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First Impressions Of Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise
Posted by Leigh Alexander at 8:20 AM on June 6, 2008
By now you know Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise is coming to DS, and I couldn't wait to have an early look at it during THQ's spring preview event today.
Judging by what I saw, THQ's aiming to take what fans of the original Viva Pinata liked best and put it front-and-centre, while also making it portable and by tying it in to the TV series in the hopes of opening frilly neon pinata guts and raining candy down on a whole new audience of fans.
So how's it look?
Really exciting, actually. The rep who demoed it for me explained that the real-time strategy-esque elements of the original VP were not so much at home on the console - she'd been a fan of the game, but found herself wishing she could point-and-click to manage things more efficiently.
The stylus controls, she said, provide a more direct access to the interface, and you can zoom in on individual pinatas with just a tap and view various stat screens on them with the buttons. Providing tutorials on all the controls are Fergie, Paulie, Franklin and Hudson from the TV series, and there are full-motion video clips pulled straight from the show (which I confess to occasionally viewing on Saturday mornings. Okay, I almost always watch it. Shut up.)
The game has two modes, also - the traditional mode plus a free-play, sandbox-style mode where money's no object, if you just want to mess around. The thing I found most interesting is that you can ship your pinatas and items even among your own saved games, of which you can have up to three. So if a Sour enters your garden, the rep said, you can box it up and ship it to a different garden of yours. You can also trade among your friends, and some of the pinatas to collect can only be unlocked through trades (think Pokemon).
So it looks like all of the necessities are there for traditional Viva Pinata fans, and new ones may be attracted to the series for the first time by the DS's huge install base, the relationship to the TV show, and the different modes for more accessible play.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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Minister of Fun
Posted 9:18 AM 6/6/08
THQ is making it? Fuck that!
Minister of Fun
.endejas.
Posted 9:06 AM 6/6/08
With this, I think I'm gonna go trade-in some games and get a new DS. It sounds like I'd really like this. Especially since I only played the demo on the 360 and I would've liked some more time with VP.
.endejas.
karasu is my homeboy
Posted 9:04 AM 6/6/08
@budash2: You didn't know?
I've never watched it, but I know they talk and act different from the original VP game.
I actually might start. It sounds, just like the original game, horribly morbid, just disguised in a pretty setting.
Some Piñatas can't wait to reach their maximum candy level so they can leave the Piñata Factory over and over again, bringing joy to children and partygoers all over the world. Others are not happy about the prospect of being shipped off to a strange place where happy children in festive hats hang them from a tree, bludgeon them until their limbs fall off, and devour their innards. Still others physically train for the parties as if they were off to the Olympic Games-hardening their bodies to create a challenge for the children clamoring to get at their candy.
[en.wikipedia.org]
To think, this could be epic and I never gave it attention. ::runs to DVR::
karasu is my homeboy
yummygrubs
Posted 9:02 AM 6/6/08
@budash2: Yeah - you can download some of the episodes on Xbox Live, actually.
Can't wait for this - played Viva Pinata to death on the old XB, but really found the camera angle and controls too annoying. Hopefully they'll be resolved so me and my girlfriend can get to steppin' with the Pinata trading.
yummygrubs
kagai
Posted 8:59 AM 6/6/08
Are there any achievements?
kagai
Samos42
Posted 8:58 AM 6/6/08
@sevendash: That's good. With this and Sonic Chronicles, I have 2 games I'm excited for this year on the DS which is 2 more than I had a few weeks ago and 1 more than are coming out for the Wii...
Samos42
budash2
Posted 8:56 AM 6/6/08
Wait...there's a VP TV show?!
budash2
73mike
Posted 8:55 AM 6/6/08
Viva Pinata "Pocket Paradise"?
Sorry, but I've been playing Rare games too long not to notice the fact that they drop smutty British innuendos at every possible opportunity.
Grabbed by the Goolies (sorry, Ghoulies), FFS!
