Innovative, colourful, even amazing, yet lacking a well-thought storytelling at some moments.
In Viva Pinata you become a friendly gardener on a magical and colourful Pinata Island. Your efforts to create a magnificent and animal-friendly garden result in attracting more and more Pinata species. Each of the Pinata has its own habits, things it likes and dislikes. Your goal is to expand the garden and make it a friendly place for all Pinata species.
You think this is an easy task? You can't be more wrong than that. Viva Pinata's difficulty level is just right, but learning to take care of everything in the garden takes time. At least two hours are required in order to get to know the game well enough, to succeed.
Viva Pinata is more or less a story-driven game. A game suitable for everyone to play, but of course it is aimed mostly at the younger audience. And the biggest flaw of the game is unfortunately related to storytelling. In a game designed to be played by young kids, you need to be close to them all the time. You need to carefully and clearly explain to them, what they should do in the first few phases of the game. Viva Pinata has a habit of being too fast paced in the beginning moments, and thus it often causes confusion. Basically, you often ask to yourself: 'Hey, but what should I do now'?
New Pinatas are coming to your garden one after another, and you also meet several new characters along the road and also learn about a bunch of activities you need to perform in order to have everyone happy and the garden to develop. It all happens way too fast.
After all however, Viva Pinata as a well-constructed game which trains your brain and works nicely with youngsters, teaching them what responsibility and taking are of the others is.