Since I never bought an Xbox 360, I never got to try one of the few games for it that interested me- Viva Pinata. It had an Animal Crossing kind of gameplay to it (at least, it looked like it did), but had very vibrant, colorful characters and I was glad to see pinatas getting used for something other than being smashed at birthdays. I bought Pocket Paradise after reading mostly positive reviews, and man was that a good buy. Pocket Paradise may not be much in terms of what there is to do- it's simply a garden simulator, but it's so addicting that I was amazed at how many hours I put into this thing.
You start out with a very small garden, and over time it'll grow into a fairly big one [though it looks like it could expand at least one more time]. You'll add flowers, fruit and vegetable plants, and even cool accessories like wheels, and things like ponds and gravel. But the real fun comes in adding the pinatas. There are different ways to get pinatas to come to your garden. You may need a certain amount of x plant for it to enter, instead of just checking it out from afar, or you may need to have a certain kind of food ready so it'll want to stay. There are even different colors of pinatas that you can get, some are even required in order to get the final pinata animals. While they're there, you can build them their own houses so they'll have a place to sleep when it's dark out, or when it rains. This also keeps them happy, which is another important factor. If you get two of the same kind of pinata, they can even romance and have babies. Over time, you'll sell some of your food and plants, and even the pinatas in order to buy more advanced things and move on with the gameplay. Like Animal Crossing, the game never really ends. It may sound a bit boring, and in truth, it kind of is, but for anyone who gets sucked in and plays more than 15 minutes, this game will keep them coming back for more.
I guess I need to address the whole 'mating' thing, that one parent threw a fit about. Yes, there's a type of mating dance here, but it's done in a comical sense, and you don't see anything 'happen'. When two pinatas are ready, they go into their home and you'll see a cute cutscene of them dancing around or jumping about, then it'll be over and the egg will show up. That's it. Barry White doesn't start to sing in the background, cow pinatas don't fondle their utters, nothing like that. That's about the extent of the objectionable material, if any. Everything else here is cute and fun, and even when pinatas get into fights now and then, the loser will just explode into a rain of candy, just like a real pinata when it's broken.
Visually, this is a great looking game, and the 360 models translated well to the DS. Nothing's too complicated, but the game runs smoothly and the bright colors are nice to look at. There's even a lot of cutscenes from the Viva Pinata cartoon here, and while those didn't convert to the DS as well, they were still nice, and I was impressed by the quality. As for the music, it's limited to mostly just what you hear in cutscenes, as the rest of the sound is effects and ambiance, and an occasional track when a fight breaks out. I did love the track that plays when you go shopping for new seeds though- 'reminded me of classic Rare from the Donkey Kong Country days. Playing the game is easy too, since you use the stylus for nearly everything, and there were never any problems with selecting the wrong plant to water or the wrong pinata to go to another area. Everything's solid.
Pocket Paradise is a must for anyone who loves simulation games, or fans of the Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing series that want to try something different, but nothing too different from those series. There's a good number of different pinatas to see, and again, I was surprised at how much time I spent playing this. Hopefully if they get to make another one for the DS, it'll have more room, because my only tiny complaint is that the garden could be bigger. Otherwise, Pocket Paradise should be in any DS owner's library.Get more detail about Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise.
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