The new VP game sounds like a killer app for the withdrawn, pimply 13yo in us all...
73mike
Green-clad Gamer Dude
Posted 8:51 AM 6/6/08
"Providing tutorials on all the controls are Fergie, Paulie, Franklin and Hudson from the TV series, and there are full-motion video clips pulled straight from the show (which I confess to occasionally viewing on Saturday mornings. Okay, I almost always watch it. Shut up.)"
Green-clad Gamer Dude
akashhhhh
Posted 8:48 AM 6/6/08
When is this out? Rare had mentioned in their mailbag that the code was done a few weeks ago.
akashhhhh
karasu is my homeboy
Posted 8:47 AM 6/6/08
@sevendash: Same. I have two DSes, don't play them, I love VP, but feel this is uncalled for (for me anyway. I understand why they're trying this.)
Lol @ typical PR speak.
"When I played on Xbox, I wished I could point to where I wanted to go. It felt like the game was built for that. I was so distracted and just kept thinking...there's gotta be a better way! And now on DS, there is!"
Sell and justify that game, girl.
karasu is my homeboy
Darthearl
Posted 8:42 AM 6/6/08
@pikachumariachi:
i cant tell if that is sarcasm or not!
that being said, im looking foreward to this a lot! i was too addicted to it on the 360, and i love my pokemons...so this is a must buy for me!
Darthearl
Palladium
Posted 8:29 AM 6/6/08
Whoa. Crazy formatting.
But, yeah. This game is definitely going to by a paradise in my pocket.
Palladium
Onizuka-GTO
Posted 8:26 AM 6/6/08
yay for inbreeding candy cannibal Creatures!
now portable!
:D
I hope that didn't come out wrong.....
Onizuka-GTO
sevendash
Posted 8:26 AM 6/6/08
I haven't played my DS in quite some time, and unfortunately this game isn't going to help that. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the game is amazingly adorable and deserves everybody else's attention, I'm sure.
sevendash
Komrade_Kayce
Posted 8:26 AM 6/6/08
Will your pinatas senselessly kill and eat each other every five seconds in this one too?
I swear, this one game of VP, I got so annoyed with my animals being little fucking monsters that I took my shovel out and pounded every single one of them including the worms, into candy mush.
Komrade_Kayce
pikachumariachi
Posted 8:23 AM 6/6/08
This is just wonderful! This is a game series that need to be popularized more.
pikachumariachi
karasu is my homeboy
Posted 9:32 AM 6/6/08
@Minister of Fun: Wikipedia said Rare is developing it. I think THQ is just publishing?
I don't know, this business can be confusing. Do some google work and let us know. Pretty sure Rare is very much making it.
karasu is my homeboy
Tye-The-Czar
Posted 9:30 AM 6/6/08
Stupid 4kids, oy.
Tye-The-Czar
xanavi
Posted 9:20 AM 6/6/08
DS games continuing the tradition of sexual innuendos in their titles.
xanavi
Hylian1
Posted 11:49 AM 6/6/08
Rare developed the title, THQ is publishing it. The game is finished now, so all that's left is for THQ to get their act together and ship it.
And don't forget Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise for the Xbox 360 this September!
Hylian1
NoBullet
Posted 12:53 PM 6/6/08
@Hylian1: It's not the same dev team that did Viva Pinata. It's a separate Rare team.
NoBullet
Pezdispenser
Posted 12:48 PM 6/6/08
No shame in watching the show. Heck, I watch every Saturday too, as proof I'll tell you which episodes aired last week.
Episodes 32 and 33, "The Antlers are Blowin' in the Wind" / "Crimes of Passion Fruit" and "Sumo Tsunami" / "Recipe for Disaster"
Pezdispenser
Guitarista87
Posted 1:10 PM 6/6/08
I loved the original but this one doesn't look like it has the same flare. I'll have to skip this one and save for Viva Pinata Trouble In Paradise.
Guitarista87