & white to his vivid color pallet of orange and red. Once a Piñata becomes a resident, you can name them (in my case, my daughter wanted to name him Sherman - like the worm from the Backyardigans.
The Romance Dance
After you’ve attracted a couple of the same species of Piñata to your garden, you can move on to the next stage (and most disturbing for my daughter), the Romance Dance. After meeting certain "Romance" conditions, two Piñatas of the same species can do a Romance Dance and create an offspring. Evidentially, all of the Piñatas are asexual and don’t have problems with incest, since my Sherman the Whirlm had no problems doing the Romance Dance with his Whirlm offspring #2.. and #3, and #4 etc.
The Romance Dance is hilarious, especially the first time as you’re greeted with a cut scene of your Piñatas dancing in their house. After a coin collecting minigame, you’ll have an egg or a cocoon that’ll hatch with a new Piñata. The only problem that I had was trying to explain to my three year old why Sherman wanted to have babies with Sherman Jr. and Sherman Jr. Jr.
"Daddy, where do babies come from?"
You can do many things with your new Piñatas – you can sell them for chocolate coins (Viva Pinata’s currency) or sacrifice them to feed larger and more valuable Piñata’s to meet their residency or romance conditions. Between the Piñata sacrificing and the asexual incest, it can be dicey for small kids that like to ask lots of questions. After a few minutes, my daughter was so enthralled with the pretty graphics that she soon forgot about my question dodging.
"Pastels Abound" - The Graphics
The graphics in this game are great for what it is. If you’ve seen or played Rare’s other 360 game, Kameo, you'll know what to expect. Everything is vibrant and crisp. You really can’t complain about the graphics because they are very faithful to the TV show. There is even an option, in the Options Menu, to select what type of TV you have (LCD, CRT, Projection, etc.) to optimize the clarity and vibrancy of the image.
"It’s kind of a sick joy to see happy Piñatas feasting on the candy of ruptured piñata carcass." - The Audio
The audio is great. Lots of ambient sounds you would expect to hear in a colorful garden. The music is nothing special but appropriate for the game. The animal noises are fun to hear, but they can be upsetting when you hear one of your little Piñatas whimpering when he’s getting beat up by a larger Piñata. Rare tries to make this a happy occasion by throwing confetti and playing celebration music when a Piñata is sacrificed or ruptured.
"Kind of like the passenger side brake in those Driver’s Ed cars" - Game Controls
The controls work well – the default allows you to explore the world with typical First Person Shooter type controls. You can zoom in and out with the triggers. Most selections can be chosen from a radial menu brought up by pressing "X." There are "Simplified" controls available as an option that uses a static camera, which helps younger children (and wives/husbands not familiar with standard FPS controls). There is also a neat option that lets you use a second controller to “help” your child if they get stuck – kind of like the passenger side brake in those Driver’s Ed cars.
Achievements
The Achievements system reminds me a lot of the one used in Dead Rising. There are 50 achievements, each worth 20 points a piece. There is a good mix of easy and difficult to obtain achievements.
"A sour Piñata which can run amok" - Live Functionality
There is some limited Xbox Live functionality. I haven’t tried it yet, but you can drop crates filled with items and Piñatas into the gardens of those on Friends List. You can be nice and help a buddy out by sending them a rare Piñata or nasty and send them a sour Piñata which can run amok and create trouble in their garden. They won’t know what’s in the package until they open it – SURPRISE! The other bit of Live functionality is a Leaderboard, where I guess you can compare the net worth of your garden. Too bad there is not Animal Crossing-like function where you can visit the gardens of people on your Friends List, that would have been great.
Pros
- Arguably, the best game Rare has made since the Microsoft acquisition
- Great for the entire family
- Vivid Graphics that are faithful to the TV show
- Simple Controls and Interface
- Easy to Learn, Hard to Master
- Addictive and Compelling Gameplay
Cons
- Multi-generational incest and Piñatas feasting on the remains of their fallen brethren create awkward questions from small inquisitive children
- Can be difficult for children under 8 years old to play alone – lots of reading
- Almost too cutesy
- Autosaves like every 30 seconds
- No option to visit the gardens created by people on your Friends List (like Animal Crossing)
- Addictive
- Not as much time for Gears of War and the upcoming Rainbow Six: Vegas
Overall
Even with a few creepy undertones: multi-generational incest and Piñatas feeding off the candy filled carcasses of their fallen brethren, this is a great game for everyone in the family. I’ve found myself playing it a whole lot more than I anticipated, even when my daughter has gone to bed. If the concept sounds appealing to you, you won’t be disappointed. I’m never gonna finish Gears of War at this rate...
