Rating : 91% Still filled with fun.
Viva Pinata : Trouble in Paradise for Xbox 360 is a follow up to the original interactive cartoon pinata garden simulator game made by the creative geniuses at Rare. It is sort of a resource management game like Sim City but you are trying to manage a garden in order to raise a vast plethora of cartoon living pinata creatures.
Since my Xbox 360 died a while back I had to stop by a roller derby friend's place and try out this game on their Xbox 360.
There is no doubt that Viva Pinata is a great game for kids but there is something relaxing and simple about building a fantasy garden to keep your virtual pinata critters happy. I always thought that there was something weird about Pokemon how you had to capture critters in little balls by beating them up and then storing them as inventory. However Viva Pinta is centered on nurturing and caring for a bunch of simulated critters. Sure you have to trap the pinatas but the game is all about keeping them happy and healthy. The plot has you sending pintas to parties around the world in order to stop a tribe of evil pinta hating tribe of masked bad guys who have erased the main pinta database.
This version has a online co-operative mode over Xbox Live as well as an in room co-operative mode where parents and kids can work together on tending the garden.
The graphics are bright and unique. The non realistic gardens are lush and strange in a fanciful cartoon world.
This game features has a card based trading system where you can create actual cards from your pintas, print them out using a computer and trading them with your friends. Your pal would then hold the cards up to the Xbox Live Vision camera and scan it in using a visual character recognition system. It is sort of like a pinata trading bar code system. I have yet to try it out but it is an interesting alternative so just simply sending a pinata to a friend via Xbox Live. I don't know how useful this will be but it is a pretty cool idea.
I like Viva Pinta but as a macho manly gamer I am not going to brag to my nerd friends about my pinata menagerie. It is pretty cool to see such and accessible game that is based on nurturing and caring rather than conquering and fighting. I can't think of a better Xbox 360 game for kids than this one. Viva Pinta: Trouble in Paradise is a extremely innovative and unique video game experience.
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