Michael Braun's Blog

A few weeks ago, I was telling Tony that I hadn’t bought Brain Age 2 because it was too expensive ($20). And I still agree – for what you get, $20 seems a little high. But a new game for the DS started getting good reviews (as compiled by Metacritic) and caught my attention. It’s Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, the new handheld version of the original Viva Piñata game for XBox 360. Yesterday, I went out and bought it (for $30).

So far, it’s been a lot of fun. The game doesn’t have much plot to it. Basically, you are given a section of land (that’s the only real plot to the game) that you must transform into a garden that will attract exotic piñatas to come and stay. These piñatas are actually living animals, except that when you whack them with a shovel, they break open and spill candy on the ground. All piñatas have different requirements that you must meet before they will appear, visit, become residents, and mate. The more piñatas you attract and mate, the better your ranking as a gardener. That’s the basic goal of the game – increase your gardener ranking.

If you’re laughing, I don’t blame you! The game is completely ridiculous. I laughed when I heard about the original version. But it’s is filled with constant action, making even 10 minutes of playing seem worthwhile. The garden is constantly moving and changing. Unlike other farming sims, the only exhaustion that matters is the player’s (are you sick of playing or not?). There’s always something to do – be it watering; selling flowers, fruits, and vegetables that you’ve grown; or clearing or transforming land (from grass to water, for example, to attract the duck piñata). And there’s plenty of action to monitor – piñatas fighting, piñatas mating, piñatas sick! Is the snake piñata attacking the mouse piñata (again!)? There’s no real respite, making the game very addictive.

The only unknown factor is how much fun the game will be in a few weeks. If attracting new piñatas becomes very difficult, or I run out of interest in making piñatas, or my piñatas won’t stop fighting – I could become frustrated and stop playing. But so far, that hasn’t happened at all. Indeed, I was pleased to figure out today that I can whack visiting snake piñatas that try to eat my resident mouse piñatas. They explode into pieces of delicious candy that the other piñatas eat. Absolutely ridiculous, and that’s most of the fun.