Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

‘Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise’ is a “god-game” in the guise of a gardeners “Sims”. VP hits its family target audience perfectly. The game is based around the idea of owning a garden, and over the course of the game filling it with various papery creatures called ‘Piñatas’. Each Pinata can be encouraged to mate and perform tricks, or be traded with other players online or within the game.

First players must attract Pinata’s to their garden. The player does this by creating the ideal conditions for each creature, which is at first a confusing process, as it can include planting the correct plants, having the right amount of grass etc. Having done this a few times with the help of a well designed tutorial system, the player is much more comfortable with attempting to introduce more challenging Piñata to the garden.

This is the second ‘Viva Piñata’ game, and its creators have attempted to improve on the depth of game play. New features like the two to four person co-operative play (on or offline), more worlds to explore (including dessert and snow ‘realms’, with region specific Piñata), scores, more Piñata to control, plus some smaller in-game features. These additions make it much more versatile, online play only adds hours to the game’s life. If you’re not online don’t worry, there are masses of Pinata’s to be caught.; the game is never really over.

Sadly though, the game gets confusing with the sheer amount of things on the screen that are flashing, or demand attention. This is no children’s game. What to do next can be a challenging decision on this game, and that makes it aggravating to play at times. But this aggravation doesn’t last, because ‘Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise’ is disturbingly addictive to play. Catching Piñatas is not easy, and as the game moves on, aided by a basic storyline, Piñata become even more challenging to catch.

This is a fun, friendly and harmless game. Don’t expect to find an action packed adventure with a thrilling storyline, because it simply isn’t there. However, if making nice virtual gardens and collecting fluffy little creatures in the manner of “The Sims” is your thing, then this is the game for you.

Joe Allen