viva-pinata-pocket-paradise posts (Subscribe to this feed)

Metareview -- Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

by David Hinkle { Sep 7th 2008 at 2:30PM }

With Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise having released on September 2nd here in North America (and September 5th in Europe), you've all had some time to play the game. There aren't many reviews out there right now, but the ones that are available seem to generally laud the game's ambitious efforts. After we check in with the critics, toss your two cents in.

So let's get to the scores!

IGN (85/100) thinks it's quite the game: "Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise takes the original 360 effort as a template, and brings the 'go at your own pace,' free-form design to the Nintendo DS, beautifully. The visuals are crisp and colorful, the audio is a mix of in-game animal sounds and VO taken from the TV show, and its easy to control the world with a quick swipe or tap of a stylus. There are some basic changes to be had, such as the lack of camera control, the removal of the somewhat pesky mini-games for mating, and the general spectacle of watching your Piñatas move around in beautiful HD, but the core gameplay more than survives in its conversion to the pocket platform, and Viva Piñata is left with just as much magic on DS as it has on 360."

Eurogamer (80/100) says the game isn't for kids, but good nonetheless: "However, what Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise loses in coming second, and not having a triple-core PowerPC chip to drive its graphics, it makes up with its new, much better stylus-based interface, and Rare's impressive feat of retaining the vast majority of the original game's best features, in roughly the same measures. It's still a bit too complex to work as a kids' game (for that you might be better with the 360 sequel's co-op mode, where you can pick up a second pad and offer a helping hand), but for everybody else it comes highly recommended."

Edge Magazine (70/100) said: "If Pocket Paradise makes you want to throw it against something, though, it's only because it succeeds in making gardening compulsive." [Oct 2008, p.96]

Gallery: Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

Viva Pinata DS coming Sept 2, Rare releases new Halo 3 parody

by Ross Miller { Aug 15th 2008 at 3:00PM }

Rare has announced that the THQ-published Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise for the DS will be proliferating retail shelves with dirty puns on September 2 in North America and September 5 in UK and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) alongside the Xbox 360 sequel VP: Trouble in Paradise. The DS title will also "begin to filter through to the rest of the world on the 11th, with VP:TIP not far behind."

Along with the announcement, Rare also released its second Halo 3 parody, "Museum," based on the sci-fi shooters' Believe ad campaign. We've embedded the video and the previously released (and pretty funny) "Believe Pinata" video after the break.

Gallery: Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

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Sweet, delicious release date and teaser for Viva Pinata

by Chris Greenhough { Aug 15th 2008 at 2:00PM }

One of Rare's overworked carrier pigeons just landed on our windowsill, bringing with it some candy crucial news: Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise will be launching across North America on September 2nd, in Europe on September 5th, and in the rest of the world beginning September 11th. That's exciting enough (and hey: really soon), but that's not where the happy news ends: Rare also took the time to film a second spoof video for its game, again poking fun at the terribly serious Halo 3 teasers from 2007. You can watch the first after the break (and please do watch it if you haven't already).

Release dates here
"Museum" video here
Our Rare interview here

Gallery: Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

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Rare settles on Viva: Pocket release and a new BelieVe trailer too

by Dustin Burg { Aug 15th 2008 at 11:30AM }

Rare just sent word (via express pigeon airmail, no less) that the Nintendo DS edition Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise has been given a release date that should be familiar to all Viva Piñata fans. As it stands, Pocket Paradise will release to the United States on September 2nd and in Europe on September 5th, which is the exact release date for the 360's Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. Speaking of which, Rare today also announced that Trouble in Paradise has gone gold and is currently being pressed to disc on some manufacturing line in Mexico.

Hold on, that's not all. Rare released a second Halo 3 inspired Viva Piñata BelieVe trailer titled "Museum" and we're told it was done by the voice actor for Leafos herself! Oh, how we love these BelieVe trailers ... just watch and have a good belly laugh. Har, har!

E308: Viva Pinata was an Xbox game?

by JC Fletcher { Jul 20th 2008 at 5:15PM }

Okay, confession time: I never played Viva Piñata the first time around. The allure of festive animal husbandry was insufficient to entice me into the console purchase required. I've researched the original (by, uh, watching some YouTube videos and such), but I went into my quick demo of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise without a real preconceived notion of how Viva Piñata is supposed to look or play.

How was this ever anything but a DS game? The tasks involved in playing Viva -- watering and planting plants, clearing land, building structures for critters -- make so much sense in the top-down perspective of Pocket Paradise that it's hard to imagine this game in a different perspective on a different system. It would be so much harder, I think, to manage a large-scale garden in a more zoomed-in view. Having a larger, wider look at the goings-on in the garden makes the game seem more natural and easier.

Gallery: Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

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Step into Viva Pinata video paradise

by David Hinkle { Jul 1st 2008 at 11:00AM }

Gamespot has uploaded five new videos from Rare's upcoming DS romp, Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise. The videos focus on what matters most: gameplay. While they are brief in length, the combination of all five make for a nice little diversion in the usual rigmarole of your day. We suggest you take a break and check out the rest of the videos past the break.

Gallery: Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

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Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise gets its own little oasis online

by JC Fletcher { May 23rd 2008 at 1:15PM }

Rare has kept quiet for the most part about Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, preferring, for the most part, to limit themselves to releasing one screenshot every couple of months and making some joke about the game's progress. Now they've boldly opened a website for the game! Which even has information! And screenshots, which we've added to our gallery. There's an interview with some of the Pocket Paradise team as well, which is mostly jokes!

Looks like players who have already broken open the 360 game will have something to look forward to here: new piñatas, which will also appear in the 360 sequel Trouble in Paradise. The DS game will also use a new episodic format in addition to the Playground mode.

Gallery: Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

Viva Pinata almost had DS/360 connectivity

by JC Fletcher { May 20th 2008 at 4:00PM }

The new Viva Piñata game on the Xbox 360 uses the Xbox Live Vision camera to read codes found on Viva Piñata cards, unlocking new piñatas. It's an impractical feature (if only there were some other way to enter short text strings into a game ...) but it's a fun gimmick. And it's designed such that the camera can read card images not just from physical cards, but from screens on computers and portable devices, which enhances the possibilities for sharing.

The DS has a Viva Piñata game (Pocket Paradise). The DS has screens. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could use the DS game to send stuff to the 360 game? It would be -- and is! Rare had it implemented, according to MTV Multiplayer's interview with Rare's Justin Cook, but too late. "We got it to work, but it was too late in the development cycle," Cook said. "It's one of those things where you just kick yourself." A strange statement coming from Rare. Can't they just delay the game for a couple of years?