Previews// Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise

The point of all that hard graft is to make your garden appealing to different species of piñata (of which there are over 60, including seven brand spanking new species). One type of piñata, for example, might require a certain amount of grass to be laid down to visit, but also at least two buttercups to be planted to stay. If you want one, out comes the grass seed and you’ll have to head off to the shop for buttercup seeds. If you want to get your buttercup to grow faster, you’ll want to get some fertiliser on there. To get fertiliser you’ll need to get a taffly to do its business after eating the colour of fruit that matches your plant. You can see how it all rolls out…

Another important aspect of looking after your piñatas is romancing. As with attracting the little cardboard critters, getting them to do the naughty thing (I’m told what actually happens when piñatas disappear for a spot of romance is a mystery, but I assume it to be naughty) you’ll need to meet certain conditions. Getting them to romance is a Good Thing. More piñatas is nice on its own, but it also gives you the benefit of being able to sell them off in order to get cash with which to buy lovely things for your garden. You also might want, say, an extra Mousemallow for something else to eat in order to convince it to stay…

Brutal, I know! I was more than a little distressed when the first of my piñatas got eaten, but I soon hardened up when I realised that such is the way of the world and it was for the greater good of my garden.

Anyway… If you haven’t played VP before, you might be wondering just how you’re meant to know what to do to get what to do what so you can get the other thing to do that… (ad infinitum, I discovered). That’s where your journal comes into play. Your journal sits within easy reach on the top screen and contains all sorts of handy information on the different piñatas (and what conditions they need for different activities), what you’ve achieved so far, what’s going on in your garden – all that good stuff. It’s been very well handled by Rare’s handheld team. It’s easily accessible thanks to a tap of the stylus on the top corner of the screen, opening it out on the touch screen.

This is one of the real strengths of the DS version of VP – the presentation. The journal aside, all the items you need such as your spade, watering can and shop access are on hand in drop down menus along the top of the touch screen. It makes it very accessible and easy to use. One of my gripes when I tried the 360 version of VP was with all the time I spent ducking through different menus. The process has been well streamlined for the DS.

Similarly, shopping for things like new piñata houses, seeds and veterinary assistance is quicker on the DS. The waffle you get from the different shopkeepers is gone (presumably for space), making the process far less time consuming.