Reviews by The Raist!

[Raistlin]

Well. Since the review area in Gamers Corner seems pretty much dead and gone, I'll just make one here.

And I shall start with - Viva Piñata.


When I first heard of this game I immediately thought of this to be a kiddies game with disgustingly cute Piñata animals and happy frolicking rainbows everywhere. So I planned in the start not to get it. And the fact that I didn't have an XB360 at the time was another good reason. Anyway. After I got my XB360 and after I had played through Halo 3 and Bioshock (Both in one day, I may add.), I decided I needed a game I could play for a long while. So I thought, "What the hell. I might as well get Viva Piñata.".

Which I did. And it is nothing like I feared.

You start off the game with a broken shovel, a rusty water can and your residents consists of caterpillars and sparrows. As you progress through the game, you get bigger Piñatas, better shovels, more garden area and plants. You also get to choose new garden items, such as a burning torch, a water fountain, pavement and housing for your Piñatas. You also get the option to hire helpers that'll collect fruit from your trees and bushes and, at one point, you can even build a mine so you can dig for riches. Although that costs a enough for me to send the Fetcher to get me three, spanking-new high-end Piñatas. Granted, at times the game is frustratingly annoying, like getting the Parrot to move in requires the death of four Piñatas and some nuts. I have yet to make it move in as it just walks in, eats one of my birdies and then buggers off. It was also at this point I started thinking about a truly scary part of Viva Piñata. See, when a Piñata is killed by another Piñata, the killed breaks apart and leaves a lot of candy. You also hear a small, slightly silenced choir of kids going "yaaay" in the background. It is also at this point where the other Piñatas flock around the "corpse" of the dead one to eat the candy. I also think its fair to assume that the candy would be the intestines of a Piñata so when other Piñatas start eating the candy, they're really cannibalizing the corpse.

Particularly scary is it when one bunny Piñata eats the remains of another bunny Piñata, as the bunnies are probably among some of the most cute Piñatas in the game, outdone only by the squirrels.

All in all, I like Viva Piñata. Its colourful, its entertaining and its pretty much sandboxed.
Now if you will have me excused, I have to go play some Gears of War to balance out the cute.

[Raistlin]

Well. Not exactly. Mind you, I have not played Animal Crossing so all knowledge of it is purely second-hand information. But judging from that, I wouldn't so. In Animal Crossing, you control one person and continue to kit out your house with new stuff and collect money due to some kind of huge debt. Or so I heard.

In Viva Piñata, the only direct control you have is using your shovel, your watering can, your grass seeds and various services from a convieniently placed village that is right next to your garden. You earn money by selling the fruits and whatnot from the plants you plant.

So while yes, there are similarities, its not quite Animal Crossing. Yes, its full of brightly-coloured overtly-cute animal....things....but its not Animal Crossing...or so I've gathered.

[Pvt Minsk]

Interesting review, well done. Would this be the X360 equivalent of Animal Crossing then? That's the vibe I get from it. Apart from the piñata cannibalism, of course.