Viva Piñata (video game)

Viva Piñata
File:Viva pinyata.jpg
Developer(s)	Rare Ltd.
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Release	November 9, 2006 November 29, 2006 December 1, 2006 January 11, 2007 December 1, 2006
Genre(s)	Simulation
Mode(s)	Single player

This article is about the Viva Piñata Xbox 360 game. For information on the Saturday morning cartoon based on this game, see Viva Piñata (TV series).

Viva Piñata is a simulation game developed by Rare Ltd., for the Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console. The project was headed by Gregg Mayles and the team behind the Banjo-Kazooie series, based on an idea from Tim Stamper. Although rumors of the title circulated among fans for some time, Viva Piñata was officially announced on March 15, 2006, and first released in November, 2006. With a "general audiences" or "everyone" rating, the game provides bright, colorful visuals, intended to appeal to children and adults alike.

Origins

The original concept for the game began as Your Garden in 2002, and eventually evolved into the colorful world of Viva Piñata. Microsoft and Rare realized the growing popularity of the project and immediately began searching for licensing partners; they eventually teamed up with 4Kids Entertainment. As a result, in addition to being a video game on Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, it is also a computer-animated television series produced by 4Kids Entertainment. The show began airing on 4Kids TV on August 26 2006, and on Canada's YTV on September 9 2006. Animation for the television series is done at Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, Canada.

Gameplay

Likened to The Sims, Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, the game tasks the player with turning a disused plot of land into a beautiful garden. As with many sandbox games, the game is open-ended, with no strict winning or losing requirements. Instead, players are guided only generally towards the objectives of increasing their garden's value and attracting piñata residents. Players are free to determine their own sub-goals and work towards them.

Developing a successful garden requires setting up the land and foliage appropriately to attract piñatas, as well as purchasing various items to place within the garden (e.g., homes for the piñatas). When certain requirements are fulfilled, the garden will attract a simple black-and-white version of a given piñata species. After fulfilling additional requirements, the piñata will become a resident, changing into a full-color version. Once two piñatas of the same species are residents and their mating (romance) requirements are met, they can perform a romantic dance, resulting in a baby piñata egg.

When piñatas get together to mate, a maze-navigation minigame is initiated. Completing the mating minigame successfully will result in the creation of a new piñata offspring. For species encountered early in the game, the minigames are simple, but as the game progresses, minigames become increasingly difficult. The difficulty also increases as more members of a given species are resident, so that players have fewer lives (in the minigame) for each piñata of that type already in the garden.

In addition to looking after the needs of their piñatas, players must also watch out for ruffians and sour piñatas, who enter the garden with the intent of wreaking havoc. Their mischief includes eating fruits or vegetables, destroying objects, or causing resident piñatas to become ill. If the player is resourceful, sour piñatas can, however, be won over and turned into productive garden residents. Once a sour piñata species has been tamed, the player is awarded a piece of the Tower of Sour, which prevents future visits from that type of sour.

Journal

A gardening journal is automatically bestowed upon the player at the start of the game. The journal automatically stores information which is discovered while playing the game, as well as key statistics. It provides quick access to various pieces of data, such as the following:

• Encyclopedia - Information about and descriptions of the different plants and animals in the game. This includes notes on how to attract certain piñatas and their residency requirements.

• Garden Area - A break-down of the contents of the various plots of land within the garden. This includes data about how much of each type of terrain is present (e.g. short grass, long grass, dirt, water).

• Player Awards - Allows players to view the awards they have received during play. Awards are issued the first time the player completes each of a number of different activities. This includes the first time a given plant is grown to maturity, the first time a given piñata species becomes a resident, as well as numerous others.

• Storybook - A set of story pages, progressively unlocked as the player gains experience. These provide a fictional story related to the characters in the game.

