Take a whack at Viva Piñata

Viva Piñata looks like a kids game with cute little piñata animals and bright colors, but don’t let that dissuade you if you are old enough to have a driver’s license. While kids will find fun with Viva Piñata, adults will enjoy the challenge, humor and creativity the game offers as well.

The game seems to mix part of The Sims, Animal Crossing and any other resource management strategy game on the market, so if you like those types of games you will probably enjoy Viva Piñata.

Gameplay

The gamer is charged with taking a plot of land and transforming it from a vacant lot full of garbage and weeds into a garden pleasant enough to attract the various piñata animals that live nearby. Like real-life animals, the piñata animals have preferences as to what type of environment in which they would like to live. They also are picky about the food they eat and what other animals are around.

Animals attracted to the garden will drop by for a visit and if there is enough there that they like they might even take up residence. At that point, the animal’s personality comes out and they aren’t shy about starting fights with other animals they don’t like or doing things like hanging around their favorite flower. It’s even possible to convince two of the same piñata animals to do the love dance and create more of the funny little creatures.

Since there really isn’t any end goal for Viva Piñata, the gamer can take the garden wherever he wants. Every little decision and random event has an effect on the garden so no two Viva Piñata games will be alike.

There’s a lot to do in the game (too much to mention here), but there aren’t too many moments where it’s not clear what to do next. The gamer will be rewarded with experience points for every accomplishment they reach. Those points lead to leveling up and that opens new things — piñatas, shops, accessories, etc. — to help make the garden a paradise.

As Adam and Eve discovered, paradise is never paradise for long and that’s true in Viva Piñata. There are some nasty creatures who try to make life difficult for the Piñatas. They can make the piñatas ill or even kill them. The gamer must try to beat them off with a shovel. One thing that’s nice is these creatures, called Sours, only appear once the gamer has reached a certain level. So gamers who are content to play at lower levels may never see these vindictive critters.

Eventually, it becomes possible to hire helpers to do things like properly water the garden and help beat off the Sours. These helpers are a bit odd, but they help free the gamer up to do other tasks.

One of the negatives in Viva Piñata is lack of things to do on Xbox Live. There’s no way to show gardens off to other Xbox Live users, for one thing. There are only leader boards to compare scores and who has the most valuable piñata. The other Live option is to exchange crates full of things from the garden with anybody on the gamer’s friends list. Up to five things can be sent with a note, but there’s no way to tell what’s inside until the crate is open. So it’s possible that a vindictive “friend” may send a crate full of Sours to wreak havoc on another’s garden.

Learning Curve

Viva Piñata starts off with a little hand-holding, but that goes away about the time the gamer should have a handle on how things work. Younger gamers may still run into trouble, however. This is strange, since the game was created with them in mind. The later stages of Viva Piñata are a challenge, even for experienced gamers.

Shelf Life

Viva Piñata has a limitless shelf life because each game will be different. Two gamers could start a game at the same time and within an hour their gardens will look completely different.

Graphics and Sound

Everything in the game looks great due to Viva Piñata’s wonderful graphics and sense of style. While everything is limited to the garden, the gamer can create a setting that is full of personality and energy. The trees and flowers grow while the piñatas chase each other around and have a lot of fun. The design is on the cute side, but that shouldn’t keep adults from joining in on the fun. The game will save itself automatically, and when that happens everything slows down. It’s annoying, but quick and temporary.

There isn’t much to the audio other than the soothing background music and animal sounds, but it works.

The bottom line

Kids and adults should find much to like about Viva Piñata. Most kids won’t progress to the point where it’s too challenging, while adults will look forward to reaching that point. The gameplay is active and often chaotic, but it’s always fun.

8.5 stars out of 10