Viva Piñata Review (X360)

The gameplay is sort of a gardening sim/Pokemon hybrid. You have to plant grass or dig lakes and plant flowers and trees and fruits and vegetables to attract piñatas. Each piñata has different requirements for them to appear, and another set for them to visit your garden, and then another set for them to decide to become a resident, so meeting their needs and keeping track of everything can get tricky. One you have attracted two of the same species, you then have a new set of requirements to meet in order to get them to reproduce. When these are met, and you have built a special shelter for them, you have to complete a maze mini-game. When all of that is done, a stork delivers an egg and you are rocking and rolling.

But wait! There’s more! You can also evolve your piñatas to a new form by having them eat certain flowers or fruits or through other methods. You can hire helpers to come keep your garden tidy while you do other things. You can have a character come to your garden and upgrade things like vegetables or other items into better and more valuable items. And all the while you are trying to attract new species. There is a lot to do here.

As you progress, you will also attract sour piñatas and other unsavory characters that will try to destroy your garden. You get a sound cue when one is lurking around, and then you have to either beat them to death with a shovel or figure out what you have to do to tame them.

Viva Piñata also offers some limited multiplayer and Xbox Live features. You can connect up to four controllers to your Xbox 360, but there is only one cursor to control. It seems this feature was implemented to help parents playing with their kids so that the kid can control some things, but a parent can easily jump in and handle other tasks. The only Xbox Live functionality in the game is a post office that you can use to send piñatas and items to your friends via Xbox Live. This is a very nifty little feature, and getting presents from your friends is very fun and exciting.

Graphically, Viva Piñata is a very good-looking game. Each and every item is covered with details, and each piñata looks and acts like a real animal. This game is just a lot of fun to sit back and watch because it looks so good. The garden itself also looks very nice with pretty looking water and great looking grass and trees.

The game also sounds very good. Each piñata makes different sounds, so you can identify what is happening and who is doing it just by sound long before you see it. The music is also very nice, and rises and falls appropriately when a sour piñata or other nuisance comes into your garden.

When you put it all together, Viva Piñata stands as one of the best games on the Xbox 360. It looks fantastic, and offers extremely addictive and fun gameplay that anyone can enjoy, not just kids. Really, it is a shame that it has been marketed so heavily towards younger gamers, because it is a very deep and fun experience that adults will likely enjoy even more than kids will. This is one of our favorite games of the year, and is highly recommended for a purchase.