How is Viva Pinata, hombre?

93_confirmed wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Is there no demo for this game? I don't know if I would want to run over to Blockbuster and drop whatever it is they want for a rental on what may be a 5-minute experiement, but if there were a demo...

I think there is some type of interactive video/demo on the XBL Marketplace but I never took the time to see what it was.

The interactivity of that is limited to choosing which character from the cartoon series tells you about different features of the game. So, it is just a video really.

Yeah, that video/demo rather sucked, actually. The E3 feature-preview video was far better.

The game is friggin' awesome. AWESOME. It's like Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, and Pokemon tossed into a blender and set to puree. It's worth a rental at least if any of those three titles appeals to you at all.

If not, well, you might still get a kick out of it, but that's debatable.

Well, the game is in a sense $40 if you purchase it at Target this week. It's $49.99 but you get a $10 Target gift card instantly with purchase. Someone else mentioned this in one of the XBOX 360 Rebate/sale threads.

CoryB23 wrote:

Well, the game is in a sense $40 if you purchase it at Target this week. It's $49.99 but you get a $10 Target gift card instantly with purchase. Someone else mentioned this in one of the XBOX 360 Rebate/sale threads.

Crap.

So does that end on Saturday?

"Citizens of the Pinata Empire, we have found this man to be guilty! His sentence? Death! The execution is set for dawn tomorrow. Farmer Bob's son, Jimmy, will carry it out, but I advise all men to stay away from the site. Jimmy will be blindfolded, as is the custom of the Empire, and he is prone to miss his target in favor of testicles. Jimmy requests that he have first go at the spoils, especially ones containing caramel."

Count me in the 'this game kicks ass' column. I bought it because my wife loves Animal Crossing, and then I ended up playing more than Gears of War as well.

That's not the real JohnnyMoJo, it's a doppleganger.

$45.82 @ Wal-Mart, got it today.

Can anyone confirm you can get this for $40+tax at Target? Can you get the $10 gift card and use it at the time of purchase?

Flux wrote:

Can anyone confirm you can get this for $40+tax at Target? Can you get the $10 gift card and use it at the time of purchase?

Talking out of school on this one, but usually with the cards you cannot use it towards the current purchases. Unless you get a really nice/really stupid employee.

*Legion* wrote:

That's not the real JohnnyMoJo, it's a doppleganger.

A Vesuvian Doppelgangar, to be precise.

The preview video says you can visit other people's gardens. So, can you exhange creatures in addition to animals?

One a scale of "I'm moving in with my mother!" to "Let me have the f-ing controller!" how does Pinata fare with my fiance, sometimes Sims/Cloning Clyde gamer?

Flux wrote:

The preview video says you can visit other people's gardens. So, can you exhange creatures in addition to animals?

The Eurogamer review says you can't even visit.

LobsterMobster wrote:
Flux wrote:

The preview video says you can visit other people's gardens. So, can you exhange creatures in addition to animals?

The Eurogamer review says you can't even visit.

Dang, ok, it's off my list.

All I know is, so far this is the best game I've played on the 360, and I've really loved a lot of the other titles.

LobsterMobster wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

That's not the real JohnnyMoJo, it's a doppleganger.

A Vesuvian Doppelgangar, to be precise.

Actually, a Vesuvan (no i), to be precise.

In junior high, I liked Magic. A lot.

My wife picked this up for me last night (didn't want to lose any man points by walking around the store with a brightly colored donkey game) and i must say i agree with everyone. Put about 3 hours in last night and had a blast. This is also the first game my wife has shown any remote interest in. Some how she compared it to Oregon Trail, which I have no clue on the comparison, I'm just glad she is interested.

My girlfriend actually won't let me on my 360 now. Now I see why luna has her own.

*Legion* wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

That's not the real JohnnyMoJo, it's a doppleganger.

A Vesuvian Doppelgangar, to be precise.

Actually, a Vesuvan (no i), to be precise.

In junior high, I liked Magic. A lot.

Oh, really? I could've sworn it was your sister. OOOH, BURN!

This game is so much fun! Gears of War (multiplayer) is now on the backburner.

Desram wrote:

My girlfriend actually won't let me on my 360 now. Now I see why luna has her own.

We're having the same issue in my household, as my wife and daughter now each have their own gardens. I've been tinkering around, helping my daughter, and I'm impressed so far. It's quite a bit better than I expected, particularly in terms of variety, craftsmanship, and attention to detail.

What a superbly crafted game. It really is nice to see Rare produce a good game again.

Does anyone know how to aquire medicine? One of the ruffians requires medicine in order to become a resident.

EDIT: Nevermind, figured it out.

In a spending spree to try to fill the emptiness that is my soul, I picked this up, having heard nothing but good stuff about it.

It's strange, but it seems to be simultaneously really really easy and really really punishing at the same time. It's so easy I've been unable to respond to important things happening (like people getting eaten) because the game was so busy telling me how well I was doing. Once I got a shovel upgrade without even getting an opportunity to TRY the previous shovel upgrade. Yet at the same time, if you plant trees too close together the younger one gets stunted and useless, pinatas are nearly impossible to control, and the sour pinatas are total bastards. Also, my cool Watercress keeps dying and dropping a new seed. Just stay put, stupid Watercress!

I found that it really rewards experimentation, but in very specific ways. For instance, in what can ONLY be described as TOTALLY unrelated to animal cruelty, one of my pinatas ended up on fire. The doctor patched him up pretty quickly. But then when another one SOMEHOW ended up on fire and I doused him before he burned up, he turned into a new type of pinata that was worth a ton of money.

I also found that it's tough to get the snakes in a randy mood. They need to eat toads, and the toads will run from them on sight and are a lot faster. The resulting egg only has one point of durability; treat it at all wrong and it breaks. Yet if you screw with it just the right way, you end up with a two-headed snake. Seems like a lot of work to expect a kid to get through trial and error without getting frustrated. My two-headed snake is awesome though. It's like the one in Indigo Prophecy, so I named it Fahrenheit and did what any reasonable person would do... gave each head a monocle.

What ticks me off the most is that all the cool pinatas I want are outside the borders of my garden and won't come in, and I seem to have bumped up against some sort of population limit (around 15?) because my stupid worms keep getting it on.

All in all I can see how it'd be valuable in teaching kids about resource management, but so far I haven't really gotten much of a sense of being able to make it "my" garden, other than digging up ponds and placing expensive, mostly non-interactive items in the dirt. And as a lover of trees, I'm disappointed that I really can't plant too densely without ending up with a bunch of tiny, unhealthy, useless trees.

I just got some sort of weeding helper but haven't hired her since, well, I don't think I have weeds. I do have a watering helper that seems to do OK, when she gets off her lazy ass and does her job. Anyone a little further along know if any of my concerns are alleviated?

Lobster, you have a two-headed snake? That's awesome. I agree that the game is weirdly both very easy and very frustrating. It's hard to "lose", but it's also hard to accomplish everything you want without giving into the urge to smash Seedos with your shovel until he bleeds chocolate coins. I wish I could hit the shopkeeper right in her smug mouth.

I got TWO shovel upgrades before I got a chance to use it.

Yeah, it's got one head on each end. It's actually pretty cute. When it was a baby one head kept biting the other.

lunabean wrote:

This game is so much fun! Gears of War (multiplayer) is now on the backburner.

Viva Pinata over Gow? Say it ain't so!

93_confirmed wrote:
lunabean wrote:

This game is so much fun! Gears of War (multiplayer) is now on the backburner.

Viva Pinata over Gow? Say it ain't so!

Very much so.

Wow - this thread really peaked my interest. I may rent this...