Viva Piñata

Viva Piñata is Microsoft’s foray into family friendly games, and one that has been building up the excitement levels in gamers since details started to come through about it earlier in the year.

Cute, cuddly and colourful, Viva Piñata is a world of joy just waiting to be created. You start off with a barren piece of wasteland, and with a little help from your friends you have to tidy it up and created a living, breathing eco-system that grows before your eyes.

What’s so exciting about cleaning up a bit of wasteland you ask? Well, as soon as you start making a difference, you’ll attract the attention of some Piñata. These black and white Piñata will change to full colour if they decide they like what you’ve done and want to stay.

It’s from this point on that things start to get interesting. You see Piñatas all have needs. These needs range from environmental needs to housing needs. If you don’t keep them happy they won’t hang around.

And then there’s the bad Piñata. All they want to do is destroy what you’ve spent all your time creating. There’s only two ways to deal with these naughty little lolly carrying devices, and that’s whack them with your spade and watch the lollies explode everywhere. Or, you could try and bring them round to being a nice Piñata. But that sounds like too much work for me!

Of course, just because you’ve got a garden of good Piñata doesn’t mean things won’t go wrong. Some Piñata like to eat other Piñata. It doesn’t make them bad, it’s just that they’re hungry and are looking down the food chain. Then there’s Piñata that just don’t get on. Fights will result and medical bills will have to be paid, by you!

Of course, if you’ve been careful in your planning, you will have room in your small beginner garden to put up a fence to keep warring, or hungry, Piñata apart.

Basically Viva Piñata is a micro-management game along the lines of Sim City and The Sims, but with the cuteness and fun factor turned up past maximum!

The game play as with most Sims games is open ended. There’s no defining moment where you ‘win’ the game. No definitive target to achieve. You get to play how you want to play. Sure, the game will try and encourage you along a certain path, and by doing so you will gather points that enable you to unlock new features, but essentially its up to you what speed you want to travel this road.

All in all, Viva Piñata lives up too all expectations, and then some. It’s an addictively fun game, which also challenges the brain. It’s appeal ranges across the board, reaching far past the ‘kids game’ genre it’s likely to be labeled with.