Don't call it a sequel. (ADD sufferers beware)
Viva Piñata's concept is a simple one. As a gardener with initially just a small patch of land to work with, you must nourish and grow your garden until it becomes a veritable piñata paradise. As it turns out, piñatas are quite difficult to please, and you'll need to complete various requirements before they'll pay you a visit. For example, you might need to have a specific piñata residing in your garden, or enough of one type of terrain. Each time a new piñata decides to call your garden home, you'll gain experience which will eventually increase the size of your garden and allow you to buy new items so you can customize your space exactly the way you want it.
That's not an exaggeration - Trouble in Paradise boasts very strong customization options, matched only by the original Viva Piñata. A touch of the X button brings up your menu, and from there it's a simple matter of selecting the tool you want to use. Within seconds, you'll be deforming the gardens terrain, planting new seeds, or building structures for your piñatas to enjoy. It's a very Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon-esque experience; you can spend hours making the garden your own, but you don't have to be required to do anything. The open-ended experience is appealing for some gamers, but I found it to become boring quickly.
If all this 'freedom of choice' talk is making you feel a little angsty, never fear; Trouble in Paradise includes a new challenge feature to provide some motivation. People all over the world are throwing parties, and it's your job to provide the piñata (what's a party without one?). This consists of capturing the required breed of piñata, nurturing it until it's nearly bursting with candy, and firing it off to a party overseas. The challenges are a logical and certainly welcome addition, as it's easy to get lost with so much to do. With this new feature you're given a helpful suggestion and a bit of motivation, so you'll always have something to do.
The only other big addition to the Viva Piñata formula is the addition of two new areas, the Piñarctic and the Dessert Desert. Both are home to unique piñata breeds that won't visit your garden, at least, not on their own free will. Once you're in either region, you can place traps and wait for an unsuspecting piñata to stumble onto it. While the entirely new styles of piñata species are certainly welcome, the whole thing is executed quite poorly. The piñatas are very slow, and it can take upwards of five minutes to catch the one you've got your eye on. As there's no way to leave your traps and return to your garden, the experience quickly becomes tedious.
However, there's not much else that's new to report here. Trouble in Paradise is a very safe, by-the-books sequel to the original game. There are a few interface tweaks here and there - you can now cycle through piñatas, seeds, or terrain packets with the bumper buttons, which speeds the game up quite a bit. There's also an included cooperative mode, but it's fairly useless. While it can help ease a younger player into the game, you'll have to heavily restrict anyone you play with online for fear they'll trash your garden. But to be honest, these features don't quite make a Viva Piñata 2 - more of a Viva Piñata 1.5, the sort of game the original should have been. Those who own the original will probably find Trouble in Paradise too light on new content to warrant a new purchase.
The sugary-sweet visual style of the Viva Piñata franchise has remained intact, and Trouble in Paradise is just as much a looker as past entries. Rare's penchant for adorable character designs rings true here, and each breed of piñata has its own distinct shape and colour scheme. There's also an equally unique animation style for each. I know I instantly fell in love with each species after witnessing their entrance sequence. If your soul is too shriveled to appreciate the art style, you should at least be impressed from a technical standpoint. While a few of the textures are underwhelming, the water looks fantastic, the animation is slick, and the framerate rarely slips, even in the busiest gardens.
Complimenting the brilliant animation are some adorable sound effects, which are equally unique to each breed. Beautiful, ambient music gives the experience additional cuteness, although most of the tunes are recycled from the original. The game's sound unfortunately starts to slip up when it comes to the human voice acting. Many voice clips have been reused from the first game, and they're so over-the-top and creepy that they cut through the relaxing nature of the rest of the game.
Trouble in Paradise is a very basic sequel, making only the most predictable improvements to the Viva Piñata formula. If you own the original, there's not quite enough new content here to warrant another investment of your time and money. If you're new to the world of VP, you'll find the forty dollar price tag is a little steep, especially considering you can find the first game for around ten. Really, Trouble in Paradise worth a buy only for the most die hard Viva Piñata fans.