Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise
| Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise | |
|---|---|
North American box art
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| Developer(s) | Rare |
| Publisher(s) | THQ |
| Distributor(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Designer(s) | Gary Richards Joseph Humfrey Paul Machacek |
| Artist(s) | Dean Smith Dermot Fanning Chris Peil |
| Composer(s) | David Wise |
| Series | Viva Piñata |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Life Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 82.58% (based on 31 reviews) |
| Metacritic | 82% (based on 34 reviews) |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B+ |
| Eurogamer | 80 |
| GamesMaster | 85% |
| IGN | 8.5 |
| ONM | 90% |
| NGamer | 85 out of 100 |
| IGN UK | 8.9 |
Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is a life simulation game developed by Rare, for the Nintendo DS video game console and based on the original Viva Piñata, rather than being an all-new game in the series.
This version was developed by Rare's handheld team, as opposed to Viva Piñata: Party Animals and the PC version of the original game, which were developed by separate third-party developers. This is Rare's second Nintendo DS project, after Diddy Kong Racing DS, which was developed by the same team. This is so far, the only game in the Viva Piñata series to not have a Japanese release.
Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is, like its predecessor, a sandbox game that tasks the player with turning a neglected plot of land into a beautiful garden. The game retains the majority of features and all of the piñata from the original. As the game was built from the ground up for the DS, Rare’s handheld team took the opportunity to add additional features and changes.
The most obvious difference between Pocket Paradise and the original is that the entire game is controlled using the stylus, giving the player a very direct, intuitive method of interacting with their garden. It is now possible to simply ‘draw’ grass onto soil, or double tap a flower to remove its head.
The game also makes use of the two screens on the DS where, for the majority of the game, the main garden view is displayed in the lower screen of the DS. In the upper screen, there is a context sensitive information panel that is unique to this version of the game. The information that is displayed dynamically changes to reflect what is currently selected - ranging from an individual piñata's romance requirements to a percentage breakdown of the garden's floor tiles. It is even possible to swap the screens around and interact with the information panel, to view a comprehensive piñata encyclopedia, a journal, an awards page and a piñata pyramid (amongst other things).
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