Title: Viva Piñata
Genre: Virtual Life
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: December 1, 2006
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We were all sure that Rare would have return to success. What we have not foreseen was that its Killer Application would have been a game with things like cartoons as main characters. Thus, nobody was really ready for the revolution. What revolution? Viva Piñata's one!
"Parental Control"
Some time ago, Microsoft understood that the best way to acquire owners "tomorrow" was to let them know Xbox "today". Translated: children of today will be the adults of tomorrow and, hence, develop games for them now is something like an investment on the future. Fortunately for all of us, Microsoft has decided to give this possibility to Rare and the English software house had one of its best ideas: the result is a Killer Application for our Xbox 360, nothing more, nothing less than the more known Gears of War.
Viva Piñata has as main characters piñatas, paper-pulp animals at the centre of every child-party in Mexico. The title starts with a beautiful animated scene in which some piñatas explain us the importance of the parental control and the opportunities offered by secure Xbox Live modes.
The Jardiniero job
To be a piñatas farmer is not so easy: with 60 piñatas to grow, to cure and to breed it is not a work everyone can afford. On the contrary, Piñata Island remembers only one great farmer, Jardiniero, who has unfortunately retired for mysterious reasons after a glorious career in collaboration with Piñata Central, the place from which piñatas are sent to everyplace in the world to let the children enjoy their parties.
This is the story before our first minute in the game, when we'll meet a crying Leafos who will give us the key of the garden that has been some time ago her father's garden: yes, Leafos is Jardiniero's daughter.
Viva Piñata starts here, with a pointer we'll use to select areas of interest and to perform any action to make the garden as beautiful as possible. The first game phases can be boring because the title is set for a not so steep learning curve and everything is explained in a maybe to exhaustive way: however, this game child-ish set-up disappears completely after few game hours and Viva Piñata becomes a real and difficult managerial game: hence, it IS NOT a slow title, it IS NOT an easy game, its graphics IS NOT banal and it IS NOT a childish game!
Hence, before going into game-play details, let's focus on probably the better realised part of the game: the graphics. Looking to it the first time, Viva Piñata can look inferior to GoW and its Unreal Engine 3, but the truth is that the number of polygons the Rare engine is able to move is impressive and the general sensations is extremely good: to understand the detail level of the title, it useful to underline that every piñata has its own white label stick somewhere on its body.
However, going over the beautiful animals, also the set is greatly detailed and an excellent use of the blur effect for far elements completes the overall effect of a real cartoon-ish living island. The same thing can be said for your humanoid assistants who perfectly fit the surrounding world with their good character design.
Menus are, again, very inspired from a graphic point of view with leaves and flowers effects but slightly un-handy when it comes to loading times and organization. The latter, in particular, can be a little frustrating for adult players as going on with the game we'll need to access rapidly to some path and the game won't allow us to do it. Same thing can be said for the camera: usually it does the work, but when the garden will become bigger, some zoom options would have been useful.
Is it better an egg today or a piñata tomorrow?
Even if the design can catalogue the game as "dedicated to children", Viva Piñata game-play is as complex and complete as of those of a great managerial game in which money (chocolate) is important, citizen (piñatas) satisfaction is fundamental and commerce (fruits and vegetables) is the only way to survive. This short explanation highlights how the game-play is a mix between "The Sims" and "Total War" (at least, its managerial part).
At the game beginning, our earnings will be poor and the tools at our disposal are few (a dig and a watering can) but they will be enough to satisfy the first piñatas requirements: the Whirlm. Sort of little worms, the whirlms will almost suddenly be part of our garden and, in order to let them reproduce, we'll have to buy them a house: this is a fundamental step in the history of every piñatas farmer. In fact, thanks to a house, piñatas will do a dance love and through a mini-game - a sort of track to complete with a piñata avoiding bombs - we'll allow them to have a child after a few minutes.
From this point on, we are free to do whatever we want, keeping in mind only 4 steps: piñatas are first sighted, then they visit the garden, after they become residents and, at last, they can reproduce. Taking into account the fact that, in order to complete all the previous steps, we'll have to match particular requirements - presence of other piñatas, fruits, vegetables, etc. -, it starts to become evident the title depth.
Depth that becomes completely obvious when we understand that some piñatas can evolve and see its value to grow thanks to "natural casual Darwinian evolution" or to some right gadgets that can be bought in Piñata Island shops. Moreover, some piñatas simply hates some other and thus, if they are both residents of the garden, they will continue to fight till one of them falls sick and the not-so-cheap doctor has to be called. At last, we have to afford our first moral decision: is it better to remove one of the 2 species from the garden selling them, or is it preferable to let the massacre to continue?
This is the real face of Viva Piñata: even if the concept of death is never touched by the game - piñatas explode in candies and re-born outside the garden - the same cannot be said for the concept of capitalism. In fact, sooner or later, we'll understand that breeding piñatas s good, but breeding to sell them is even better also because this will avoid to meet Dastardos, piñatas gravedigger.
Furthermore, there are infinite possibilities to customise the garden and the game-play is so well calibrated that it is able to fit its speed with the player ability: an expert gamer can find himself literally submerged of things to do, while a casual and maybe younger player will have to manage only few things once in a while even if the game will definitely mean of achievements. It's worth to mention that Viva Piñata will guarantee a strong interaction between the game and the KidsTV cartoon: children watching the cartoon will be able to understand how to evolve and how to attract new piñatas to their garden and this will add longevity to the overall experience made of 60 piñatas.
Eventually, there is also a couple of Xbox Live functionalities that are worth a description: currently the game does not allow to visit a friend garden but, while waiting for a patch, the game will allow us to send and receive piñatas and every other object present in the garden (except the assistants) just with a Silver membership. Clearly, be aware that bad-friends can decide to send you bad-things as evil-piñatas that will always disturb your garden peace.
Final Comment
Rare can be proud of the work done and Microsoft can celebrate the arrival of a Killer Application for Xbox 360 for the second time in a month time. Viva Piñata is not worth a 10 because of annoying frame drops during the frequent auto-saves and because of not perfect menus, but it introduce a new way for gaming on the Xbox 360, it experiments and succeeds in fields that "yesterday" where Nintendo exclusives.
Viva Piñata is a little star in the sky: in a few years we'll probably forget the name of this game but it, up there, will know to be still part of the video-games Olympus.
Evaluation
Presentation: 9
The limited edition is full of extra contents and has a nice pack. Menus and cut-scenes are well-realised.
Gameplay: 10
No game on Xbox 360 can be compared to Viva Piñata. The game itself can be best described as a managerial title with cartoon-ish characters.
Graphics: 9
One of the best Xbox 360 games also from the graphics point of view. The mark is below the one of Gears of War, but only because of several frame-drops during auto-saves.
Sound: 8
Dubbing is good in almost every (dubbed) language and the sound-track perfectly fits the title. Unfortunately, some piñatas "voices" are really annoying.
Longevity: 8.5
Longevity is not a point of strength of the title because of the maximum number of houses, of piñatas and of the lack of a real story to follow.
Multiplayer factor: 7
Unfortunately, it is still not possible to visit friends' gardens, but piñatas and objects exchanges via Xbox Live are completely free.
Overall Evaluation: 9.1
Viva Piñata is a NEW game on Xbox 360. Some minor defects are not able to sap a game-play and a graphics that will leave you with your mouth open. The fact that the game has been able to go beyond the 9 barrier is our way to say that we are facing a Killer Application.