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D. COINER

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Normal Guy Who Likes Games
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Member Since: 1/2006  Last Seen: 12/03/2008

Is Rare's Viva Pinata what Microsoft needs for the Xbox 360?

Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:59 PM EST
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By D. Coiner
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My short answer is yes.

Viva Pinata is according to Kotaku "Viva Pinata is a surreal blend of Animal Crossing, The Sims, Harvest Moon and Pokemon that has been under development by Rare for the past two years. The game is the pet project of Rare's co-founder Tim Stamper."

This is the type of chances that Microsoft need to take to find their own, Katamari (oh man what a fun game) or Pokemon. Just listen to the premise of this game. You have to grow things in your garden to attract wild pinatas that are in the jungle around you. Each of the 60 breeds or pinatas are attracted by different things that you grow.

The pinatas you attract are black and white at first but when you get them to your garden they will gain color. There is also a breeding system it seems where you can get two of the same pinatas together and they will create an egg. The cool thing about these eggs is that they can be either hatched or traded online. Also as with tradition if a pinata breaks it will drop candy. This candy can be used as food for other pinatas or traded.

Could this be the Xbox's Animal Crossing? Well this game is so out there I think it will either be an awful bomb of a game or a mega hit.

Personally this is not a game that will probably interest me, but I have said that about man other games and have been totally wrong.

Official site: http://www.vivapinata.com/vivapinatacom/announce/

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kayjay

I'm a huge fan of Rare's games, ever since Goldeneye and Banjo Kazooie on the Nindendo 64. This might sway me to get a PS3 over the Nintendo Revolution, but otherwise its the revolution all the way.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out, I'm sure many people would by the PS3 if it had a flagship title to go with it.

  • 1 vote
Reply#1 - Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:32 PM EST
D. Coiner

I hope you don't buy a PS3 because of this. The reason why is this is an Xbox 360 Exclusive. ;)

But seriously, I do hope this turns out well because I too like Rare and have really been dissapointed with their games of late. I did enjoy Kameo alot but I could not seem to stomach Perfect Dark Zero at all, I never even finished it. What I really want as strange as it seems is for them to come out with a good cart racer like they did with Diddy Kong racing. I would love to see that for the 360.

  • 1 vote
Reply#2 - Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:48 PM EST
Wrestlevania

I find it rather ironic that, after the shoeing many people have given Nintendo Revolution - before it's even released, on account that Nintendo supposedly only make "kids" games - the hottest Xbox 360 property of the moment is... a kids' game.

And could we drop the rose tinted glasses for a moment please; whilst this title does show promise, Rare's mid-term pedigree has ranged from simply "good" to down right awful. They've not produced a must-have title since the N64 was a new console. Neither Kameo nor Perfect Dark Zero count; neither are particularly outstanding games by all accounts, and neither have much competition on Xbox 360 right now, do they? When you launch a new platform with precious few titles, and two of the meager selection are from the same company, you're bound to sell a few copies of one or the other - if not both.

  • 1 vote
Reply#3 - Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:37 AM EST
quixado

I agree with the other comments that PDZ is a bad game and Kameo was enjoyable but just ok. I am a bit skeptical Rare is a studio still capable of greatness.

One of the biggest features so far on the Xbox 360 have been the Live Arcade games: casual gaming you can pick-up anytime. Viva Pinata might hit a sweet spot in the middle of being a more advanced "disc" game but with a lot of the casual appeal the Live Arcade games enjoy.

It's on my watch list, but coming from Rare I'll probably wait a few weeks after release to see what people think of it.

  • 3 votes
Reply#4 - Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:50 AM EST
D. Coiner

Pete, I agree that Rare has seemingly gone downhill in their offerings. I actually thought that Kameo was a wonderful game that got rating scores it didn't deserve and on the other side I thought Perfect Dark got scores that were too high (Just my opinion). But, one thing I noticed in the reviews of Kameo was that alot of them said it looked too kiddie and cartoon like, what is wrong with that?

Also, as far as rose tinted glasses, there are none on here. This thing could totally bomb, I am just impressed that they are trying this and microsoft is backing it so heavily.

In my opinion Rare has had some really exceptional games on the N64 and then some okay games, even back then they were kinda hit and miss. Since being bought by Microsoft they have not hit that exceptional mark yet, I was hoping they might do that with the next Kameo but hopefuly now it will be this one.

PS - The Xbox 360's line up was far from meager it was one of the better lunch line ups of any console. Just look back at the PS2's launch lineup, it was awful. SSX and TimeSplitters were probably the best of the bunch, even with there having something like 29 titles at launch (I got a PS2 at launch but do not remember them having this many but that may be because of faulty memory).

  • 1 vote
Reply#5 - Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:53 AM EST
kayjay

I feel like a dumbass. I should read with more care. lol.

    Reply#6 - Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:35 PM EST
    D. Coiner

    I feel like a dumbass. I should read with more care. lol.

    Nah, you're alright.

      Reply#7 - Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:32 PM EST
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