You know, marketing synergy really sticks in my craw. I completely understand the need and desire to take a product and sell it to the widest audience possible. That's the way money is made, and it makes sense for advertisers and companies to make as much money as they can. Still, I really have to work hard to suppress feelings of resentment when products are created with a clear intention to capitalize upon multiple markets-especially when the target markets in question are geared almost exclusively to children. Whether it's a crappy film that exists solely for the purpose of selling licensed toys, or a game that acts as a springboard for a new television show, I just feel cheated all the way around when my kids beg me to purchase "Tak and the Quest for Mediocre Gameplay, Part IV." I'd like to say that Rare's new Viva Piñata only resembles this sort of crass commercialism on the outside. It would be nice to reveal that the game's laser-precision targeting of the crayon generation and TV-preview heritage are only skin deep. But, that would be a lie. The simple fact of the matter is that Viva Piñata comes out of the box just screaming "marketing opportunity," and its cute, colorful cast of idiosyncratic paper mache animals was clearly designed with dollar signs in mind. It's a cute concept, sure, and it's certainly odd enough to escape accusations of single-minded profiteering, but make no mistake-Viva Piñata is a lean, mean, marketing machine, and any kid who sees this thing in motion is going to want a piece of the action. As a gamer, I should be disgusted. As a father, I should be outraged (okay… annoyed, at least). So… why do I love this game? It makes no sense, but I'll try to explain.

The essential question posed by Viva Piñata is: "What if there were a world full of living piñata animals, and what if they needed someone to create a place for them to live?" As noted above, it's sort of an odd concept, but it's not entirely new. On the most basic and stripped-down level, Viva Piñata is not unlike the secret lovechild of Pokemon and Harvest Moon. Players are initially presented with a bare patch of earth and are expected to use various tools to turn the arid landscape into a living, breathing garden. The garden grows in real time, and certain landscape features and items will attract certain piñata animals. These animals approach cautiously, at first, but can be enticed to stick around by analyzing and satisfying their needs. Do they require lots of water? Build a pond. Are they fond of a particular flora? Plant some. The boundaries of the garden are generous, so there's a lot of room to play around. The Pokemon feeling in the game comes from the fact that some piñatas are harder to find than others, and it seems like it will take an inordinate amount of time and careful planning to "catch ‘em all."

Additionally, gardening is an expensive business. Early on, everything seems wide open and relaxed, but as the game progresses into its later stages, the level of complexity and chaos in the garden requires true precision and a lot of control. Piñatas don't always get along well with one another-especially the Sours (malevolent red piñatas whose only purpose is to wreak havoc in your garden)-and keeping them all healthy and happy will require a lot of money. The economic system is vaguely reminiscent of the Harvest Moon games, since you can sell your produce and plants for coin, but Viva Piñata requires significantly more attention to income than Natsume's laid-back simulation. Whether you're breeding piñatas for sale or experimenting with various fertilizers and plant combinations for increased profit, planning and forethought is absolutely required if your aim is to build the world's most successful piñata garden.

On the other hand, it's important to note that Viva Piñata can be played with much less attention to detail. In fact, that might be a better route, overall. Becoming obsessive about particular features of your garden will eventually lead to ruin, anyway, as the need to constantly please different piñatas means most gamers' careful plans at the outset will need to change, frequently. The solution to this is to treat the game as an opportunity to experiment rather than a mountain that must be scaled to completion. Gamers who are not fiends about collecting every last achievement or attracting every known piñata can find a lot to enjoy here, and just fiddling around in the garden offers a lot of rewards of its own.

From a production standpoint, the game is a real knockout. Visually, it's just incredible. Every object in the game sports an incredible amount of detail, and the cast of characters is well animated and boasts a wide array of personalities. It's the ultimate "play just a little bit longer" game, if only to see what surprises lurk at the boundaries of the garden. In many ways, the production values here are just as impressive as those found in the recent Gears of War, and it's nice to see that Rare hasn't lost its touch for brilliantly-rendered whimsy and childlike wonder.

Much like The Sims, Viva Piñata is sort of the ultimate sandbox game. It gives players plenty of opportunities to experiment and explore, but it also has enough meat to really attract gamers interested in strategic play. I'm still not certain why I like it so much given my predisposition against heavily-marketed kids' games, but there's no denying that it packs a lot of magical moments and gameplay in an unlikely package. In fact, maybe that is why I like it so much-it's not really a kid's game, at all. Kids can and will enjoy it, but the gameplay-especially after many hours-is deep and challenging enough to make the Xbox 360 proud. People have compared it to a micro-Populous, and that's not far off the mark. Considering the disappointing Kameo, I really thought Microsoft had invested poorly with the purchase of Rare once Viva Piñata was announced.

I was wrong.

Score: 91%

Nov 24, 2006 | 0 comments
David Tolin