Previews// Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise

Also on the presentation front – tonnes of FMV sequences have been thrown in, featuring Hudson et al from the TV show. Some have been lifted directly from the series, while some have been created specially for the game. There’s so much FMV in there that Rare told us they’ve filled the biggest available DS cart.

This takes me on to a minor gripe. It’s possible to fill your garden thanks to technical limitations – namely the amount of available space in the game. You can pack a fair amount in there, so it’s not a massive complaint, but I did hit the limit a few times (in a pre-prepared garden – I doubt I could have filled one in the couple of hours I played for).

Once your garden’s full, it’s a question of selling on items to make room. As I said, not a major gripe, but I'd rather run out of space thanks to the in-game physical space offered by the garden running out, rather that the technical limitations of the DS

Rare knows what it’s doing on a handheld and with the DS’s demographic in mind has included ‘Playground Mode’. Paul Machacek, the game’s producer, described Playground Mode as providing “an easy, unpressured space for you to play with the piñatas.” Basically, players get to wander straight into a ready-made garden and muck around without having to worry about terraforming, the contents of the journal or bagging as many piñatas as they can. The mode is designed with younger audiences squarely in mind, allowing them to pick up and play with minimum hassle.

It’s not just Playground Mode that carries that ‘pick up and play’ ethos. The game has a very quick save process and even allows you to snap the DS shut without a single button touch then pick up right where you left off minutes or hours later.

I was, to be perfectly honest, rather charmed by Pocket Paradise (suspicious name aside). I’m typically more of a console guy than I am a handheld player. I’m also more partial to big action than I am to simulation or puzzling. But… I’m genuinely looking forward to Pocket Paradise coming out.

It might be because the experience took me back to my days playing Golden Axe Warrior (a Golden Axe RPG spin-off on the Master System) when as a nipper I’d sit in front of it thinking, ‘If I kill this guy I can get enough money to buy that key that’ll get me into this labyrinth so I can get that weapon and kill that other guy’ before spending faaaaarrrr too long putting my intricate plan into place.

In any case, while I’m not immune to the charms of the first VP, it’s not something I’m likely to spend vast amounts of time sat in front of my TV playing – that’s just my predisposition. I can, however, see myself going mental on the bus as I head to the SPOnG underwater castle in the morning and try to work out just how I should go about getting a salamango into my garden. The Viva Piñata[/i] series seems to fit the DS like a glove and should do well with its (more casual than the 360) audience.

For more on Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, check out SPOnG's Rare interview over here.