My only complaint is the lack of alerts every time a sour enters the garden. The sours will constantly keep you on guard as well, and if they are not taken care of early in the game they can eventually over-run your garden and ruin every plow, plant, and pinata. There are many, many events going on within just one garden that you'll have to be ontop of everything to make your experience with Viva Pinata as smooth as possible. So unless I want to spend more money, that's just part of the game I will miss out on. I don't own a camera as I just don't see the need in seeing the people I am playing online. Oh, and the whole idea of collecting cards & scanning them in with your vision camera is bunk. Try renting it first to see if you really like it before actually purchasing it if you are unsure. As I said in the title of my review, I hate to be a naysayer, but I just don't think this game lived up to its expectations. However, I just don't know that many people who play this game to make it a worthwhile feature. The thing I liked the most about the new version was the online play. Why can't I have a garden there, instead of just visiting? However, I found the method of trapping the pinata in those locations a bit quirky. I liked the idea of having sand/desert style items as well as snow. While there are new pinatas to catch, there just didn't seem to be enough, really, for the price. Perhaps I burned out on the game previously and didn't realize it, but I found myself becoming bored with this version early on. I looked forward to the release of the 2nd version, Trouble in Paradise, assuming I would enjoy it at least as much as I did the previous version. I was strangely addicted to it and had about a dozen different gardens. I played the original Viva Pinata all the way through, which is a rarity for me to do with any game. (or if you want to sit and play it with your younger child, then it's an innocent diversion that you will both enjoy) When you get stuck, there are tons of wiki pages out there to answer questions and help you move your garden from small and bare to big and beautiful. If your child can read and play independently from you, then give this game a shot. He likes the challenge of getting the different pinatas into his garden, expanding it and then keeping the bad things out. I know, right? A boy not wanting a "shoot 'em up" game. This game is "the one" our 8 year old son has been begging to get for years.
The sequel, "Trouble in Paradise" is not on the pc platform yet (we got ours for XBox). The really good thing about Viva Pinata is that it comes on so many different platforms (the basic game). After your pinatas get enough "candiosity" you can send them off to a party for children to enjoy.īut watch out for the SOUR pinatas! Those are dark red pinatas with bad attitudes who come into your garden and cause trouble! There are ways to make the sours turn good, or you can just keep whacking them with the shovel until they go away. It's up to you to decide where you want to go with your garden. You'll meet different characters who will either help you along the way or try to mess up your garden. It's an innocent little dance inside the pinata home where the 2 pinatas do a silly dance and fall in love. If you get 2 pinatas of the same kind, there's a really good chance you'll get to see "the romance dance". Once the pinatas come to your garden (after you've done enough to entice them into it), it will change from wild (black and white) to it's normal, colorful self. The idea is to get as many different kinds as you can and then keep everyone happy - kind of like a family Thanksgiving without all the tears.
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise is a game where you create your own garden to attract different types of wild pinatas to come visit and then live.