Viva Piñata
Find your new life on Xbox 360 with Viva Piñata from Rare.
 | Version Xbox 360 | Developer Rare | Publisher Microsoft | Genre Adventure |
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Control of your cursor is smooth, tools are easy to get to (mapped to the d-pad) and simple to use. Highlight nearly anything in the garden and you will be shown which buttons performs what action on it. My only complaint (and it's a tiny one) is that when your garden gets bigger it can take a few seconds to get to the other side of it. The cursor always moves at the same speed, even if you are travelling in a straight line. If you are at the far side of the garden and Dastardos is visiting a sick piñata on the other, you really have no chance of getting there to call the doctor on time.
While there is a story to Viva Piñata, it is minimal, and is actually quite hard to find. It's given out in 11 chapters as you level up and is hidden beside 'Player Awards' in your journal, which is not really the most obvious place to look. Even when you have 'completed' (i.e. unlocked the all the story and the credits) this open-ended game, you will continue to discover more piñata that you hadn't seen before, and you will be inexplicably drawn to attract and romance them. This is no mean feat, and to truly finish Viva Piñata will take days of full time play, if it can be done at all.
"Control of your cursor is smooth, d-pad-mapped tools are easy to get to and simple to use."
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Online is limited in the game, and you can only check leader boards, or post your piñata off to a friend to enjoy. A nice touch is that any piñata you breed have your tag on them, and no matter how far over the world they travel they will always be marked with your logo. It can be daunting opening a crate you receive too - you never know what you're going to get!
Like all great games, Viva Piñata takes a simple concept and expands upon it, getting deeper and more involving as the player learns how to handle it. While many gamers will turn their noses up at a game they think is going to be far too simple, Viva Piñata has had me enthralled for hours, and I struggled to turn it off to write this review. Not that I'm finished either - there's a furry friend looking at my garden at the moment, who won't come in. And I'm not going to bed until he does.
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| Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ) | |||
| PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO | |||
| Description | Dur. | Size | Details |
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Viva Piñata 20-minute gameplay demonstration with Chris Kimmel |
19:26 | 142MB | CAM, SD, 16:9 640x360p30 1Mbps |
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Viva Piñata 20-minute gameplay demonstration with Chris Kimmel |
19:26 | 51MB | CAM, Low, 16:9 640x360p30 0.3Mbps |
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Viva Piñata Direct feed gameplay 1 |
00:32 | 68MB | DF, ED, 16:9 856x480p30 3.0Mbps |
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Viva Piñata Direct feed gameplay 2 |
03:07 | 11MB | DF, ED, 16:9 852x480p30 3.0Mbps |
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Viva Piñata Announcement trailer |
1.04m | 10MB | SD, DF, 30 640x360 1.4Mbps |
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Viva Piñata Meet the characters! |
6.18m | 72MB | SD, DF, 30 640x360 1.4Mbps |
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Interview with Scott Henson Including Piñata talk |
22.36m | 145MB | SD, 25 640x480 1Mbps |
Satoru Iwata Video Interview - the late Nintendo president spoke with Kikizo in 2004 as 'Nintendo Revolution' loomed.
Kaz Hirai Video Interview - the first of Kikizo's interviews with the man who went on to become global head of Sony.
Ed Fries Video Interview - one of Xbox's founders discusses an epic journey from Excel to Xbox.
Yu Suzuki, the Kikizo Interview - we spend time with one of gaming's most revered creators.
Tetris - The Making of an Icon: Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers reveal the fascinating story behind Tetris
Rare founders, Chris and Tim Stamper - their only interview? Genuinely 'rare' sit down with founders of the legendary studio.
The History of First-Person Shooters - a retrospective, from Maze War to Modern Warfare