Helpers

As players advance through the game, helpers become available. Helpers are characters that can assist with some of the jobs that keeping a garden entails. Players may have up to five helpers active in the garden at once. For example, one character, Weedling, weeds the garden, allowing players to focus on other tasks. Others include Sprinkling, Watchling, Gatherling and Diggerling. These helpers must be paid in order to obtain their services, but this payment is one-time rather than recurring.

Using Helpers is optional, but two helpers, Leafos and Seedos, are free of charge and frequently make appearances throughout the game:

Leafos helps by providing some basic tools and explanations on how to use them. She also gives advice near the beginning of the game, as well as keeping the player advised of important events.

Seedos, a helper who specializes in seeds, frequently visits the garden and will provide free seeds when engaged in conversation, up to three seeds per visit. Seedos is also the source of new seed types as players progress through the game, such that more advanced seed types cannot be purchased in the shop until after he has bestowed them upon the player.

Customization

Each piñata which is a resident of the garden can be customized as the player sees fit. Customization options include:

• The name of the piñata.
• The piñata's decorative tag (which stays with it, wherever it goes).
• A multitude of accessories gamers can purchase for their piñata, ranging from hats, to backpacks, to large teeth. These accessories can increase a piñata's value, or can grant the piñata additional abilities.

Customizations (including accessories) are lost if a piñata is broken (killed).

Currency

Foil-wrapped chocolate coins serve as currency in the game. The coins come in several denominations, including bronze, silver and gold, with gold being worth the most. These can be obtained by smashing ruined garden items (junk), by selling piñatas, or by completing the mating mini-games. Players can also sell resources that are produced, such as apples from an apple tree, or a Buzzlegum's honey. A further resource that can be obtained and sold is candy from a broken piñata, although it is usually worth less than the unbroken piñata. Players should be careful about smashing piñatas open themselves, as this can lead to other members of the same piñata species becoming reluctant to visit the garden.

Currency can be used to hire helpers, procure services, or to buy new items for the garden from the various shops. When creating a new garden, available coins can be carried over and spent in the new garden.

Xbox Live

The game supports Xbox Live, but currently does so in a strictly non-interactive fashion, presumably to limit exposure of children to unsavory elements, as the game is rated "E for Everyone". It also includes a safety video for children and parents, explaining potential issues with using the service. However, a planned future update promises to add the ability for a friend to visit one's garden via an invitation. Friends will be able to explore the garden freely, but will not be allowed to change anything unless given permission. The update process will likely be similar to another Rare game, Kameo: Elements of Power, which saw a patch after its initial release that allowed co-operative gameplay through Xbox Live.

While the game supports leaderboards and score comparisons, the existing primary use of Xbox Live is to allow players to send presents to friends. Piñatas, sour piñatas, and other items can all be packaged up and shipped off to other users. The contents of the box are unknown by the recipient until it is opened, at which time the contents emerge into the garden of their new owner.

Lastly, players can use the Xbox Live Marketplace to download several Viva Piñata related items. These include an interactive video, which essentially acts as a brief tutorial for the game. During the video, the user can decide which piñata they'd like to walk them through the features of the game. Xbox Live members can also download all of the current episodes of the television series from the Xbox Live Marketplace, available in both standard-definition and high-definition for no charge at all.

Piñatas

The game features a wide variety of different piñata types, in most cases inspired by real-world animals. The names of the piñata species appear to have been generated by combining an animal name or sound with that of a food or candy, producing creatures such as "Buzzlegums" or "Sparrowmints". The species include both wild and domestic animal types, with the latter being purchased rather than simply appearing.

Some of the piñatas are candy carnivores, and must eat other piñatas in order to become residents or reproduce. An intricate food chain (referred to as the donut of life) exists, with each piñata species having one or two others that it considers prey. Fortunately, once piñatas are residents, they will not eat each other unless instructed to do so by the player, although fights can still break out between residents who do not share the predator-prey relationship.

Piñatas each have three different appearance or coloration variants. These variants can be produced by fulfilling certain requirements in the game. For example, a given piñata species may be able to change from its default color to a yellow color by eating a sunflower. Additionally, certain piñatas can evolve into other species altogether, e.g., when a Horstachio eats blackberries and daisies, it turns into a Zumbug.

