Brand New Rare Game - Viva Piñata - Full Report
Rumours confirmed as paper animal community emerges
Microsoft confirmed these rumours of Rare's next game offering today, showing Viva Piñata for the Xbox 360. The game property, developed by the famed studio in the UK, will comprise what looks to be a massive property roll-out underpinned by a TV show to air on Fox from 4Kids, the company linked to the western success of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, Cabbage Patch Kids and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The game looks most closely related to Animal Crossing, blending elements of collecting and virtual environment caretaking, all set in a hyper-cute world inhabited by candy-filled paper animals. The player tends a virtual garden and should aim to attract as many piñatas as possible. Each Piñata is an animal and therefore has its own unique set of requirements from the garden environment.
Things aren't so simple, however. Unlike the omni-nice world of Animal Crossing where the worst thing you'll encounter is a grumpy tiger named Rolf, Viva Piñata features some evil piñatas which must be fended off. The Piñata are prone to being cracked apart, and their candy innards plundered.
By far the most interesting element of Viva Piñata to be revealed by Rare is the online elements it has planned. There will be co-operative and competitive play – hopefully offering the chance to storm someone else's village and smash their prized paper animals to pieces, stealing their candy and leaving them dead inside. We will make up for it on Animal Crossing you understand. We'll send someone we hardly know a golden shovel or a royal crown or something.
To see a complete gallery or all artwork and screenshots released to date for Viva Piñata, hit this text for the game's dedicated page on SPOnG and click the 'More screenshots' link.
We'll bring you any and all emerging data on Viva Piñata, arguably the most interesting Xbox 360 title in development right now, as it breaks.
UPDATE - official site now live right here.
The game looks most closely related to Animal Crossing, blending elements of collecting and virtual environment caretaking, all set in a hyper-cute world inhabited by candy-filled paper animals. The player tends a virtual garden and should aim to attract as many piñatas as possible. Each Piñata is an animal and therefore has its own unique set of requirements from the garden environment.
Things aren't so simple, however. Unlike the omni-nice world of Animal Crossing where the worst thing you'll encounter is a grumpy tiger named Rolf, Viva Piñata features some evil piñatas which must be fended off. The Piñata are prone to being cracked apart, and their candy innards plundered.
By far the most interesting element of Viva Piñata to be revealed by Rare is the online elements it has planned. There will be co-operative and competitive play – hopefully offering the chance to storm someone else's village and smash their prized paper animals to pieces, stealing their candy and leaving them dead inside. We will make up for it on Animal Crossing you understand. We'll send someone we hardly know a golden shovel or a royal crown or something.
To see a complete gallery or all artwork and screenshots released to date for Viva Piñata, hit this text for the game's dedicated page on SPOnG and click the 'More screenshots' link.
We'll bring you any and all emerging data on Viva Piñata, arguably the most interesting Xbox 360 title in development right now, as it breaks.
UPDATE - official site now live right here.
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Comments
majin dboy 16 Mar 2006 00:58
1/9
now thats some classic s**t rite there.
graphics are stunning.
i find myself asking the question,will this game be any good? another reason to get an Xbox360?
and then i find myself asking the question, why am i checking Spong at 1am?
graphics are stunning.
i find myself asking the question,will this game be any good? another reason to get an Xbox360?
and then i find myself asking the question, why am i checking Spong at 1am?
duque 16 Mar 2006 11:23
2/9
Why is that I have this hunch that someone will say that this is a ripoff from Animal Crossing, or that M$ is copyng Nintendo, and that M$ foresee Nintendo as a rival.
I bet this game wont sell fine, XBOX360 customers are more focused in action titles, thats why I bought this console.
I bet this game wont sell fine, XBOX360 customers are more focused in action titles, thats why I bought this console.
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kid_77 16 Mar 2006 11:34
3/9
It's all very well Rare trying to emulate AC, but they're missing that elusive ingredient:
Nintendo's Magical Mind Control ™
Nintendo's Magical Mind Control ™
ann0uk 16 Mar 2006 13:45
4/9
The game looks absolutely fantastic, but will Rare pull it off? only time will tell.
realvictory 16 Mar 2006 20:06
5/9
No, Nintendo's Magical Mind Control ™ is simply a placebo!
However, When I played Conker's Bad Fur Day for the first time on the XBox, it changed my life forever - in a good way. Maybe too good...
The missing ingredient, as far as I can see, is Opera Singing Lumps Of S**t ™.
Either way, it looks brilliant so far. Very inriguing.
But here's a hint - I have no plans to buy an XBox 360 currently, however, if they release a new Conker's BFD with photo-realistic singing poo (shiny, parallax mapped, etc) I might just have to get one. Maybe I'm just hard to please!
However, When I played Conker's Bad Fur Day for the first time on the XBox, it changed my life forever - in a good way. Maybe too good...
The missing ingredient, as far as I can see, is Opera Singing Lumps Of S**t ™.
Either way, it looks brilliant so far. Very inriguing.
But here's a hint - I have no plans to buy an XBox 360 currently, however, if they release a new Conker's BFD with photo-realistic singing poo (shiny, parallax mapped, etc) I might just have to get one. Maybe I'm just hard to please!
LUPOS 16 Mar 2006 20:13
6/9
realvictory wrote:
Maybe I'm just hard to please!
or maybe your a fecaphiliac?
____
OptimusP 16 Mar 2006 20:47
7/9
MS has such good bussiness ideas don't you think... hey let's have that gamecompany that costed us over 400 million dollars make a game that our fanbase wouldn't touch with a 10 meter long stick... booyah!
Sounds more like a pokemon-AC mixed togheter thing. It's funny though, Rare has turned from the mature-games supplier for Nintendo to the kiddy-game supplier for MS.
Oh yes, the N64 version of Conker Bad Fur Day is the better one, which says a lot about the general quality of the Xbox.
Sounds more like a pokemon-AC mixed togheter thing. It's funny though, Rare has turned from the mature-games supplier for Nintendo to the kiddy-game supplier for MS.
Oh yes, the N64 version of Conker Bad Fur Day is the better one, which says a lot about the general quality of the Xbox.
LUPOS 16 Mar 2006 21:06
8/9
OptimusP wrote:
Oh yes, the N64 version of Conker Bad Fur Day is the better one, which says a lot about the general quality of the Xbox.
doesnt say anythign about the quality fo the xbox... says somethign about the quality of game design goign on at rare these days... when you take a pre-existing game and make it worse, something seriously wrong.
not that i played either extensively so i cant really say.
Joji 17 Mar 2006 00:11
9/9
Can't say I'm knock out by this game but it is early days. Rare you need to do something with a bit more bite.
Licenses like these are sucking up industry talent (even though they do make money sometimes).
Licenses like these are sucking up industry talent (even though they do make money sometimes).