“That was ACTING, children! Bravo for me!”

Ask the people over at Rareware whether they would like to work on a project where you build a garden to attract walking, talking creatures that usually hang from ropes at children’s parties, and they’d jump at the chance.

 

Putting a build-em-up on a console, however, is an altogether more difficult feat than humanly imaginable!

I would like to think of myself as a bit of a build-em-up specialist, after all I have been playing them ever since the DOS Theme Park slammed onto the Windows 3.1, long before the genre was even formed.  Lately it’s been a fairly saturated variety of game, with things like Zoo Tycoon and The Sims being the only ones to have stood out among the great sea of building game cack.  Which is why I thanked heavens that 4Kids finally disguised a mediocre marketing campaign into something that has not quite reinvented this genre, but has definitely left its mark.

 

 

“Viva Pinata” is a game based on the kid’s TV show of the same name currently airing in America.  The scenario is simple enough – build a garden, and watch the fluffy, personality-filled piñatas come and live in it.  Easy to learn, but increasingly difficult to master.  Some piñatas, it appears, are rather picky about the type of object you put in the garden.  Others want to come in and cause as much damage as possible!  Your job is to try and create harmony, using lower level critters to attract larger ones and gain new items for them, and sometimes for you!

 

 

As it’s aimed at a kid’s TV show, if the 4Kids marketing team have done their job, a lot of kids will want to pick up and play it.  Considering the game’s hidden difficulty I was a little sceptical about this as I hate the thought of lots of disappointed little faces, but then I found the handy “family” feature, which involves a (hopefully more skilled) adult with a second controller to aid the little ones in bringing the more adventurous piñata in.  The interface is excellent, and has the ability to give the youngster full control with the parent playing in the background when things start to go a bit pear shaped (or vice versa in this day-and-age!).  It really is nice to see a family approach to a game, and one with an interface that works well.

Which leads me on nicely to the main thing I was worried about.  The console issue.  Build-em-ups have a worrying legacy of not transferring to consoles particularly well, and there’s a reason for this: build-em-ups are complicated control-wise and most PCs have far more buttons to push than a controller.  The nice thing about this game, though, is that it was designed for a console, so while gameplay is complex, it actually works very well!  I know!  I’m surprised too!  But there’s no doubting it!  The game is solidly playable, with few or no hiccups.  Okay, so the map is a little precarious (could it kill them to let you zoom out a little bit more?), but otherwise it functions very well.  The only thing I found frustrating with it is the fact that in a blind panic, it’s very easy to choose the wrong button!

 

 

One of the many highlights of the gameplay is the…ahem… “mating” aspect.  This involves a lot more skill than you might think!  Once two piñatas are “romancing”, the game flies seamlessly into a mini-game, which is a maze of something that corresponds to that piñata.  Some are easy, some are frustratingly difficult, but if you do well, you’re rewarded with the “romance dance”.  The Pretztail one is my personal favourite!

 

 

The main pull-factor of this game, however, is the graphics.  They are beautiful.  Smooth transitions between animations and gameplay, lots of added extras like weather and day/night transitions, beautifully lit, nicely underscored – there isn’t really a bad word to say about it.  It takes full advantage of the 360s engine to create fantastic creatures, some so cute you want to just watch them for hours. There’s also plenty to do!  Aside from the plethora of objects and plants to install into your garden, there are hidden extras and shops to discover, upgrades to earn and new types of piñata arriving to take a look at your garden every minute.  You are literally creating a living and breathing world.

 

 

No game is perfect, however.  There are a few minor AI issues – a lot of the time a piñata just doesn’t do as it’s told, or even tries to.  I’ve yet to work out the cause of this, but apparently it’s to do with the mood of it, although when I play it it doesn’t seem to make any difference!  It’s also a little frustrating when the sour or “bad” piñatas arrive. The game sounds the alarm, and then fails to tell you where the thing is.  Before you know it that house you were painstakingly saving up for has been destroyed – very annoying indeed.

 

 

However, these are more personal annoyances than anything.  This is a game that really can’t be faulted too much – it’s a marvellous return to form for Rare and for the genre, and is firm proof that build-em-ups on a console can be done, and it has been done superbly. 

 

 

Now bring on the PC release!