Customer Reviews

Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First I want to say that the graphics on this game are so amazing! Bright beautiful colors. It really brings out the best of Viva Pinata on XBox 360. The graphics of course won't be EXACTLY like the 360 version, but they are great for Nintendo DS. Right up there with the graphics on Animal Crossing.

When you first start the game there is a tutorial. I was very happy with this, because it wasn't as long as the one on 360. The 360 instructions seemed to go on forever. This was very easy and quick, and everything is easy to understand, easy to control.

You still get the basic tools like the shovel (Tap, Whack, and Make Dirt), watering can, and grass packet. Planting the seeds are the same as on 360. Get a seed from Seedos or at the store, decide where you want it, press the Plant button. Water it, and be sure you don't OVER water it or they will die.

In this game there are garden personalities. Which just means you will see a funny episode every now and then, and it is to bring excitement and entertainment into the game. The episodes are set up just like the Viva Pinata series on TV.

Game Modes:

Garden-This will be your main garden, and basically the game. Be a gardener and Pinata raiser to attract new residents. Try to aim towards 100% completion or make your own personal garden goals.

Episodes-Allows you to play any Episode that you've unlocked. New Episodes will become available as you make progress in the main garden, and playing through Episodes will grant you knowledge of more advanced techniques and tactics.

Playground-As the name suggests, this is the quick and easy way to create a temporary garden where everything is free. Use it to experiment, test your ideas and practice strategies for improving your real garden.

The Game Screen: You will have an events window telling you all the happenings of your garden, Requirements and Terrain Info (which gives you a percent on how much grass, dirt, etc. that you have.), Overhead Map, Clock and Experience Gauge, Gardener level and Game experience, Tool Icon, Switch Screen Icon, Shop Icons, and Scroll Screen Icon.

As in the 360 version you will still get the Alerts that will keep you informed on everything going on in the garden. Touch the Icon and it will show you on the map where the event is taking place, and take you directly to it.

Shovel and Watering Can will still be upgraded.

To get Pinatas to your garden you have to attract them. For instance, a worm will attract a Sparrowmint (Bird) into the garden. Fruits, veggies, seeds will also attract certain pinatas. When you have a visitor, see what it's requirements are to become a resident. Fill those requirements and you have a new friend.

You will also get more garden space when you level up. The more you romance your pinatas, become experienced in gardening, you will get more space to do this all with.

Each pinata will want it's own type of house. Houses provide safety and happiness, and also allow you to romance your pinatas. You have to romance to move up in the game. Have more than one of the same type of Pinata? Then it is time to build a house for them.

For a pinata to romance you have to meet the requirements. Some pinatas might need to eat certain things before they are able to romance. It is easy to just take a quick look and see what you need to do to begin the process. Every pinata is different.

Sell all the seeds you grow! This will help you to get more money. There are two stores: The General Store and the Building Store.

Candy: Broken Pinatas produce candy, and when other pinatas eat this candy they become happy. Sour Candy is spread and left in your garden by the sour pinatas, if eaten it can make a pinata sick and then you will have to call the doctor. Romance Candy allows you to skip the romancing requirements process and go straight to the egg.

The trouble you might see in your garden: Sour Pinatas that cause nothing but trouble, Fights between pinatas, Ruffians who are there to destroy your garden, and Weeds that try to kill your garden plants.

Trading: The in-game post office opens when you reach a certain level. Through it you can trade seeds, plants, and Pinatas (including accessorized ones) with friends over the Nintendo DS WI-FI communications process. Follow on screen instructions that show you how to send and receive crates. You can only have one crate at a time in your garden.

Success is measured on how valuable your garden is. Everything you put in your garden, your pinatas, plants. Make your garden as valuable as possible to achieve your goals in this game.

Overall, this game is a wonderful game! There is so much to do in it, so much to learn. Fascinating, exciting, addictive, and holds your attention. SO FUN!

First off, I have to say WOW!

It is incredible how much fidelity to the original game there is.
The big difference in graphics besides the obvious De-Rezing required to get this title on the DS is that you have only the front isometric view. This view can not be spun around, so sometimes it can be difficult to see pinatas around trees. However, I did not realize I was missing this feature till I was a few hours into the game. So, to me, it was not a big deal.

What you do get is the ability to play this game anywhere and not tethered to the TV. For me, that was big. You can play in little increments. Close the lid and the DS pauses the game. Open the lid and pick up later right where you left off.

The other feature that is a big improvement is the touch screen funtionality. Being able to quickly manuver through your garden and select your tools quickly kept this game from being tedious.

