Rare's Viva Pinata

[Paco]

Looks sweet!

more screenies here: Click!1!

[Paco]

translated text:

You are a gardner and you start out with basic tools and land. you can develop the land, build ponds, makeflowers, trees, grass, slopes, etc. and it will attracht 'pinata's'. There is 60 pinatas species all with their own prerequisites.

So you collect them, then you name them and customize them, but there is also bad pinatas. They will make trouble and you will have to fend them off, if you cant do this alone, you can get help from people in towns they also sell you goods, or you can go on xbox live and ask your friend to help you and you can landscape together or drive off the bad pinatas together.

[Great Rumbler]

Hmm...

[Paco]

Official Details...

Microsoft Game Studios and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. today celebrate the introduction of “Viva Piñata,” a high-energy, mass-appeal entertainment property created by Rare Ltd. that brings a vibrant world of living piñata animals to video games, television and beyond. The “Viva Piñata” universe showcases an engaging cast of colorful, wild-roaming piñata animals that entertain and challenge imaginations.

“Viva Piñata” will offer a number of entertainment elements enjoyable for everyone — from kids to adults. The “Viva Piñata” world will include a Saturday morning 3-D animated television series, slated to premiere this fall on 4Kids TV™ on FOX, that is produced and created by 4Kids Entertainment, known for such powerhouse properties as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, Cabbage Patch Kids and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

An immersive video game developed by Rare Ltd. exclusively for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system is scheduled to debut this holiday worldwide, enabling gamers to create and customize piñata-filled adventures in their own evolving world. The 4Kids Entertainment licensing program will result in additional licensed products launching in 2007. Additional information can be found at http://www.vivapinata.com.

“With ‘Viva Piñata,’ we are introducing a revolutionary brand that will entertain, inspire and excite children, families and creative minds around the globe,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Corp. “With Rare and 4Kids Entertainment we will best showcase the vibrant world of ‘Viva Piñata,’ enabling a mass audience to have an immersive experience via the animated television series, the Xbox 360 title and related merchandise.”


“Viva Piñata” — The Animated Television Series

The “Viva Piñata” television series is set to air in the U.S. in fall 2006 on 4Kids TV — 4Kids Entertainment’s four hours of children’s programming broadcast Saturday mornings on FOX. In this comedy series, created by 4Kids Entertainment, a cast of piñata “friends” embark on wild adventures on Piñata Island. The appealing characters and their charming personalities are sure to entertain and stimulate the series’ audience as they accompany the piñata characters on their zany adventures.

“We are very excited about partnering with Microsoft to share the ‘Viva Piñata’ universe with the world,” said Alfred R. Kahn, Chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment. “The potent combination of the Microsoft Game Studios and 4Kids will ensure that the ‘Viva Piñata’ world, including the video game, television series and merchandising program, attracts a worldwide audience.”


“Viva Piñata” for Xbox 360

Set to release this holiday season worldwide, “Viva Piñata” is a customizable, social and spontaneous game that invites players of all ages and skills to explore an immersive world where they are challenged to create and maintain a living garden ecosystem that grows in real time. Beginning with a few basic tools, players build and take control of their environment to attract and host more than 60 species of wild piñata, utilizing hundreds of customizable elements to create their very own distinctively unique thriving paradise.

“Viva Piñata” gameplay continues to evolve with new content available via the Xbox Live® service and the ability to play, trade and interact with more than 2 million gamers via the online service.

Following the strategic alliance previously announced in January 2006 with Microsoft, 4Kids’ exclusive representation agreement includes all broadcast, home video, music and merchandise licensing rights on a worldwide basis for the “Viva Piñata” property.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/10470/Viva...-Revealed/

LOVE IT!

[Paco]

http://www.rareware.com

Rare updated their site with more info on the game, and more screens.

[Paco]

More interesting details...

"While Gears of War is easily one of the most anticipated and most important games of 2006, Viva Piñata is of equal importance to us," said Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Game Studios. "Kameo: Elements of Power showed Rare's ability to go broad with mass appeal, and Viva Piñata spearheads our intent to truly go to the mass market. This is arguably our first true mass-market property, more so than even Halo 2."

Which one of you doubted me when I said this was what Microsoft was doing? Be a man and admit it.

Viva Piñata is a first-person perspective nurturing game that starts on Piñata Island, a fantasy setting that's filled with 62 different piñata/animals. Each animal is called a piñata, and each one can also break into pieces like a piñata, which eases kids off the whole dying concept. Players create a garden using various tools (the first of which is a shovel), and by cultivating a small patch of land, they attract piñatas to come and visit. The large concept is to restore order to an island that's gone wild, and by creating, maintaining, and expanding their gardens, players are illuminated by a brilliant ecosystem of creatures that have complex relationships with one another. Using a proprietary engine to create simple polygonal shapes painted with primary colors, Rare's single-player title looked early yet inviting when we saw it running last week in San Francisco, Ca.

