Viva Piñata (XBOX360)

[GamerDad]

Andrew Parsons's Viva Piñata (XBOX360) article - http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3543

[GamerDad]

Great review Andrew! Seems like you've rated games for kids before?

[SiW]

I've read some accounts that this game shows the usual Rare twisted sensor of humor, with an example being an incestuous relationship that ended with the eating of the offspring.

How are kids finding the difficulty? Some people are saying that things get hectic very quickly and they can't see a younger kid handling it.

[MrAndyPuppy]

I've read some accounts that this game shows the usual Rare twisted sensor of humor, with an example being an incestuous relationship that ended with the eating of the offspring.

How are kids finding the difficulty? Some people are saying that things get hectic very quickly and they can't see a younger kid handling it.

You'll get two pinatas of a particular breed into your garden. Once two become residents, no more will come from external sources, the only way you can get more is to breed them. But let's say you breed them twice - you then have two that are brothers/sisters (in actuality, they're asexual - any pinata of a particlar breed can romance any other). These two then can get together for more babies, and so on.

In that way it is incest. Depending on the pinata, babies do get eaten, usually for more reproductive purposes... you have to remember though, that pinatas are not people, but animals - these things - incest and eating offspring - are part of the basic nature lifecycle in many microcosms throughout the animal world. Rare have done a good job in simultaneously educating the player in these things while minimising the impact by adding humour to the mix.

It could so easily have been awkward or inappropriate and it so isn't.

Difficulty-wise, my daughter (6yo) continues to play it whenever she is not playing Wii, and has quite a list of achievements and a great garden (a little muddy for my tastes, but hey, it's all about individuality). She is not a natural gamer so this is impressive to me.

My son (10) has rocked this game, but he IS a gamer so I kinda expected that.

[GamerDad]

I'm going to change the Seal to 6+ but in Andy's defense, I've been busy and hadn't given him the "Age Seals are also rated for relative difficulty" speech yet.

And the warped minds never surprise me. Incest? That's like seeing a gay Teletubby. For one thing, incest isn't a taboo in the animal kingdom. Frankly, and I understand how breeding works, it never would have occured to me to call it that. The devs made a gameplay decision. Your garden is crowded enough with the "incest" - offering a complete dating service for your species would make an unplayable game.

Death is the only controversial stuff in the game in my opinion, my daughter doesn't like it when the 11th Wyrlm she's named gets eaten just so we can have a shot at some Sparrowthingie babies. But that's the lesson of life, real life and this virtual life, so I'm happy the game is introducing it to her in a way that involves confetti and candy rather than blood and gore.


Cue Elton John and the Lion King Soundtrack

[MrAndyPuppy]

I'm going to change the Seal to 6+ but in Andy's defense, I've been busy and hadn't given him the "Age Seals are also rated for relative difficulty" speech yet.

And the warped minds never surprise me. Incest? That's like seeing a gay Teletubby. For one thing, incest isn't a taboo in the animal kingdom. Frankly, and I understand how breeding works, it never would have occured to me to call it that. The devs made a gameplay decision. Your garden is crowded enough with the "incest" - offering a complete dating service for your species would make an unplayable game.

Death is the only controversial stuff in the game in my opinion, my daughter doesn't like it when the 11th Wyrlm she's named gets eaten just so we can have a shot at some Sparrowthingie babies. But that's the lesson of life, real life and this virtual life, so I'm happy the game is introducing it to her in a way that involves confetti and candy rather than blood and gore.


Cue Elton John and the Lion King Soundtrack

Fair call to change it to 6+. As I said, I have a 6yo girl who doesn't normally game who is having a perfectly fine time with it difficulty-wise, but it's one of those YMMV things.

Oh, the only other thing mentioned was eating of own offspring. As far as I can determine, this never happens. I checked with Jake who has created quite a few unusual pinata, including a four headed Syrupent after a lot of trial and error, and he agrees - at no point does a pinata eat its own babies.

[GamerDad]

I checked with Jake who has created quite a few unusual pinata, including a four headed Syrupent after a lot of trial and error, and he agrees - at no point does a pinata eat its own babies.

Pity. The game would teach kids a more realistic view of how real animals are if they did. I'm kidding here, of course.

[MrAndyPuppy]

I checked with Jake who has created quite a few unusual pinata, including a four headed Syrupent after a lot of trial and error, and he agrees - at no point does a pinata eat its own babies.

Pity. The game would teach kids a more realistic view of how real animals are if they did. I'm kidding here, of course.

LOL, yeah, I know what you mean. However, the additional stuff they're figuring out about breeding - feeding pinata certain plants to produce different coloured offspring, breeding them at different times and doing certain things at critical moments in the process to cause things like the two and four headed Syrupents, are helping them understand even more complex ideas than straight copulation.

[happycamper]

LOL, yeah, I know what you mean. However, the additional stuff they're figuring out about breeding - feeding pinata certain plants to produce different coloured offspring, breeding them at different times and doing certain things at critical moments in the process to cause things like the two and four headed Syrupents, are helping them understand even more complex ideas than straight copulation.

My personal favorite is the fact that if you have frog eggs developing in a petri dish, at one point in the development, if you put a pencil under one side of the dish to "tilt" the dish a little bit... the frogs all develop with deformed limbs... (like no legs or something like that - I've forgotten the actual consequence).

Pretty amazing for like a 15 degree tilt.