Unlike the 360 version, there is no silly maze to navigate when your pinatas romance. This really sped the game up. I am very happy to see that go since it used to drive me nuts.

If you have a collector type personality and enjoyed that aspect in games like Pokemon, this game is for you. I loved attacting new pinatas to my garden. Growing plants and trees. Getting Pinatas to change and evolve. It's just great fun.

I would reccomend this to anyone who liked Pokemon, Animal crossing, or Harvest moon

Since I am in transit from one place or another, and often am looking for something to occupy my time during those times, I picked up Viva Pinata:Pocket Paradise on the urging of my brother, who plays the XBox version.

I am not disappointed! It is a very interactive game and it keeps you thinking every step of the way. It reminds me of Sims2 in that you have to be very diligent in caring for your pinatas. So anyone who is a hardcore Simmie will take to this game well.

The only disappointment is that the sounds (apart from the opening intro) are very low - so if you are somewhere noisy, you won't hear some of the warning sounds from the game (like when a Ruffian is messing up your garden).

Other than that, I am very happy with it!

-logs on to dads account, no i'm not buying anything-
I love this game, 99% percent of the kids in my class think it's about hitting pinatas with bats, it's not, it's a complicated eco-system of pinata creatures, A GUIDE:

Getting started:
When you first start out 2 or 3 things happen:
1 you have to sign the deed to the garden, you can just scribble if you want too
2 you'll have to name the file, i give it a name based on what the garden happens to be about:
Pretztail Paradise, Bunnycomb ranch, Dragonoche kingdom, ect. or you can do your name
3 depending on whether or not it's your first time playing, you will have to do a few tutorials, no their not at all hard, so don't go awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww this is a waste of my time, their incredibly helpful, so finish them and you have your garden

Starting your Garden:
You will have a weed covered garden when you start out, GREAT! Pull out your shovel and start clearing, leave a bit and keep it through the whole game until you get a dragonache egg (i'll explain), when your about half way done, a little gray worm will wander in, keep working bang on the old junk, the little worm is going to start getting color ignore him and keep working, by the time your done you should have a resident, now you have to prepare to get the guy a home, so call up your favorite builder, he'll do this first house for free, after a bit another wormy thing will come along and you'll have two, select one, drag them together, and they'll do a dance, and you'll soon have another tiny guy to take care off

Getting more pinatas:
As you move along in the game, you must take it upon your self to buy all the seeds you can get, plant them, and soon you'll have new pinatas appearing. Some pinatas like too fight, so you might have to separate them from each other to save your garden peace. But some pinatas need to eat other pinatas to be happy or to move in, like a pretztail they need to eat a Bunnycomb or Cluckle to move in, if you want to get anywhere you'll have to let go of those pinatas.

A Yeti and a Dragon:
Jeli's: after playing the game for A LONG TIME you will see a large white pinata coming around at night, these creatures only come a few times so you have to be quick, what you have to do is follow the pinata and once they enter the garden you have to whack it with your shovel, yay you have a jeli! Now you copy the game, send the jeli from the copy to the original, delete the original and now you have two, never get rid of yor jeli's you won't get 'im again
Dragonache: when you have a mine you will take a Candary and send it in, after a bit a little egg wil pop out, you know that bit of rubble i told you to keep, well if you were smart and listened you will still have that little section, you have to drag the egg over onto the rubble and you have to take a cluckle and tell it to sit on the egg, after a bit it will hatch and you will have yourself and child dragonache, when your done finishing it's cocoon requirements it will turn into one, after that when it hatches you will have a golden dragonache, if you want to know the secret of the rubble, you have to hatch the dragonache on rubble to make it golden, dirt is brown, grass is green, and water is blue. You can always send it back to an egg to start over and change the color, or you can send it away.

Everything else:

Beware of the following:
Dastardos or however you spell it: if you've already called a doctor you can hit him on the head with a shovel to delay him a bit
Ruffians: their is a totem you get eventually that keeps them away forever, fences keep them out too but they don't leave and you can't get more pinatas, barkbarks and something else can be set against them it doesn't work to well though
Sour pinatas: kill them with your shovel they break like any other pinata but beware of their candy it's sour candy your, if you finish it requirements it will become a resident and you will get a totem to keep that kind of sour away don't mess with it's mouth though
Fights: fights kill pinatas, to stop it pour water on the pinatas, put a fence between them, if their 3 bars of candy disappear say bye bye to your pinata their replaced with happy candy\

Kinds of Candy:
HappyCandy: it puts them in good moods
Sour Candy: it's dropped by ruffians and Sour pinatas it makes your pinata sick
RomanceCandy: skip the requirements of your pinata's romancing their ready, keep them in a good mood though

Both my daughters and I loved playing Viva Pinata on the Xbox 360. I got this game for my younger daughter who was 7 and it was a bit too dificult for her to play alone. My older daughter really enjoyed it and was able to figure the game out without help. They haven't played this game as much as their other DS games like Harvest Moon or Cooking Mama but they seem to really enjoy it.

