Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise Review for Xbox 360: Get Those Adorable Pinatas in Your Fancy Garden!

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise Review for Xbox 360: Get Those Adorable Pinatas in Your Fancy Garden!
Page content

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (5 out of 5)

Imagine a world filled with rainbow colors, bright green grass and adorable creatures. Well, that is what unique about Piñata island. This lovely imaginary island makes Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise so appealing to kids. This latest Xbox 360 game transports you to the enticing Piñata Island and its unique wildlife filled with papier-mâché cutesy critters.

Gameplay (5 out of 5)

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise is the second sequel of the Viva Piñata game series. The first game allowed kids to try their hands on gardening to attract these comical pinatas. The game spelled instant success, courtesy some unique story, gameplay and challenging quests to entice Piñatas.

Trouble in Paradise borrows the winning concept of the first Viva Piñata game while adding a dash of new content as well. You will see more than 30 new piñatas, challenging quests and a new online multiplayer game that allows using the Xbox Live Vision camera in a fun way.

The main objectives of the game include creating your own garden to attract piñatas to come and breed. The reason is to restore the erased pages of an encyclopedia containing vital data about the inhabitants of Piñata Island. The encyclopedia gets erased by the infamous Professor Pester and his gang of evil, yet cute piñatas. You will have to shape your own garden with the available tools for enticing pinatas to breed and solve your objectives. The tools range from shovels and other tools that will help to build fences.

A Piñata gets attracted to the garden with the right kind of flowers growing. You will have hints to tell you which flower might attract one. Some critters may require only good soil and a nice breed of flower while others may demand more making your quests more difficult.

The game adds some new locations including an imaginary form of arctic called Piñarctic and a desert like terrain called Dessert Desert (pun intended!). The piñatas are cute varieties of camels, yaks, vultures and penguins and are more than 30. Once you attract and make them procreate, experience points will adorn your stats, encouraging you to upgrade gardening tools, new seeds and shaping your garden bigger.

Your frequent encounters with Professor Pester and his darned piñatas make the game more challenging. They will keep on popping their heads to ruin your gardens and access the cute animals to acquire sweet candies. So, better take care of the garden or else you may lose your precious critters.

Screenshots Courtesy: Viva Piñata Official Site

Graphics (4 out of 5)

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise features eye-catching colorful graphics. You will rarely find something similar between the first game and this one. The vibrant environment highlights the cuteness of the Piñatas.

The papier-mâché party animals always show different behaviors and are detailed in every aspect. The nicely rendered backgrounds create some charming effects. The charming visual effects and engaging cut-scenes lets to travel to a completely different dimension.

Multiplayer (5 out of 5)

Screenshot

The multiplayer game is something what everyone was looking for. Trouble in Paradise did not disappoint gamers in this aspect of gaming. There are online and co-operative offline games to play. The co-op mode allows a bit of team play. You can lend your helping hand to shape up a friend’s garden. I felt quite insecure when other people messed around shoveling my garden. After all, it’s your own world and you don’t like anyone to take the credit, right! But, the cooperative mode works as a great tutorial for novice gamers who would love to play with you.

Screenshot 2

The Xbox Live Vision Camera lets you share your cards with other friends. The best part is that the card has the ability to transform into a real piñata! Although it rarely affects the overall game, but it’s a great add-on. The online mode boasts various mini games including breeding mini game and a fashion show where you can adorn your cutesy critter with some of the best accessories.

Sound (4 out of 5)

Hear those cute noises your piñata makes! Each piñata has cute grating voice that may sometimes become a bit annoying of the speaker volume is too high. You will love to listen to the sounds of nature life and you will feel as if you are gardening for real. The soundtrack in this game is quite appeasing, but tends to be repetitive once you advance to newer levels. Another bit of a disappointment is the voice acting of some creatures. Seems like human voices can’t match the cute piñata models!

Overall

If you fancy having a Flutterscotch or a cute Chewnicorn in your backyard, you are game on! Although, the overall concept of the game is targeted towards kids, grownups may find this game seriously enjoyable. Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise has nothing different to share from its predecessor, but it is worth for a direct purchase, even if you missed the first one!

Screenshots Courtesy: Viva Piñata Official Site