Viva Piñata

The AI isn't flawless, although it's mostly the hired help who come off the worst. The helpers do menial tasks, such as water plants and chase away the smaller sour piñata. More than once a message appeared to let me know they were stuck, although it's easy to guide them out of their predicament. On a couple of occasions I really only had myself to blame, planting trees in front of the Doctor's path so he was unable to get through and help my sick piñata.

Starting Viva Piñata I had been expecting an easy-going, laid back affair to kill an afternoon. For the first couple of hours, it's anything but! Tips, alerts and fights amongst your residents keep you busy non stop, dashing round the garden to tend to every little emergency as it occurs. When you get farther into the game, once you work out which piñata don't get on, things become a little more relaxed. When you reach this stage it doesn't become easier as such - your animals will have much tougher requirement to be romanced.

In some cases you will find yourself trying to attract small piñata such as insects to your garden, just so you can get the piñata who feast on them. There's definitely a sick pleasure in this aspect of the game! The foxes are especially fun to watch, as they sneak their way up the garden when their prey's back is turned, attacking only when they know it is too late for their cute, innocent, big-eyed victim.

As if it wasn't enough that many of your residents will fight each other at a glance, there are also numerous kinds of sour piñata who invade your garden, keen to pillage and cause havoc. Some will eat your plants; some will eat your piñata; many of them will throw up sour sweets onto the ground. Our innocent residents are all to quick to eat these up. If they do, you had better call in a doctor quickly or the villain Dastardos will float by and smash them open. Having absolutely no respect for the dead, even the cutest residents will run in and eat the remains of their fallen comrade.

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