Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise for XBOX 360 - What Should You Know About This Game?
Does Viva Pinata, Trouble In Paradise Fix Any Bugs We Found in the Original Viva Pinata Vide Game?
About 2 years ago I became captivated by the XBOX 360 video game Viva Piñata. Unfortunately though the game came packaged with all sorts of bugs, quirks, and glitches. As fun as the game was, the non-stop glitching quickly took the fun right out of the game. Besides, who on earth would continue to play a game that would blip out every hour creating total data loss? An hour wasted!
I gave up on the game and dreamt of a sequel. One where the glitches would no longer plague my game session. I also dreamt of a larger garden for my piñatas to roam, more space, more piñatas, more homes, more…more…more…gimme more, more, more!!!
When I came across Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, I hoped that they ironed out the issues the original game came packed with. Maybe this time they would get it right, maybe this time the glitches would be a thing of the past? Perhaps the game I once loved would be fixed and I could finally play the game without having to worry about it destrying all of my data.
When finally taking the time to play the game, I was surprised at how familiar everything was. The colors were all relatively the same lush and vivid colors I fell in love with in the original game. Many of the piñatas I recalled from the previous game were also all present; the best thing though was that my garden now was larger, I could travel to other gardens, and of course there were more piñatas to attract to my garden. Plus, those quirky bugs and glitches that bugged me to no end in the original game were all gone! This was primarily my only hope for this game, and thankfully that anticipation for better gaming was answered.
Game Play (5 out of 5)
After fixing up the gardens horrid state of garbage and weeds, the very first piñata to make my garden it’s home was the worm. He looks exactly the same as he did in the original game. Although it was all too deja vu, it was nice seeing that one of my very first favorite piñatas was back again to live in my garden.
Deja vu occurred yet again when the Sparrow became my second resident, and the Snake my third. The game at first just seemed to be so repetitive to the first game, and it was honestly a brief moment of mild disappointment. For those whom never played the original game though, you will enjoy every moment of meeting these new piñata residents.
Disappointments though were later washed away with the introduction to some very new, rare, and never seen piñatas.
Once I was able to attract two of the same piñatas to the garden, I could then build a home for that species. In order for these species to breed you must have a home located in the garden. Besides that though, some piñatas will require other things to occur in order for them to breed. For example a moth may need to eat 3 different kinds of plants in order to ‘get busy’, while a Squirrel Piñata may require eating acorns in order to ‘get down’.
Once the two piñatas have pink hearts above their heads, you can direct them to one another to begin the breeding ritual. A mini game will then pop up where you will have to direct the piñata to it’s mate. There will be a small maze filled with sour bombs. You will want to avoid the bombs in order to successfully complete breeding. If you are successful, your mating ritual will end with an odd mating dance, and in a few moments the stork will drop off a piñata egg that will hatch into another piñata!
Basically thats the main element in the game. Successfully breeding to make other piñatas.
There are so many task’s though that will interfere successful breeds. You will want to attract other species of piñatas by adding certain trees, flowers, objects, or seeds in order to get new piñatas to even bother to view your garden. If you have all of the necessary items in place in your garden, that piñata will become a new resident. If not, they’ll pass up making your garden their home which can be dissapointing considering how long you have to wait sometimes just to get a new visitor.
As th
e game goes on, and you get better at attracting, breeding, and keeping piñatas happy in the garden you will get upgrades. Your shovel can be upgraded to dig out lakes, your watering can will deliver more water to plants and trees, and your garden may even get an upgrade, which means more size, which means more room for more piñata homes!
As peachy keen as this all sounds though, it’s really not that simple of a task. You have to either keep sours from ruining your garden, or try to tame sours into colorful happy piñatas, which is a hard mission all its own.
New Characters, New Pinatas, New Gardens! (5 out of 5)
Newer aspects of the game have been added that really amped up the fun. Besides your regular garden there are 2 new gardens that you can warp over to. These gardens though do not incorporate any of the things that your main garden has. The 2 new gardens only allow you to trap new rare piñatas which only roam in these foreign gardens. You cannot build homes, plant flowers, or build anything in them.
The new gardens include Pinartic, and Dessert Dessert.
Pinartic has arctic piñatas that roam here, such as reindeer, penguins and other piñata animals that you would find in cold snowy regions. Dessert Desert includes animals that you would find in hot regions. Piñata species such as scorpions and lizards roam here.
In order to trap these animals you must purchase traps in the store back in your main garden area. You can buy cheap wooden traps that are not very stable, or you can buy larger steel crates that do a much better job at trapping these rare piñatas.
Once you have trapped a piñata it gets sent back to your main garden. You can pick up the package in the post office. Once you pick up the package, you can then release the trapped piñata into your main garden!
You have to be really crafty with this though, because the piñata will not make your garden its residence if your garden does not meet the piñatas requirements. Some may require a lot of snow, a lot of water, or sand in your garden in order to ma
ke the garden it’s home. If you meet all the requirements the piñata will stay and become a resident.
Keeping piñatas happy is another element of the game that you will want to pay attention to. Unhappy pints will not breed, and some will not even cooperate if they are sad. You can increase your piñatas happiness by feeding it candy which you can buy in the store.
Another addition I really liked was being able to hire helpers. If you purchase a helpers home and place it in your garden you can then hire weedlings which will kill any sour weeds that are planted in your garden. You can also hire watchlings which will scare away sour piñatas, and you can hire a waterling whom will happily go about your garden watering any wilted flowers and trees. Having the extra help in the garden may seem unnecessary at first, but trust me, when the game gets a little tougher, and sours keep attacking at every direction they are always good to have.
Professor Pester will also sometimes visit your garden. He is nearly impossible to get rid of, and he creates more havoc than any other sour. He will randomly show up and kill piñatas, break down their homes, toss sour seeds everywhere, and ruin lakes. It becomes annoying because you work so hard building and improving, and he comes through to destroy everything.
Graphics (5 out of 5)
What makes Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise so beautiful are it’s graphics. They are rich, colorful, bold and beautiful. The garden environment is like a painted picture taken from an artistic fantasy world, and it is visually breathtaking. Water ripples as if wind is pushing it, grass sways, the paper on the piñatas are all colorful and sway with movement. All of these beautiful visual elements are sure to have you in awe.
Controls (5 out of 5)
The controls in the game are all relatively simple and were not at all frustrating. The tutorials in the very beginning of the game teach you how to play the game with ease, and there is no forgetting or guesswork later on down the road. Simplicity is the key, and the game really incorporated simple controls with the sequel. So, those that played the first Viva Pinata game for the Xbox 360 will find this second one easier as you already know all of the controls and moves that your characters will have. And, for those that aren’t familiar with the first game, you won’t have too hard a time learning the controls to help your toons out.
Music (4 out of 5)
Music plays lightly in the background. It does not have a very catchy tune to it, which is fine because you will mostly be focusing on the game play. The music however does do subtle changes depending on the situation. Sours will have a scarier tone of music playing lightly in the background, and peaceful mornings will have a nice morning chime to them.
Overall (5 out of 5)
All in all Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise will keep you busy, impress you with it’s fantastic graphics, and manage to have you addicted within the very first few minutes of playing.
It is a game I highly, highly recommend. Both male and female gamers will enjoy what Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise has to offer. Children and adults alike will enjoy it as well, there is honestly no age restrictions here. The game is fun, addicting, and one that I find to be really relaxing after a stressful day.
