A Kids game adults love. Original, clever, charming, funny and all kinds of fun
When you start the game, you are given a spade with which you can clear the ground and break down all the rubbish that litters the place. You get money for breaking down the rubbish, and this can be used later in the game to save up for new spades, watering cans, seeds, fruits, and other garden furniture. The shop has everything you want for your garden from plants to garden fences and houses for your resident piñatas. The piñatas wander the world looking for reasons to enter your garden. They will only enter your garden if you fulfil certain requirements for that individual piñata. For example, the fox will patrol the edges of your garden until you get chickens, rabbits or mice, after which they will come in and devour your resident piñata and once it's had its fill, it will become and resident as well. In this case, the fox might also be required to attract other animals. Also plants and garden furniture can attract certain animals to your garden. Planting trees and having worms in the garden will attract birds etc. As you progress through the game you'll unlock more piñata who are harder to get and also new spades with which you can dig ponds, plant larger trees etc. Its very well fleshed out and by being a good gardener, your garden also gets given more space as you progress through the "story". By the end of the game (there is no ending, but once you've got all the piñata) you'll find your garden transformed from the dusty plot it was at the start to a lush, vegetated paradise thriving with cute little piñatas all with their own reproductive system, calls, walks and personalities. It really is a charming game.
Viva Piñata also has multiplayer, and Xbox live features. It's hard to think of how this works, but it does, and it works well. Being a family game, the multiplayer allows two people to control the game at once. Designed for fathers to play with their children, one can control one portion of the controls, and the other can control another. Its quite clever, and although not initially useful for the older gamers it certainly has a lot for the younger ones and people wanting to play with nephews, nieces, sons and daughters. The xbox live features are very cool. For those connected to xbox live, there is a massive viva piñata marketplace where anyone can buy and sell items from the piñata world. If you have a friend who needs another badger in order to breed them while you've already got a whole family, you can charge him your chosen amount of gold, and send him one. He then sends the money back. Its a very quick and fun way to interact with other players, buying animals, breeding large amounts of offspring and selling them on. This is particularly profitable if you are breeding the larger, hard to get animals that are in demand from new players. One can spend the whole game being a breeder and market salesman. When selling items, your own logo (which you design) is attached to it (mainly if a piñata born in your garden, but seeds as well) and this is a permanent thing. Your piñata can travel the cyber world, going from friend to friend. Your logo remains on the piñata so people cannot take credit for your hard work, and in some cases, you may find your own piñata returned to you weeks later from an anonymous buyer not knowing he is returning the piñata to his rightful home. This is a cool, smile generating experience.
Viva piñata is done by Rareware who consistently make awesome and amazing cartoony games. This is no exception. One of the best things about the game is simply watching your cute, happy little piñatas wander your garden, eating their fill of seeds, leaves or whatever. Surprisingly this game was more popular with the larger age groups of 30-40 year olds which is a testament to the game's charm. It is a real refreshment to play a game that is truly unique and original. Its also great to see a game that is so popular within the same age group as players who love Gears of War and other gory, first person shooters. Viva Piñata is a long way from the crowd of other games, standing completely on its own and shining brightly. The game is a testament to human imagination and while it is simply a gardening, animal breeding game, it requires imagination and strategy to enjoy simply building your dream garden. Its clever, simple, cute, and great fun for all ages. How rareware did it, I do not know. How they made a gardening game as fun as Gears Of War and popular as Resident Evil, I cannot say. Viva Piñata is prime!