Impressions: Viva Pinata

Well, I’ve had the 360 for a week or so now and most of that time has been spent playing Dead Rising, Call of Duty 3 and Hexic, one of the Xbox Arcade games. However, I went and picked up a new game today, nominally as a encouragement to finish the Politics (that’s Political Science to the Americans out there) essay that I’m working on. I’ve still not finished it (the essay that is), but I did take a break to play Viva Pinata and now I’m taking another break to wax lyrical over it.

First of all, Viva Pinata is aims at kids. It’s obvious from the moment you start playing that this game is aimed at families. Nearly all the text in the game other then your Journal (think in-game manual crossed with a Pokedex) has accompanying spoken dialogue.  This is quite a nice feature and the dialouge isn’t repeated over and over again as happens with some games.

The main advantage of the spoken dialogue is that it allows kids who can’t yet read to play on their own. It also allows those of us without HD television sets to get the gist of the text without straining our eyes.

Coupled with the family friendly interface is a family friendly learning curve. The game spends a good bit of time taking everything in baby steps. This is a better then it sounds however. Often with simulation games the tutorial phase ends suddenly  and leaves the gamer going ‘Eh?’ and wondering why his character has just had a nervous breakdown (this actually happened to me the first time I played The Sims 2). By walking you through the start of the game, Viva Pinata ensures that the gamer doesn’t end up too confused.

Finally, there is a co-op mode. Except according to Microsoft Rar, it’s not a co-op mode, it’s a family mode. Basically the gist of it is that two players can control the cursor at once, to allow parents/sibling/etc to assist a younger kid. I’m not sure how practicle it actually is, although I’m going to try it out with my girlfriend at some point.

Anyway, on to the meat (or indeed candy) of the game. The game combines the collecting aspect of the Pokemon series with the management of the Sims series. In order to attract Pinata to your garden, you must meet criteria such as having a certain amount of grass or having a certain type of flower or Pinata in your garden.

On top of this, you have to generate money to buy Pinata houses and buy seeds.

For a game as ridiculously cute as Viva Pinata is, it has amazingly good gameplay. It’s defiantly worth checking out if you like the Black & White, Pokemon or Sims series. Also, check out the Viva Pinata cartoons on Xbox Live. The humour is pretty childish, but they make for a nice distraction if your bored.

One final point, beware of MS’s Viva Pinata micro-transactions. They are current offering three accessory packs, each containing three items for around about £1.50 each. Some transactions are just a tad to micro to be worth it.