Once upon a time Rare though they had a winner; a game which would end all the confusion between a hardcore console and a kiddie console. Viva Piñata was supposed to change the way we think about Xbox 360 gaming by showing off a title that would make children feel more inclined to game on a “big boys console.”
Unfortunately, execution of Rare’s new franchise title came with a few rough patches, namely Gears of War. Earlier on they had press releases and conferences about how this game was going to interact with users, inspire them to watch Viva Piñata the cartoon to get new recipes for the game which would allow you to create new breeds of Piñata. There were a few flaws in the plan. They didn’t hype the game enough prior to the release and then they decided to launch the game during the over-hyped Gears of War title.
Oddly enough my children (two and four years of age) would rather watch Sponge Bob and Dora reruns than a single episode of Viva Piñata. I thought the show was cute and the bright colors and crazy creatures would draw children like moths to a flame, but they just didn’t care.
My children were too young to play the first Viva Piñata and it didn’t provide enough interest for them to watch me play it and invest the hours. I found the game to be creative and fun… for awhile. Once my happy little Piñatas started eating each other and fighting constantly I realized the joy was gone. If I want to listen to screaming and fighting I’ve got my own children, babysitting Piñatas in a fake garden just wasn’t doing it for me.
Now, Viva Piñata: Trouble in paradise has been given a date of September by Eurogamer. Rare is stating we’ll have 30 new Piñata’s to play with along with new environments, co-op play and other cute options. Admittingly, Drop-in/Drop-out co-op play does sound kind of neat but my emotional scares from the first title have not healed yet.
I was told there would be a great deal of downloadable content (DLC) for Viva Piñata. but found nothing available after I purchased the game and, if content exists now, I’ve long since lost interest in the game. The idea was solid, the demographic was available but the execution went flat. You cannot expect older gamers with children to believe Microsoft or Rare are planning to give us real kids games when you release a single title and show us no other kids games for two years.
At this point, if you’re looking for a console with more kid-friendly gaming you’re going to buy a Wii every single time. Titles on the Wii work for both young adults, teenagers, kids and older grandparents while the 360 goes strong with the 18-34 year-old male demographic.
If you want to be serious about bringing kids on board, Viva Piñata is going to need some friends not just a single sequel. Otherwise, you’re going to find out quick that the 18-34 demographic will simply nod politely and move on to their next great fix… Gears of War 2 perhaps (November, 2008).
If the upcoming Viva Piñata franchise executes like its prior title there will definitely be some trouble in paradise.
@EA deletes Tweets: Glad they removed the poor taste in tweets that was like rubbing salt into a wound.
I’d like to defend Indy games as you don’t need great graphics for great gameplay. Braid is a nice puzzle platforming game. I’m glad you mentioned Dust an Elysian Tail, Jonah. Not all the Indy games are 8-bit, Dust being one of them. I just completed the game and it was fantastic and very impressive that one person was able to do so much in making that game. Any game that adds to the diversity of games available to play is a good thing.
Also many of these Indy games are on Steam and GoG now.
@Parity Policy: It would be nice to have LAuchn Parity like when Skyrim came out and all DLC was released on Xbox and PC first and it wasn’t until months later that PS3 got anything. That was really unfair that PS owners had to wait so long to get the DLC’s for Skyrim.
I think some people are willing to wait though for the game to come to their prefered console. Take Minecraft for instance First on PC, than Pocket edition, Xbox and finally PS and each platform just adds to the sales of the overall game.
QotW: My favorite game related April Fool’s prank would be when Mojang did Minecraft 2.0. They got several YouTube Minecraft LP’ers to make video’s showcasing the features of Minecraft 2.0. The features ranged from the ridiculous Pink Wither, Diamond chickens, redstone bug monster, & exploding furnaces; to the features that we actually now have like Coal Blocks, Slime blocks, Hay bales, etc. It was a fun laugh to have and even more interesting to see the features that they actually are implementing from that prank.
Alpha: The delay of Skyrim DLC on the PlayStation 3 was strictly a technical issue.
Hey guys,
I couldn’t disagree with you more regarding porting and re-launching titles on different platforms even months after the original launch.
Saying that if someone had wanted to play a game they would have already done it doesn’t make much sense, in my eyes. I only own Sony consoles and my laptop is not able to support even the less demanding titles, since I mostly use it for work. This means that I’m naturally cut off from titles that are not available on PlayStation. That’s why I believe it’s a good idea on Sony’s part to port games such as Fez or Minecraft on PlayStation to make those titles available for people such as me who otherwise have no access to them.
By no means are such titles system sellers but being able to play them on Sony’s machines makes it less and less probable that a given gamer will buy another console, which is good for the company, I presume.
I agree with Alphashard that some people, including me, have no problem waiting for a game to come to PlayStation, in my case. I don’t need to buy all the newest titles since my backlog would keep me busy for months. And if a fun, although older, game comes to PlayStation, I might consider getting it.
@Infamous Second Son
I just started playing the game last week and I’m some 4 hours in. I don’t really see how ‘dumbed down’ the title is compared to the first two games. Jordan mentioned that all the opponents are the same, which I can’t agree with. I already encountered 4 different D.U.P. soldier types and there’s also the drug dealers so I don’t think it’s that different than in the PS3 games. So far I feel that it’s just another Infamous game, with a similar, forgettable story and cool powers and action scenes. I enjoy it quite a bit.
@QOTW I deliberately avoid news sites on April Fool’s so I don’t really have an answer to the question. Let me chime in on last week’s QOTW, though. I used to subscribe to a video game magazine called CD Action, here in Poland. What was great about it was that every month they would include one or two full versions of games on CD/DVD and also tons of demos and other stuff. Back in the lat 90’s the CD also contained funny pictures, gifs, etc. so it was like an offline version of 9gag. I don’t buy such magazines any more, but I also don’t visit video game news websites that often. I get most of my news from podcasts and I don’t mind the delay of several days before the news reach me.
League of Legends never ceases to amuse with its ‘URF’ related jokes 🙂
Great podcast by the way 😀
@EA flogging a dead horse
That was deffinetly a lapse of judgement. In my opinion every company should have an IT expert that approves all internal internet posts. So that if he sees something stupid he can find the person who posted it and slap some sense into him. It’s not nice making fun of disabled companies that are impaired by their management.
@Microsoft Indi
I played some good Indi games on Xbox 360. Mostly rip offs of PC games (Day Z, Minecraft). But they are cheap and mostly multiplayer, so make for a good blast. I absolutely don’t care when and where they are released. If a game is good enough I will eventually play it. I have no problem waiting. Plenty of other games out there.
@QOTW
A long time ago (2007?) the website gamefaqs.com (a cheat, hint website) had an April’s fool joke where entering the website greeted you with a page saying that cheating in video games was a crime and you should enter at your own risk. That was quite amusing. Also, a few years ago we had the Assasin’s Creed Kinect video. Wish it was true.