Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise

Its almost identical in every way to the first Viva Pinata. No bad thing if you're new to the series, but if you've played the first, there really is no need to bother with this 'sequel'. New stuff is thin on the ground - the new areas are basically a tiny extra arena with a selection of different Pinatas roaming around, as long as you have the correct bait, trapping is as easy a pressing a button. The new surfaces for your garden (all two of them....) are just grass in a different colour. Certain plants won't grow on snow but thats it - hardly a visual or mechanical tour de force.

Its visually identical to the first game, the characters are the same, the voice acting is the same, theres a few new pinatas, but the main body of them is exactly as you've already seen before. Mechanically its the same, the process you have to go through to do things is the same. Some of the little irritations have been removed, but others put in - weeds are incredibly annoying, especially if you… more »

Its almost identical in every way to the first Viva Pinata. No bad thing if you're new to the series, but if you've played the first, there really is no need to bother with this 'sequel'. New stuff is thin on the ground - the new areas are basically a tiny extra arena with a selection of different Pinatas roaming around, as long as you have the correct bait, trapping is as easy a pressing a button. The new surfaces for your garden (all two of them....) are just grass in a different colour. Certain plants won't grow on snow but thats it - hardly a visual or mechanical tour de force.

Its visually identical to the first game, the characters are the same, the voice acting is the same, theres a few new pinatas, but the main body of them is exactly as you've already seen before. Mechanically its the same, the process you have to go through to do things is the same. Some of the little irritations have been removed, but others put in - weeds are incredibly annoying, especially if you didn't plant them - Its entirely possible to ruin your garden with one strain of weed which not only poisons all your Pinatas, but is near impossible to get rid of, hit it with your spade and 2 more seeds plant, repeat until everything is dead, your garden is barren and you're sick of the whole thing.

Its a real shame as this could have been a real opportunity to step up the whole game - theres so much more that could be done with the visual side, the garden design thing could and should have been expanded considerably. For example why are we still stuck with that horrible mud edge around all water? Why can't grass be taken right up to the edge? Rare could have included terrain deformation elements, new things to be done with the water, a wider range of pinatas and scenery. Its a shame that this is being billed as a sequal when really, very little has changed.

If you played the first, don't bother with this one.