What’s new this year with Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, be prepared for “maximum candiosity. Rare is introducing Piñata Vision through the means of the Xbox Live Vision Camera. Players can merely show their Vision Camera a Piñata Vision card and presto, a new piñata or item will appear magically in their garden without any questions asked. The only problem with the Vision Camera so far has been the lighting, but once you screw around with it, it won’t be a hassle getting those hard to get piñatas in your garden.
Within the main menu of your garden, players can jump into photo mode through the camera option. The camera allows you to take photos and share them online via www.vivapinata.com. Unfortunately, the site currently isn’t running a section dedicated to Trouble in Paradise (unless it’s going live this week), so any photos of my journey through the title aren’t accessible yet.
A welcome addition to the Viva Piñata franchise is the arctic and desert regions to go to and trap new piñatas. Going outside your garden is appealing because after spending so much time with your garden, you may want a distraction to keep your time well spent with entertaining prospects. The trapping of piñatas is simple with setting down a board of sorts and luring the piñata across the board and then springing the trap into action.
Next up after that, there’s the newly found co-op mode that will pave way for husbands and wives to finally play together in Viva Piñata. Any couple should find it moderately attractive to play with each other as it makes for an arousing time when you are both managing a garden together. The only downside is that on a local co-op, the other player is stuck watching you go through menus buying items or in better terms, stuck being a bystander.
Along with local cooperative play, online play is available with up to four players. The host can limit each and every player to what their accessible to within their garden, so gamers shouldn’t be worried about a friend destroying your garden unless you accidently give your bonehead friends the ability to hit your piñatas with a shovel.
An attraction that will find a home with gamers that are new to the series is the “Just for Fun Mode” that allows players to avoid encounters with sours piñatas, have infinite cash, less requirements to attract piñatas, no weeds or ruffians, and an overall much easier time putting together your ideal garden. While there’s not much challenge found here, there’s also no ability to unlock achievements; this is strictly to mess around and have a little fun as the mode suggests.
In short, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise is a title that resembles its predecessor with many refinements. Players can toggle through seeds, piñatas, and plants with the right and left bumper; they also can use the left, right and up on the d-pad to toggle through your tools and down to learn about your alerts. All of the cast from the original are back with many of the same abilities and traits; plus there’s not much of a difference in story from the original.
If you’re looking for a graphically different game from what’s currently being produced on the Xbox 360, I recommend picking up Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise for a play-through. Teaching your piñatas tricks, playing co-op with a friend, romancing piñatas, having the ability to trade piñatas with players online and much more make up countless reasons to pick up and have a wonderful time with one of Rare’s best Xbox 360 titles to date.
As for a wishlist for Viva Pinata 3, I hope Rare continues to introduce charming and clever piñatas with every sequel they release. I have no doubt that fans of the original will find that Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is better than the first and will be satisfied for a long time to come. Now if we can only get a new villain or two that possibly could make for a better story of why we are creating our fabulous garden – maybe a rival of some sorts to compete with?
