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.
Why release a single block buster game with a two week pop when you can simply lower the price of your console and boost sales by 100%? That’s a question Sony may be asking themselves right now, as Metal Gear Solid 4‘s hype may have lasted years but the sales and console unit sale boots lasted a month.
Going for the sex sells eh? Not that anyone would know the difference either way.
“Companies spend money like fish” Doesn’t sound like any company I’ve been at. I have at two work places that had several computers still on XP, they take a long time to upgrade anything. I’ve seen old plotters still be used from decades ago. I think companies tend to the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Paul if you have a spare Windows 7 computer why don’t you see if Grim Fandango works on it? Or have you already tried?
@Windows 10: Yeah it feels like a real desperate attempt at good will for the Windows OS in general. I think giving it away free for a year they feel will garner some slack. Though if you upgrade I don’t know if you can go back to Windows 7 or 8.
@Kojima: I think Metal Gear is becoming one of those games that need to be retired now.
@Tempest Debacle: Looking at the screen shots I feel like I have seen this game mechanic before in other games. Having never played these two I can see it’s a ship that spins around a “pit” shooting at things in the center. I feel that that was a very old Atari game at some point. However he’ll probably have to pay a settlement for this as it does look like he is trying to remake the game that belongs to Atari now. There’s making a game that uses certain mechanics and then there’s just making what looks to be a clone of what they did previously. If I made a game where you jump up and down a large block pyramid with a little orange dude named Q’bort I’m sure Atari would see through that as well.
@Xbox for sale: If it’s for sale maybe a former console company could buy it to bring its self back like Sega or Atari. Though I don’t know if anyone would want to buy it. With the way they’ve been talking about integrating Xbox and Windows gaming I don’t think they would sell that then.
@Nintendo’s NX Gen: I’m intrigued what they will do, if nothing else we’ll have a new name to have fun with the NX Gen.
Since there was no QotW, I thought I’d ask something: “What do you think is the future of Old Games?” To give more context anyone who wants to read an old book, see an old movie or listen to an old song can easily do so. However with Games that will become difficult, especially in cases of games that are Online only and once servers are gone so too is the game. Later generations of people may have a hard time playing games that are no longer workable on current gen consoles or even computers. I wanted to know what your guys thoughts are on this.