Viva Pinata is a fun game that will thrill both young and old alike.
The Bad: Garden maintenance becomes bothersome, game evolves slowly after 10 or so hours of gameplay, no online whatsoever.
We all know how game to movie translations end up. They are usually a big mess and are incoherent to the source material. The same can be said for the reversed situation... and it gets even worse when games are made from TV shows.
But what happens when a TV show is based on a video game and that, surprisingly, it ends up being a very good one? What happens is Viva Pinata, a virtual life simulator from publisher Microsoft Game Studios and developer Rare Ltd.
The object of the game is quite simple in Viva Pinata: Build the biggest Pinata garden you can, using resources available to you. Although this game might seem like it's aimed towards a younger audience, older kids can find enjoyment in it also.
You start off the game by naming your garden. Then, as you survey the wreckage that will become your Eden, you are assigned a shovel, a water can and an assistant. She will guide you through the basics and will help you get your garden rolling along. Then, as you get the hang of things, she will only intervene when new Pinatas are sighted or when you level up, or if you ask for her opinion on things by selecting her.
Landscaping is quite easy to master, especially with a magic shovel. This gardening wonder can dig holes, create basins of water, even up terrain and even smack some Pinatas around. You'll also be given a watering can, which will be used to water plants and trees. Both these tools will evolve and allow you to do more things as you level up and as your garden becomes bigger.
Speaking of leveling up, you'll have to do different tasks for that to happen. Making your garden pretty, like adding some grass, ponds, trees, plants, and so on is a good start. Doing that will attract some visiting Pinatas. As soon as a Pinata is spotted, there's a little cutscene introducing it and an entry is added in your journal. You can then consult that journal to get information on the Pinata, like what it takes for it to become a resident and what it takes for it to mate with another Pinata. The more your garden is attractive and well maintained, the more you'll see Pinatas roaming around it. Your garden will grow twice in it's life cycle.
Let's talk about the stars of the show now: the Pinatas. Each "species" is named after a candy, since Pinatas are usually filled with them. There's a pretty big population of Pinata, from cute and cuddly ones to ugly and fierce ones, and they can all be tamed and become residents. When a PInata isn't a resident, his color will be black and white or red, in the case of "evil" Pinatas. When you find a way to make them want to reside, they will become a vibrant mixture of colors. You'll also get to name each Pinata when it establishes it's home in your garden, which is kinda cool.
Some Pinatas are not too fussy about becoming residents, while others have higher demands. Some will want a certain fruit or produce, while others will need to "eat" another Pinata or require a sizable amount of grass or water. Finding each Pinata's requirement is fun, but it can also become a bit frustrating, especially when you don't possess the resources or chocolate coins to buy them. You can earn these coins by selling the fruit you grow on trees in your garden or even by selling some of your Pinatas.
Another way to increase your PInata population is to have them mate. Once again, each Pinata species will require certain things for it to fall in love and finally "make babies", one of them being a home. You can have the village builder build homes for your Pinatas which will cost you chocolate coins.
Once everything is in place, you just need to show one of them the way to the other and watch as the magic happens. Naturally, we're not talking Discovery Channel stuff here, as the mating is done in the form of a humorous and cutesy dance. Then, the egg is delivered to the happy parents and eventually hatches, unveiling the newborn.
You can also try to cross-breed Pinatas. This is somewhat tedious process and requires some work, but the results can be very interesting.
Naturally, the law of the jungle... or garden, in this case, applies. Battles between Pinata will happen more often than not, especially if one of your Pinatas is in a bad mood. Of course, there are ways to avoid these fights, like reassuring yourself that your Pinatas are always happy by buying them some candy (yes, they eat candy) or ameliorating their living conditions.
But having some of your Pinatas eaten is unavoidable, especially if you want certain species of Pinata to reside in your garden. After all, it's all about leveling up.
Some of your PInatas will get ill. This will happen if they eat bad candy or lose a fight. You can then choose to cure them, by asking the village doctor to stop by which, naturally, will cost you, or you can leave them be and an evil Pinata will drop by and put them out of their misery for you.
When a Pinata "dies", it morphs outside of your garden and leaves behind it some candy for the other Pinatas to chow down on.
Keeping up with everything that's happening in and around your garden can become quite the chore, so you'll have a couple of helpers available to you... for a certain fee, of course. You can assign them to pick up the fruits from your trees, water your plants and scare away unwanted Pinatas. This will relieve some of the stress, but I've found that the helpers don't exactly "help" you, most of the time. Sometimes, they'll forget to water trees or plants, get stuck in your garden and then just decide to quit their job, and so on. So I guess you're never happy unless you do it yourself.
The villagers, on the other hand, are much more helpful. But, in this case, they run businesses that require you to pay for what you want. You have the village store, where you can buy everything you need, the builder that builds your Pinata homes, the doctor that cures your Pinatas, etc. All of them work fairly well.
The gameplay here is easy as pie to learn and master. The tutorial is very well done and eases you into the game slowly. The controls can be adjusted, depending on the age of the gamer, which is a very good thing, especially since this is a family oriented game.
However, the game does become tedious and loses some of it's charm after 20 or 30 hours of gameplay. Doing the same chores over and over might be enough to push certain people away. The visiting PInatas also become very rare as you progress and level up, and sometimes you'll be without seeing a Pinata stroll around your garden for the longest of times.
The graphics in the game are one of it's high points. They are extremely colorful, in a cartoony sort of way. Every Pinata looks vibrant and alive. The environment reflects very well the game's day and night times, as well as the rainy or sunny weather.
The sound is also alive and present in this game. Each species of Pinata makes it's own sound, and these will vary for each action they are making, which brings a certain authenticity to them. The voice acting is also excellent and each character has a certain parental aspect to them that makes you feel comfortable. The soundtrack is generally pretty good, mixing some orchestral arrangements which fit perfectly with the game's setting.
If there is one thing I can reproach to this game, it is the very limited presence of online capabilities. The only thing you can do here is exchange Pinatas with your friends who have the game. It would've been nice to see them build on the XBox 360's Live capabilities, like having your friends visit your garden, send helpers over to them or even have thieves to steal some PInatas from the unsuspecting buddy. Live is a very big disappointment in this game... it could've been so much more.
For what may have seemed like a bad idea at first, Viva Pinata turned out to be a very good game. It's so easy to just pick up this game and start playing, due to the excellent tutorials and easy gameplay. Even though it tends to become repetitive and tedious, it's still fun while it lasts.