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VIVA PIñATA TROUBLE IN PARADISE Posted by Dan Pearson on Sep 12, 2008 15:43 (Sep 12, 2008 15:43) |
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Like it or hate it, Viva Piñata is back in Trouble In Paradise, Rare’s second attempt to make gung-ho first person shooter fanatics enjoy bringing up cute animals made of crate paper. Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise is best described as a fantasy zoo, you are the keeper who needs to find, tend and breed these crazy animals. The original VP was an amazing looking game from Rare, one that I would always came back to play now and again, even though it did have a few problems. Thankfully though Rare have addressed most of these and what we have here is a truly original game which offers a better all round experience that the whole family can enjoy, which it has to be said is a quite rare occurrence on the Xbox 360.
This time around Professor Pester and his Ruffian comrades have broken into Piñata Central and inadvertently destroyed the computer records, now it’s up to you to replace all of these records and restore Piñata Island to its once proud self. From the start, those of you who have played the original will think that nothing has changed, from the initial glance and for most of the main parts of the game, you will be playing what was the previous game, not so bad when the last game was so good. What VP:TIP has done has taken a great idea and improved upon it tenfold. There are a lot more shortcuts to move around the many menus on offer, for example there is a seed bag on the main menu to save you a visit to the shops all of the time to buy one seed and rather than hunting around the garden looking for Piñatas or plants you can use the bumper buttons to quickly search for you. Even when a Piñata visits the outskirts of your garden you can now check the info on them to find out their resident requirements, there are loads of little tweaks and touches that have made this game so much more playable than the first one and with every play it wins me over even more. The stars of the show are still clearly the Piñata’s, as well as the original cast (and don’t think they are as easy to get as the previous game) there are loads of new Piñata’s to find. Some will just visit your garden when you have the right requirements, like the cute little cherrapin which is attracted by water, while others will initially be Sours who want to destroy your garden. There are now two new areas in which to explore for new and exotic Piñata’s, Dessert Desert and Pinarctic. These areas hold some amazing Piñata, rather than build a new garden here, all you need to do is set a trap, use the right bait and pray the Piñata springs the trap before they realise what’s going on. Once caught you can post them to your garden and try to make them residents in the usual way. If all that was not enough there is also the new Piñata Vision, here you have cards (there are 25 hidden around the site, see if you can find them) of rare Piñatas or items, show them to your Vision Camera and they will instantly appear in the game. You can even take photos of a Piñata from your game and send a custom Piñata Vision card to a friend to enjoy.
Langston also makes a reappearance in Trouble in Paradise to offer you some challenges, but this time rather than random requests you have a word map allowing you to select from a choice few, this inadvertently or on purpose helps with the garden planning as it gives you goals as to what Piñatas you are looking to get next. On top of the challenges there are two mini games to play either online or against the computer, a Beauty Show that has Piñata Island residents pick their favourite Piñata and a Race that you can compete with a Piñata from your garden. These are very small games and will not hold your attention for long other once you have the achievements, but it is a good idea that breaks up the main game, not that it needed it.
The romance games are also still there, but this time the challenge has been ramped up, it is a lot easier to control due to a new camera angle, so rather than just the high fixed point camera, with a press of the Y button you can zoom in and pan the camera to make sure you miss out those dangerous walls. Another change in the romance game is heart collecting, depending on how many dances you have done for that Piñata, you will need to collect more hearts before you can reach your mate, add to that a tight time limit and a few more hazards, this really ramps up the difficulty, but then it also offers great rewards in the way of twin births and also wildcard variants who will have a slight change in appearance on birth, like curly feelers or a different shaped tail. I am also glad to say that Rare’s humour is still strong in this game, when the little ladybird like Piñata do their romance dance, in the background music is an obvious nod to Aerosmith’s "Dude Looks Like a Lady".
The pace of the game is perfect, it starts off with a very helpful tutorial mode, taking you through the basics and then rather than setting you loose, the game will have the occasional pop up to explain new areas you have not come across before. There are points where you find there is nothing to do but there are also times when there is so much your mind is in overload trying to get everything done before the Ruffians and Professor Pester mess it all up again.
VP:TIP will steal hours away from you, the depth of the game is so well thought out this time around you could be spending hours just trying to figure out how to make a Green Flutterscotch just so you can start romancing the Lickatoads. One of the great things about VP is the need to experiment, there is no guide on how to make the variants, only an occasional hint to point you in the right direction, the rest of the time it is up to you. The same goes for items in the shop, some are just for show whereas others have a quality that can make your garden so much easier to handle, here’s a free tip, use the fake Horstachio from the shop as soon as its available, Professor Pester cant resist it when he visits the garden and all of your precious Piñata will be safe. The pinnacle of experiments is Tinker, in the first game he was under used, however in this game most of the animals will require his services. Tinker will use magic to transform produce into another item, like a radish into horseradish, these tinkered items will then be handy to acquire the more hard to get piñata’s.
This is one of the few games that is perfect for both sexes and for any age, the co-op controls help parents assist younger ones with the more complex romancing games and the ability to share a screen brings in other players who otherwise could get a bit bored watching the game, or in my case annoy the player with typical back seat gamer demands. To play co-op all you need to do is turn on the second controller, there will then be two cursors on screen, red and blue. The second player can do most of the same actions as player one, plus, as you help along the way, tending to the garden and the like, you will earn bonus points, get enough of these and you will earn a special power, these can be a free tinker or tending to a sick Piñata. The co-op is also identical in online mode with the added bonus of the garden owner being able to adjust options, so if you don’t trust people in your garden they can just visit without any power to damage your masterpiece. Viva Piñata Trouble In Paradise is exactly what Rare is all about and shows that Microsoft were on the ball when putting so much money into them, they are making games that no-one else is even close to. Be it single player or co-op, this is a worthy addition to your collection.
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