Viva Pinata

Written by Joe Comunale  on August 24, 2006

First Impressions: Oh, there's Miguel. It's you guys! Thank God! Listen, you gotta get me down!

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Viva Pinata is of a rare breed in today's gaming, and ironically, Rare is heading its development. In the upcoming game, players are given a garden and all sorts of responsibilities, which will determine the interaction around game's vast amount of piёata wild life.

When assembling your garden, you will want to do so with different piёata species in mind, since the objective is to attract as many of them to your garden as you can. You'll encounter all sorts of creatures, as the game boasts roughly 60 different species of piёata. Your garden's specifics will intrigue different types of creatures. Naturally, a garden robust with carrots will attract rabbits. Of course, not every creature you encounter will be so innocent. There are bears, wolves, crocodiles, and more. As a defense, you can construct different grade fences and even brick walls to keep out any unwelcome visitors. However, you can always try to bring the vicious creatures in as your own, as long they are properly fed.

Not all piёata creatures are seen during the day. The nocturnal ones will wait for nighttime to come out and play, thanks to the game's real-time day-and-night cycle. In addition, the weather changes throughout play, which we're assuming will have an effect on the health of your garden.

The whole premise pays close attention to the everyday activities animals make. On top feeding the animals, you can try to get species of the same breed to mate. To do so, you'll first have to complete a minigame. The breeding and feeding elements of the game will play hand-in-hand, as you can breed creatures in order to keep your piёatas fed.

The game's УsoursФ are creatures that will be detrimental to your garden creation, since they can disperse poisonous candy, a real threat to your unsuspecting piёata inhabitants... Luckily, you can get rid of them over Xbox Live, by sending them in crates to unsuspecting players. Recipients of these gifts won't actually know what's inside until it's opened. There will be a currency to buy and sell items for your garden, and being able to send items to other Xbox Live owners could lead toward a barter system of sorts.