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.
In an “unexpected” move, Ubisoft has opted to utilize the 1:1 accuracy of the Wii Motion Plus add-on device for the Wii remote in their next Red Steel sequel, currently called Red Steel 2. It may be most gamers consider this an unexpected move because they thought the series would be dead after the first launch title.
@Gamergate: Oh what a cluster-duck. Companies need to stay out of politics and people need to keep their personal lives out of the media and business world. Why are these people failing to learn these lessons? Not to mention the whole mob mentality of jumping on a bandwagon that they have no business getting involved in the first place. No wonder I’m an escapist. I had thought that the name Gamergate was a company until I read this story and not a continuation of the Watergate “meme”. I agree with Paul you shouldn’t add –gate to the end of every scandal. It makes it hard to differentiate from real things that have gate in it’s name like Brandenburg Gate or Golden Gate.
@Capcon: I know they are in the business to make money but I’ve always hated this mentality. The idea that if it doesn’t make 2 million it isn’t worth bothering with his a terrible thing, there have been games that did better over their life time then when they initially launched. Some games take time to build up their popularity and this need for them to be block buster sellers doesn’t guarantee quality. There are many AAA games that have sold millions and I have NO intention of ever buying or playing. This is the mentality that killed the original Sierra games and with them coming back I don’t want to go through all that again.
@Mario Clones: There was a similar joke in Sierra’s Leisure Suit Larry, where if your character died and you restarted they showed a cut scene of a new Larry being made and put back in place. So that’s an interesting game concept to imagine your characters going through.
@QotW: My favorite Saturday morning cartoon would have to be the Dungeons and Dragons. I loved Superfriends and Amazing Spider-man (who was teamed up with Iceman and Firesta). I had to use a site (http://www.inthe80s.com/saturdays.shtml and http://www.inthe90s.com/saturdays.shtml) to remember what cartoons were on Saturday morning as opposed to Weekday afternoon or morning. So I can’t seem to find when I watched Silverhawks, Thundercats or GI Joe, which I thought were in the morning. There are just so many to list but those that are very memoriable were Gummi Bears, Garfield, Kissyfur, and Smurfs. I have to agree with Jonah I do remember watching Smurfs mostly to get to whatever was after it and I didn’t stick to just one channel. It was a very warm and fuzzy nostalgic memory of a tradition that it is a shame has seemed to come to an end. I was like Jonah as well as after watching the cartoons I would be ready to go out and play.
The third Question of the week is that I play the Nintendo 3DS, I love all the RPG games and the old nostalgic games that I can play on it. I’m very into the Professor Layton games so that’s another one for Pawel.
GamersGate is the online store.
@EAs eternal struggle against its own credibility
When Battlefield 4 came out I was lucky enough to be at university and did not buy it at launch. I pre-ordered Battlefield 3 and spent the first day trying to get into a game, so I am glad I missed their second fiasco. DICE needs to stop rushing their games out the door. Especially considering that the Battlefield series have a terrible single player component which cannot compensate for lack of multiplayer (unlike Call of Duty).
@Thr Cute Terrors of Nintendo
According to the original Mario manual, Bowser turned all citizens of mushroom Kingdom into blocks. Basically, Mario rescues the princess as an accomplished mass murderer. In fact, Nintendo is full of creepy things which would make the Western audience cringe in fear. Dead Pokemon, Silent Hill-like Zelda dungeons and getting Zelda’s “Ultimate Reward” right in the dungeon she was kept in. Their early games are as good for kids as GTA.
@QOTW
The 3DS is still my favourite. I don’t play small iPhone games. I have KOTOR on the iPhone but it gets continuously interrupted by various notifications and calls, which makes me loose my progress.