Viva Piñata

What if… there was a place, far across the sea, where every Piñata was a living, breathing creature?

What if… YOU were invited there, then given the land and the tools to help build the Piñatas a home?

Welcome to the world of Viva Piñata!

As it happens, Piñata Island is a place with an important purpose. Right in the middle of the island, surrounded by gardens, is Piñata Central. When Piñatas from the gardens are ready to be all that they can be, Piñata Central sends them blasting off around the globe to share their candy at any party in need.

Then, when each Piñata has finished bringing happiness and excitement to one party, it returns to the island to start the whole amazing process all over again!

Now you can experience Piñata Island life for yourself — on land that once belonged to the most well-known and gifted gardener of all, Jardiniero. Do you have what it takes to follow in such famous footsteps? Good luck!

Coming from Rare, we can finally get a glimpse into the daily life of a Piñata. How is a Piñata chosen for a party? How does all that candy get inside it? Most important, where do Piñatas come from?

When I first saw this game I thought it was made for kids. And I’m kind of right, since it was turned into a Saturday morning cartoon on 4KIDS! TV. How do I know this? Well the special edition of Viva Piñata comes with a bonus disc that contains an episode from the show. I tried to watch it to see how bad it would be. I got not even as far as the first break before I popped the bonus disc out and put the game disc in.

When you first start up the game and enter the world of Viva Piñata, your first task is to remove all the junk that has accumulated in this garden. This is an easy way to earn some early chocolate coins. After that you need to break up all the soil to make it easy to work with. Basically more tutorial for how to use the shovel. The idea here is to make your garden appealing to all the different types of Piñatas. You do this by having a certain percentage of your garden be a favorite type for that Piñata.

The first little critter you’ll probably get a visit from is the Whurlm. This little guy loves dirt, and since the shovel thing basically tells you to make a bunch of dirt, you’re going to get the Whurlm really fast. Other Piñatas like water, grass, or mixtures of types. Some of the larger Piñatas require you to have other Piñatas already living in your garden. Often times they need to eat some of these Piñatas to become residents themselves.

Once you attract two of the same Piñata type, you have to make more Piñatas yourself. This is done by meeting specific requirements for each Piñata, then getting two romantically interested Piñatas (little pink heart over their head) to meet up and do the “Romance Dance.” Being a kid friendly game, all they do is dance (no really, you can even watch the first time), and then the Storkos comes by and delivers an egg.

Viva Piñata does a good job at being addictive. It uses the whole “Gotta catch ‘em all,” mentality, but it can also be very mean. Once you have a few Piñatas, you want desperately to gain more, but you’re running out of space to put any more housing. On top of that, you don’t know what that Doenut needs in order to stay in your garden. It’ll get right up to the edge and just stand there watching you, taunting you, before it decides to walk along the border before it returns to the forest.

This is a nice “Pick up and Play” kind of game that’s easy to jump right into after being away for a while, but it can feel a little boring when you play for an hour or so and have nothing new to show for it. If you just want to say you have played Viva Piñata, then rent it. If you actually enjoy garden work, or really want to welcome all the different types of Piñatas to your garden, then I’d have to tell you to buy it. Though it may sit on the shelf for a while at some point, you’ll be glad you held on to it when you want to try to get one more Piñata into your garden.