REVIEW
Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise
By Shaun Hatton - October 19th, 2008
If my understanding is correct, Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise is aimed towards children and people who wouldn’t normally play video games. It entices you in with a simple yet morbid premise: you tend a garden to attract wild piñatas and then, when they’re ready, you ship them off to a party.
There are many kinds of piñatas that inhabit Piñata Island, the mythical setting for this game. And each type of piñata is attracted to different garden details. For instance, certain ones will only appear if you have enough sand for them to poke around in. Once a piñata is attracted, your work is still not over. By accomplishing little tasks to keep the piñata happy, you charge up its “Candiosity” metre. A piñata with full Candiosity can then be shipped off to a party. Since we never see what happens at these parties, you might think that they’re being shipped off to their doom. But they do come back eventually, so the game isn’t as sadistic as you might think.
For a game that is cutesy and supposedly kid-friendly, I had a tough time wrapping my head around the concept and controls. While everything looks fairly simple at first, there’s really a lot going on. The game’s menu interface is very involving and not as straightforward as I was originally expecting. This could just be because I hadn’t played the original title and had skipped the tutorial (which I then went back to complete, since I was helplessly lost).
Apart from attracting piñatas by having certain things in your garden, Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise makes use to the LIVE Vision camera to scan characters into the game (this is called Piñata Vision). Simply holding up a special Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise card will drop that card’s contents into your garden. The card can contain anything from characters to rare items to boost in-game status. People without the LIVE Vision camera can still enjoy the game, but Piñata Vision certainly adds charm to an already saccharine game.
Trouble In Paradise is both relaxing and challenging and is the perfect game to spend some time with when you’re in the mood for something quick and not too mentally taxing. The game’s back-story involves the maniacal Professor Pester planning to spoil all parties while you, using the power of piñata breeding and herding, have to stop him. Other cool features include the ability to snap photos of your garden to share with friends over Xbox LIVE and 2 – 4 player co-op.