It is also possible to trade pinatas over Xbox Live. A free Silver account or paid Gold account is required, opening this option to a large number of Xbox 360 gamers.

Reception

Many gamers and gaming journalists proclaim that Viva Piñata is one of Rare's best outings yet, with IGN saying that it is the best Rare game since Microsoft acquired the company in 2002. In addition to IGN's positive 8.5 rating, it has received an 8.3 from GameSpot, a 9/10 from 1UP.com, and an 8.7 overall from Electronic Gaming Monthly to name a few of the more notable reviews. The title is currently holding an average score of 86% on Game Rankings. In addition, GameSpot included it as one of their 10 nominees for their 2006 Game of the Year award. However, the game has had "disappointing" sales numbers, considering its holiday release date.

References to other Rare titles

The game contains a number of references to earlier Rare titles and characters, primarily in the form of items which players can purchase for their gardens. These include:

• The player's inital garden space contains smashable junk, including an arcade machine with Grabbed by the Ghoulies artwork on it.
• The Crowla's house is a small model of the mansion from Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
• Players can purchase statues of Banjo-Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo, or Captain Blackeye for their gardens from the various in-game shops.
• There is an in-game accessory called "Ortho's Spare Hat", a reference to Kameo: Elements of Power. The hat however, resembles the hat Ortho wore in the early Xbox and Gamecube builds of the game.
• The mole piñata, the Profitamole, requires purchasing an item labeled as "Bottle's Glasses" to romance.
• The face of the beaver piñata, the Sweetooth, bears resemblance to Gnawty the Beaver from Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie, and Rodent from Conker's Bad Fur Day.
• The Fizzlybear's attack items are golden jiggies (which is a reference to Banjo-Kazooie's jiggies).
• A backpack strongly resembling that of Banjo's can purchased as an accessory for piñatas.
• Captain Blackeye's pirate hat can purchased at Paper Pets as an accessory for piñatas.
• Accessory Pack 1, an additional downloadable pack on the Xbox Live Marketplace, include's Vela's wig, Juno's helmet and Lupus' ears from Jet Force Gemini.
• Accessory Pack 2, an additional downloadable pack on the Xbox Live Marketplace, includes a Mr. Pants, Soupswill, and a Baron von Ghoul helmet, all which make appearances in Grabbed by the Ghoulies, with the latter two being featured.
• Accessory Pack 4, an additional downloadable pack on the Xbox Live Marketplace, includes an item called "Conga's Top Hat". Conga, being a character from the Banjo-Kazooie series.
• The home of the parrot piñata, the Parrybo, features a cameo of Mr. Ribs from Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
• The wolf piñata's home is a reference to Sabre Wulf.
• The Jameleon's romance dance is composed of songs from Banjo-Kazooie and Grabbed by the Ghoulies.

Additionally, Leafos, a character in the game, says "The best game I ever played was Grabbed by the Ghoulies."

Trivia

Horstachio, the world's largest piñata

• No piñata has a gender specific design, and hence any two piñatas of the same species can mate.
• If the console locale is set to Korean, the U.S. release of the game will fully support Korean menu, voice, and subtitles.
• Microsoft collaborated with Six Flags Mexico to promote the Xbox 360 as well as Viva Piñata. To do this, the world's largest pinata (a Horstachio) was built at the park. The pinata stands 14.6 meters tall, and is 16 meters long. [1]
• Released as launch title with the Brazilian launch of Xbox 360, it was the first ever game translated to Portuguese for the Xbox 360.

See also

• List of NTSC U/C Xbox 360 games with multi-language support

External links

• Viva Piñata Official Site
• Viva Piñata Page on Rare's Official Site
• Viva Piñata Wiki - PinataIsland.info
• Viva Pinata Forum - The Biggest VP Board on the Internet