Viva Pinata (Trouble in Paradise)

So my gaming has been odd and exclectic of late. I tried WoW again and just couldn’t quite make it stick. Stick of Truth (the Southpark game) was absolutely wonderful if you like that sort of thing (which I do).

But not much else going on, really.

Until Steven presented me with one of my Christmas presents — Viva Pinata (Trouble in Paradise).

It’s whimsical, adorable, ridiculous, and unbelievably deep for how simple it is.

You play as a lowly Pinata farmer with your first farm. You must cultivate the plants and pinatas and decorations of your plot to entice wild pinatas to visit and eventually become residents (turning their colors from black and white to vibrant pinata ridiculouslness).

I absolutely adore it.

The art style has this wonderfully animated pinata paper jaggedness to it and every pinata has its own personality and behaviors. (Sometimes this is irritating, such as when Buzzlegums and Raisants fight for no reason, or when your beaver-like Sweetooth picks a fight with your hired gatherer).

The game’s not without its flaws. It takes a while (and an exploit) to keep Professor Pester and his henchmen from entering your property and wreaking havok. And it can take a while to convert all of the red-and-black Sour pinatas to their non-sour equivalents, thus keeping THEM from barging in and causing chaos.

But I’ve finally reached the point where nothing bad can really happen to my farm, and it’s perfect. I can do quests to collect a specific pinata (often with particular paper apparal or color variants), fill it to maximum candiosity by feeding it its favorite foods, and sending it off to a party. (Worry not, we are assured there’s nothing those pinatas like better).

If you’re patient enough to keep farming until you can get rid of the bad guys, the game really starts to shine. Before that, it’s still fun but really hectic and at times quite frustrating.

I recommend buying digitally if you’re interested — old game discs are quite expensive, but it was very affordable on Xbox Live.

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