Viva Pinata Intro (2006, Rare/Microsoft)
32Viva Piñata is a life simulation game developed by Rare Ltd., originally released for the Xbox 360. The project was headed by Gregg Mayles and the team behind the Banjo-Kazooie series, based on an idea from Tim Stamper. Although rumours of the title circulated among fans for some time, Viva Piñata was officially announced on March 15, 2006, and first released in November 2006. With a "general audiences" or "everyone" rating, the game provides bright, colourful visuals, intended to appeal to children and more casual gamers. The game received a positive reaction from game critics, eventually selling over 1.5 million copies. A Microsoft Windows version of the game was released in November 2007. An Xbox 360 sequel Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise was released in 2008. A Nintendo DS version of the game entitled Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise was also released in 2008. There also was a Television spinoff by 4Kids entertainment.
Likened to The Sims, Animal Crossing, and Story of Seasons, the game tasks the player with turning a neglected plot of land into a beautiful garden. As with many sandbox games, the game is open-ended, with no strict winning or losing requirements. Instead, players are guided only generally towards the objectives of increasing their garden's value and attracting piñata residents. Players are free to determine their own sub-goals and work towards them.
Developing a successful garden requires setting up the land and foliage appropriately to attract piñatas, as well as purchasing various items to place within the garden (e.g., homes for the piñatas). When certain requirements are fulfilled, the garden will attract a simple black-and-white version of a given piñata species. After fulfilling additional requirements, the piñata will become a resident, changing into a full-color version. Once two piñatas of the same species are residents and their mating (romance) requirements are met, they can perform a romance dance, resulting in a baby piñata egg. No piñata has a gender specific design, and hence any two piñatas of the same species can mate (with inter-species romances possible as well in a few cases). After a given piñata species has successfully romanced, the player no longer needs to fulfill the full romance requirements for piñata of that type, but can instead simply have the piñata eat a specific type of candy.
When piñatas get together to mate, a maze-navigation minigame is initiated. Completing the mating minigame successfully will result in a piñata egg being delivered shortly thereafter. For species encountered early in the game, the minigames are simple, but as the game progresses, minigames become increasingly difficult. The difficulty also increases as more members of a given species are resident, as the more piñatas in a garden, the fewer the number of lives the player receives during the minigame. The first time the minigame is completed successfully for a given species, the player is rewarded with a unique video sequence which shows the two piñatas dancing to music.
The player must also watch out for Ruffians and their leader, "Professor Pester". as well as sour piñatas who enter the garden with the sole intent of wreaking havoc. Their mischief includes eating seeds and produce, destroying objects, or dropping sour candy which causes resident piñatas to become ill if consumed. If the player is resourceful, sour piñatas can, however, be won over and turned into productive garden residents. Additionally, players can earn or purchase individual parts of a totem pole-like structure known as the "Tower of Sour" to deter the type of sour piñata each section corresponds to. Different sections of the pole become available as the player meets certain requirements. Players can pay Ruffians to leave the garden temporarily, but to keep the Ruffians from returning, players must purchase a "Captain's Cutlass" from one of the merchants.