I picked this game up, mainly because it was on sale. I had great luck with games on sale before, and figured, Why not? Once again, we have a winner. This game is colorful, relaxing, and just so darn fun. It kills me to put it down. Highly addictive. The main Problem with it is, it is really fast paced. You get critters before you finnish digging up the ground and putting grass on it. But other then that, this game gets an "A". Becides, what could be more fun the beating a pinata with a shovel?

This game is irreplaceable! Endless hours of fun and excitement. The kids love it. Makes them think and reason...this is good brain "food" for younsters. Stimulates creativity as well. Great deal and buy!

Its a great game! I had it for a year and got every pinata...then my sister broke my ds....so now i really want it again!!!!! LUVED IT!!! ( I even got the DRAGON pinata)

My 11 yr old daughter really enjoys this one. Most of the challenge seems to be related to collecting and nuturing pinatas. It is her favorite game.

Since I never bought an Xbox 360, I never got to try one of the few games for it that interested me- Viva Pinata. It had an Animal Crossing kind of gameplay to it (at least, it looked like it did), but had very vibrant, colorful characters and I was glad to see pinatas getting used for something other than being smashed at birthdays. I bought Pocket Paradise after reading mostly positive reviews, and man was that a good buy. Pocket Paradise may not be much in terms of what there is to do- it's simply a garden simulator, but it's so addicting that I was amazed at how many hours I put into this thing.

You start out with a very small garden, and over time it'll grow into a fairly big one [though it looks like it could expand at least one more time]. You'll add flowers, fruit and vegetable plants, and even cool accessories like wheels, and things like ponds and gravel. But the real fun comes in adding the pinatas. There are different ways to get pinatas to come to your garden. You may need a certain amount of x plant for it to enter, instead of just checking it out from afar, or you may need to have a certain kind of food ready so it'll want to stay. There are even different colors of pinatas that you can get, some are even required in order to get the final pinata animals. While they're there, you can build them their own houses so they'll have a place to sleep when it's dark out, or when it rains. This also keeps them happy, which is another important factor. If you get two of the same kind of pinata, they can even romance and have babies. Over time, you'll sell some of your food and plants, and even the pinatas in order to buy more advanced things and move on with the gameplay. Like Animal Crossing, the game never really ends. It may sound a bit boring, and in truth, it kind of is, but for anyone who gets sucked in and plays more than 15 minutes, this game will keep them coming back for more.

I guess I need to address the whole 'mating' thing, that one parent threw a fit about. Yes, there's a type of mating dance here, but it's done in a comical sense, and you don't see anything 'happen'. When two pinatas are ready, they go into their home and you'll see a cute cutscene of them dancing around or jumping about, then it'll be over and the egg will show up. That's it. Barry White doesn't start to sing in the background, cow pinatas don't fondle their utters, nothing like that. That's about the extent of the objectionable material, if any. Everything else here is cute and fun, and even when pinatas get into fights now and then, the loser will just explode into a rain of candy, just like a real pinata when it's broken.

Visually, this is a great looking game, and the 360 models translated well to the DS. Nothing's too complicated, but the game runs smoothly and the bright colors are nice to look at. There's even a lot of cutscenes from the Viva Pinata cartoon here, and while those didn't convert to the DS as well, they were still nice, and I was impressed by the quality. As for the music, it's limited to mostly just what you hear in cutscenes, as the rest of the sound is effects and ambiance, and an occasional track when a fight breaks out. I did love the track that plays when you go shopping for new seeds though- 'reminded me of classic Rare from the Donkey Kong Country days. Playing the game is easy too, since you use the stylus for nearly everything, and there were never any problems with selecting the wrong plant to water or the wrong pinata to go to another area. Everything's solid.

Pocket Paradise is a must for anyone who loves simulation games, or fans of the Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing series that want to try something different, but nothing too different from those series. There's a good number of different pinatas to see, and again, I was surprised at how much time I spent playing this. Hopefully if they get to make another one for the DS, it'll have more room, because my only tiny complaint is that the garden could be bigger. Otherwise, Pocket Paradise should be in any DS owner's library.