You start by meeting your navigator/guide, Dedos, a humanoid inhabitant who, like all the other young humanoids on the island, wears an imitation African mask. She guides you along the non-linear path to success. Other human types appear and form Seinfeld-like relationships, which tie into the TV show. Just so you know, the game takes place on one side of the island and the TV show on another. Thus, the two are related and have cross-over, but they're not exact duplicates. Furthermore, the show will hint at how to do things in the game, and the game will refer to the show, practically guaranteeing cross-over demand among young viewers/gamers.

So...how do you play? You start with a shovel from Dedos. Soon after you'll get seeds, a watering can, and you'll even get things such as upgrades to the shovel. The idea is to pat down the ground, "prepping" it for gardening. When you plant seeds and grass grows, you invite wild piñatas to visit. And if they like what they see and get what they need, they'll transform from "wild" to "resident" status (changing from black and white to color), and they'll stay in your garden. Your goal is to create the biggest, most populated garden possible, with all 62 piñatas living there peacefully and having offspring via stork express.

You'll start by attracting a single worm, and then you might attract a second worm, after which you can introduce them to each other. If they like each other, they'll pair up and do a kind of mating dance (really), though just to be clear, piñatas don't make love. All piñata babies are literally brought by a stork. I know what you're thinking, and no I didn't make this up; really. This is Rare's new game. Anyway, each piñata pair has its own courtship dance, which we can say in front of a panel of our peers, is cute.



The ecosystem behind the game is clever, if not genius. After the worms come, attracting other animals occurs in a domino pattern. Birds are attracted to the baby worms, so they'll come as soon as that little thing starts to squirm. You can then plant a turnip to attract mice. Naturally, snakes like mice, so as soon as mice show up, snakes do too. The game is filled with piñata-like animals ranging from ponies, pigs, sheep, crocodiles, horses, hedgehogs, elephants and more.

Of course this little Garden of Eden couldn't be perfect without bad guys. Dubbed the "sours," these piñatas create trouble among your new buddies. They will start fights among species, and when they "die," the candy from inside them will taste bad to resident piñatas. each baddy is also paired with a good guy. Thus, if you've encountered a sour that's causing you grief, you can find its counter piñata to chase it off. The other aspect of Viva Piñata is trading. If your friend owns a 360 and Viva Piñata and he's way ahead of you, he can trade animals via Xbox Live. Or he can come to your house and play cooperatively. Xbox Live and Achievements will play a huge role in the community aspects of Viva Piñata.

The game is apparently huge and can easily take between 20-40 hours, depending on how your garden grows. Microsoft plans on creating downloadable content, both free and paid for, with different kinds of animals appearing and attracting newer, exotic piñatas. Rare's title also has a diurnal/nocturnal cycle, so different creatures appear in the day than at night, and vice versa.

In all honesty, Viva Piñata is a huge surprise, though that's pretty obvious if you follow games. First, Rare really is creating a totally new intellectual property that's going to be both a game and a CG TV show. It's a reality. Second, the demo we saw was primitive and early, but it also looked like an incredibly addictive game. Third, it looks deep and interesting, and despite a little hope that died inside me when I first saw it -- that somehow Rare would create the next Banjo Kazooie or Blast Corps 2, or who knows, the greatest game ever -- the more I watched the demo, the more impressed I was. Perhaps this really is Rare's true calling.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/696/696080p1.html

I can't help but think this is a game that would do well on a Nintendo console. I hope it brings in the audience Microsoft wants. I need to hear some impressions but it certainly does have my attention.

[Paco]

http://www.vivapinata.com/vivapinatacom/announce/

:D

[Paco]

animated promo:http://www.4kids.tv/vivapinata/video.php

Funny stuff.

It shows some gameplay about half way through.

[lazyfatbum]

A mexican-themed game where you play as a landscaper.

I'm sold, so is every upper-class white family in Los Angeles.

[Paco]

A mexican-themed game where you play as a landscaper.

I'm sold, so is every upper-class white family in Los Angeles.

ROFLMAO :D

[Great Rumbler]

Out of 10 posts [11 now] 8 of them are by Paco. You know there's an "edit" button for a reason...

[Paco]

Yes, I know of it.

[Great Rumbler]

Just making sure.

[Dark Jaguar]

Let me get this straight, MS is admitting right out of the box they have every intention of trying to force this to become the next fad? Brainwashing ahoy!

There is no mention of it, but for the love of all that is sacred, if you can't smash the pinatas and eat the delicious candy inside (a great message to the kids after all), there is a serious problem in the game design.

[The Former DMiller]

Definitely a different type of game, and it would have to be something I play before I judge it. Don't know how well it's going to do on XBox, though. Kameo didn't do very well, and Kameo had more mainstream appeal than Pinata appears to have.

[Dark Jaguar]

If the idea is to create a new franchise that will take over the minds of the kinderchilds, then it may have mainstream appeal.

Plus, it isn't Japanese but it is still foreign, so it'll be seen as "unique".

[Paco]

Let me get this straight, MS is admitting right out of the box they have every intention of trying to force this to become the next fad? Brainwashing ahoy!

There is no mention of it, but for the love of all that is sacred, if you can't smash the pinatas and eat the delicious candy inside (a great message to the kids after all), there is a serious problem in the game design.

