Overall: I was pleasantly surprised by this "Childish looking game." Its a fairly long game and can be very fun to play but it also can get repetitive. Gameplay: Pretty long single player game, with the option to trade with other players via XBL makes for a great addition to an already great game. Graphics: The graphics are great, but the graphics are not something that will stand out about this title. Sound: Great sound presentation. Some great voice-over work and the sound effects are pretty good for this type of game.
Overall: Viva Pinata basically starts off like an into
for a kids show. The game is comparable to the sims but more geared towards a younger audience. You start off on a desolate patch of land and you need to get it ready for pinatas to come and inhabit it. You meet some characters that do help you along quite a bit and offer very good advice. Gameplay: Gameplay is quite easy with the simple controls, but the advanced controls offer a few more options and are just as easy to use. Characters are entertaining and charismatic in the entertainment aspect. Pretty much Pinatas appear on the edge of your land and you have to find a way to get them onto your farm. Once on they will walk about and see how you are doing and interact with pinatas already dedicated to your land. There are some bad pinatas that will cause some havoc, even the locals will have a fight between each other. You basically have some tools for making the area look good. You dig and finalize buildings with your shovel, plant seeds, and water plants to keep them alive till they are grown. Sidewalks can be layed out nicely and alot of other features are able to be used to customize your land. Graphics: Graphics are very well done on the characters. The land and backgrounds have good lighting and fog effects. Even with 100 pinatas on your screen there is no lack in performance from the 360 and it runs nice and smooth. When saving or loading it will jog a bit but its not really noticable. Shading and lighting effects make everthing look great, day or night. Sound: Sound I have heard is amazing on a 5.1 system, but I only have 2 Channel. As for the system I do have the voices are very crisp and easy to understand. The characters are very comical and make odd noises here and there. The music in the game is great as well and isnt some monotone tune as in some sim games out there. Suggestions: Being able to see what way the building is situated in the build box would of been nice. Being able to skip through the Pinata intro's that happen all through the game would of helped as they were a bit annoying.