Viva Piñatas has an undeniable charm to it. The game is squarely aimed at a younger demographic with cuddly Piñatass that inhabit the land and cartoonish character-style and voices. Yet, the game design hits at something that can't be outgrown: the joy of discovery. That is, perhaps, the best way to describe Rare's new gem.
Viva Piñatas also culls from so many different ideas that it is hard to succinctly explain what the point of the game is. The English developer's elaborately woven and complex endeavor brings great depth to the normally pallid kid genre, and that's part of what makes Viva Piñatas such a great game. Despite ample room for improvement, this is easily one of the best titles, if not the best,Rare game since Microsoft bought it in 2002.
Part The Sims, part Animal Crossing and part resource management strategy, Viva Piñatas stands alone as a deep and engaging title on Xbox 360, fully accessible to people of all ages. To describe the game, we'll start from the beginning. The game kicks off by providing you with a junk-riddled patch of packed soil and tasks you with shaping the land using a shovel. The point? To attract living Piñatass, each with chuckle-inducing names that are all candy and sweet-themed takes on their animal likeness, in hopes of convincing them to take up residency. Like real-life animals, these Piñatass have preferences for what their environments, neighbors and food should be. If you meet the first set of requirements, perhaps by planting enough grass, you'll see the Piñatas walking around just outside the boundaries of your garden. Make your land a little more attractive and they'll stop by for a visit. If they find what they were looking for, which could be anything from eating another Piñatas to finding a certain type of flower, then they'll take up residence.
