Back when I first saw the E3 2006 footage of Viva Piñata, I knew it was going to be a cult hit. There is something really intriguing about the Harvest Moon-meets-Animal Crossing-meets-Pokemon-meets-The Sims type of gameplay featured here. It looks amazing, is surprisingly deep, and is one of the most addictive games of the year. Don’t be fooled by the “kids game” look, Viva Piñata is a great game that is highly recommended for Xbox 360 gamers of any age.
Quick Hits
- Title: Viva Piñata
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- Developer: Rare
- ESRB: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Gardening sim / Zoo sim
- Pros: Great graphics; deep gameplay; fun and funny piñatas; very addictive
- Cons: It is a shame it has been marketed (and reviewed by others) as a kids game.
Not Just for Kids
Microsoft
Something that needs to be said right away is that Viva Piñata is an amazingly great game that isn’t just for kids. It is nothing like the sorry Saturday morning kids TV show, so don’t judge the game based on that. Yes, it is all cute and cuddly looking, but underneath all of that cuteness beats a heart that just may be three sizes too small. You can intentionally set your creatures on fire. You can smack them around with a shovel or soak them with a watering can. You can feed them rotten fruit or poison mushrooms. And when one of the piñatas dies, all of their candy spills out. And in the most twisted move I have seen in a while, all of the other piñatas run over and eat the remains of their fallen comrade. This game definitely has a dark side to it that adults will really enjoy.
It also needs to be mentioned that despite that fact it seems like a kids game on the outside, the actual gameplay underneath is surprisingly complicated. Parents should know when their own kids are ready to move onto more complicated games, so I’m not going to give an age range here. But I do think that this is something that you play with your kids rather than just letting them tear into themselves. You’ll both have a lot of fun, and you’ll be there to make sure some of the trickier aspects of the game get taken care of.
What is the Point?
As you play, you constantly attract new species of piñatas and earn new plants and upgrades that you can buy at the in-game shops. Your ultimate goals are to see the rarest and most valuable piñatas available, attract every species in the game, to become a master romancer of every species (have seven members of one family in your garden at one time), and to earn lots of chocolate coins (money). To see and do everything the game offers will take at least 25+ hours, and likely more. And when you are all done, you just start up a new garden and try to do things differently. This is one of those games that you can sit down and play for 3-4 hours at a time and not realize it. You are constantly rewarded with new items and piñatas and achievements, so you keep on playing because you have a bunch of new toys to play with.
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