Wikipedia defines a piñata as a "bright container generally suspended on a rope from a tree branch or ceiling that is filled with candy and toys and is used during celebrations." Growing up in San Antonio I've been around the things forever. We string them up at birthday parties and other large gatherings and watch as a blindfolded dizzy person swings a large stick around. As you can imagine, this often times results in at least one injury. Rare took this traditional concept and mashed it up with a little Rare magic and came up with Viva Piñata.

Viva Piñata is a colorful and magical adventure that takes place on Piñata Island. Instead of an adventure that takes you across various lands, the adventure comes to you in VP. You see, you are the garden keeper and it is your job to build and cultivate the land you have been given. Along the way, various piñatas will come and visit your garden, some of them choosing to take up residence. The game will remind you a lot of games like The Sims and Animal Crossing, although it is fundamentally different in its execution. VP doesn't allow you to directly control the subjects of your garden and you also are not represented by a single in game character. Your role as the garden keeper is more of an invisible role that has you directly influencing the outcome of your garden.

As you start the game you are equipped with a shovel to smash junk and break up the hard soil. As you progress, you can upgrade your shovel to enable additional tasks such as digging ponds and digging holes for planting seeds. Additional tools are available at the local store such as a watering can. The real journey begins when your first piñata arrives. The in game help will walk you through the ropes of the game, but in a nutshell there are certain criteria that must be met for certain piñata to visit your garden as well as additional conditions that must be met for them to become residents and later on romance with another piñata to produce offspring. In essence, you will plant grass, make ponds, and plant trees that bare fruit for the piñatas that you would like living in your garden. VP embraces the whole circle of life thing so some piñata become fodder for larger piñata.

Not all piñata are good piñata and the few that are nasty are easily identifiable by their names. These Sour piñatas can be turned into nice piñatas or simply be smashed with your shovel.

Just adding residents isn't where the game levels off. Rare implemented a whole romancing aspect to the game that will occupy a large portion of your time. Romancing, in case you hadn't figured it out, is the term used for procreation between piñatas. Once the conditions for romance have been met for 2 like piñatas you simply order them to romance at which point you will have to complete a small mini-game, basically a maze lined with bombs, in order for the romancing to be successful. Upon completion, an egg is delivered and after a while it will hatch. The new piñata then makes a cocoon and grows into a full size piñata. Romancing is absolutely necessary to advance in the game and the mini-game is different for each piñata species.

To help you cultivate your garden, the local town has many services and shops for you to make use of. Romancing requires a home for your piñata, so you will contract the local builder to build the house in exchange for chocolate coins, the in game currency. Likewise, you can buy and sell items and even piñatas to the local town store. Selling piñatas is a great way and the fastest way to get money. Some of the services include: Arfur's Inn, Bart's Exchange, Doc Patchingo, Willy Builder, Miss Petula, and Gretchen Fetchum. Arfur's Inn is where you would hire a helper for your garden. Available helpers include Sprinkling, Gatherling, Weedling, Watchling, and Diggerling. These helpers do the following respective tasks: water your plants, gather and sell your produce, pull weeds, keep away pests, and work in the mine for you. Bart's Exchange can transform items for you. Doc Patchingo is available for healing your piñatas in the event that one of them eats a sour treat or gets hurt in a fight. Willy Builder is the man to call when you need a new structure or home for your garden. Miss Petula sells accessories for your piñatas and also sells a few domestic piñatas. Gretchen Fetchem is a hunter and will track down lost strays or catch wild versions of piñatas that you have already seen. This is useful for getting piñatas that you have already had in your garden without having to meet their specific conditions.

Viva Pinata is a wonderful journey into a magical and very creative land that is limited only by your imagination. The bright colors and pleasant atmosphere give this game a "childish" first appearance, but once you get into the game you will realize that this game appeals to gamers of all ages. Often times, completing a review signals the last time I may get to play a game for a while, but I've been having so much fun with VP that I am going to ensure that it becomes a game that I play regularly. The game is so vast and has so many possibilities with extra content from Live! that I didn't really touch on every aspect of the game, but rest assured that VP has something for everyone.

Dec 11, 2006 | 4 comments
Chris Rasco