Game Review: Viva Pinata - Trouble in Paradise

Billy O'Keefe - Mclatchy -Tribune News Service

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

For: Xbox 360

From: Rare/Microsoft

ESRB Rating: Everyone

Microsoft made a huge misstep in marketing the original "Viva Pinata" as a game primarily for kids and casual gamers. It wasn't, and anyone who expected a cute, laidback gardening-slash-animal-raising simulation instead found themselves neck deep in a manic carnival of breeding, fighting and occasionally murderous animals who were more adorable in appearance than in nature. Meanwhile, gamers most likely to love "Pinata's" hardcore leanings probably had no idea such leanings even existed.

With "Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise," everybody gets a second chance. Not quite a sequel but nothing close to a repackaging job, "Paradise" takes the core elements of the original, expands on them in several inspired ways, and immensely improves a number of interface deficiencies that held that game down.

If you played the first game, your mileage may vary on which improvement pleases you most. There are, of course, new pinatas to discover and breed, and you now can travel to areas beyond just your garden. A neat new feature allows players equipped with an Xbox Vision Camera to scan in special cards - which are free and available on the game's community Web site - and instantly add items and species to their gardens.

"Paradise," in fact, is staggeringly rich with social features. Players can upload snapshots of their garden to the community site, and those who don't want to go it alone no longer have to. You can tend to your garden with one other player offline and up to three online. Should trust issues make you uneasy about sharing your garden online with strangers, you can adjust permissions to limit what others can do while in your yard.

The addition of multiplayer, along with a "Just for Fun" mode that lets players grow a garden free of tasks to complete and evil pinatas undermining their progress, finally opens "Pinata's" door to casual gamers. Sharing duties with players you trust goes a long way toward easing the micromanagement load that overwhelmed many the first time around.

On the flipside, the new features and interface improvements allow "Paradise" to be (slightly) even crazier at its core than its predecessor. So experienced "Pinata" pros get more of what they love, casual players get their taste, and Rare gets kudos for improving an already great game in a way that specially tailors to both ends of the gamer spectrum. The semi-budget price - $40 - only sweetens the deal.

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