When you defeat a "sour" or one of your own pinatas loses a fight, they bust open. The candy is then consumed by other pinatas. The sour's candy supposedly makes the other pinatas sick or something like that.

[Dark Jaguar]

...YAY!

[lazyfatbum]

the kiddies on the IRC seem to be upset, they're also having candlight vigels and chanting Rare is dead, though strangely enough alot of Revolution/Nintendo chats and boards are exciting about it.

Favorite quote so far:

"Pinata looks awesome, if I didn't need my car or my internal organs I would get an XBox360."

[Paco]

the kiddies on the IRC seem to be upset, they're also having candlight vigels and chanting Rare is dead, though strangely enough alot of Revolution/Nintendo chats and boards are exciting about it.

Favorite quote so far:

"Pinata looks awesome, if I didn't need my car or my internal organs I would get an XBox360."

There's a great divide over at TXB. It seems alot of people were expecting Rare to go the mature route, so they expected Killer Instinct 3, Jet Force Gemini 2, or a new IP (that featured gunplay of some sort). Those people keep asking what the story is, and how many levels it has, etc. It seems they can't read and they just don't get the concept of a virtual garden.

Others, like myself, many having played games like Animal Crossing, are taken by the concept and can't wait to hear more.

The rest are on the fence, saying it's good to have some variety and the game looks like a breath of fresh air considering the rest of the 360 lineup, but what is it?

Many of the dad's on TXB are saying it looks like something their son/daughter/wife would like.

[lazyfatbum]

did you play Chibi-Robo? it has nothing to do with Pinata, but it's a really awesome game that, at first, (or graphically) will make you think it's a game for kids but has more depth than anything out there once you play it. AC is another good example, i spent a year making my town in to a Nintendo theme-park, complete with billboards that have pixel-for-pixel images of all the Nintendo characters and insignias. Good times.

Pinata will launch to a series of good reviews and will face lackluster sales for its birthday party. Then after 6 months or so word of mouth will get the game popular, it will become the ultimate game to have because, arguably, it will be the best game on XBox 360 and also the most unique... even a 13 year old full of anger can only take so many extreme racers and shootemups and will welcome an odd game that can be played as a pinata-murdering simulator, if so desired.

of course, i'm assuming that the game will be good. normally I wouldn't question that, but all the mixed reviews of PDZ, Kameo, grabbed by the ghoulies, all the GBA games and a censored conker has me questioning their abilities.

[Paco]

Isn't Chibi-Robo on PSP? Anyway, no.

I spent a good two years playing Animal Crossing just about every day. I currently have two characters, both living in the same town, their houses paid off, one having received the HRA's prize for getting a score over 100,000, one of them has about 1.3 million bell, the other about 400,000, I have all of the Nintendo furniture (made a cool little room with several of the games as well (love Wario's Woods)), the musuem is just about complete, got the golden shovel and axe, designed some of my own clothes and billboards (usually kept trying until something caught on, and all the animals were wearing it)...I love that game.

Pinata will launch to a series of good reviews and will face lackluster sales for its birthday party. Then after 6 months or so word of mouth will get the game popular, it will become the ultimate game to have because, arguably, it will be the best game on XBox 360 and also the most unique

If I remember right, this same thing happened with Animal Crossing. Slow start, but it became somewhat a craze the following months.

I wonder if the TV show is going to help it along, and enough so that kids' can convince their parents to plunk down $300+ for a Xbox 360 in time for Christmas?

I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with Kameo and PDZ so I'm really looking forward to Pinata. I never did give Grabbed by the Ghoulies a chance. I could probably find it really cheap now...

[Great Rumbler]

Isn't Chibi-Robo on PSP?

Gamecube.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with Kameo and PDZ so I'm really looking forward to Pinata.

Haven't played Kameo yet and probably won't anytime soon, but from what I played of PDZ it was fun for a while, but really not all that great and the multiplayer was nowhere near as good as many made it out to be. It was the Halo of the Xbox360 and I don't mean that in a good way. I eventually traded it for GRAW and I was glad that I did.

[Dark Jaguar]

GRAW?

[lazyfatbum]

it's the sound made by homosexual zombies.

and yeah Chibi-Robo is a GC game, made by Bandai and Nintendo. huge sleeper hit and hopefully a new IP for Nintendo.

[Great Rumbler]

[Dark Jaguar]

Ghost Recon is GRAW?

I now have acrophobia.

[Great Rumbler]

This is one is anyway.

[Smoke]

I love the art style. This looks like the kind of game I'd enjoy. My gut feeling is this is going to bomb. I just can't see your typical Xbox 360 owner going into a store and when they ask him which game he wants pointing to Viva Pinata! He'd sooo get laughed out of the frat.

[Paco]

Wow. I wonder where I got the impression that Chibi-Robo was on PSP...

I'll give it a rent.

[Dark Jaguar]

I've seen it in action. It is ART. My little siblings play it constantly. I say it is art because of how the music works. The music plays based entirely on the main character's movement. It makes any point where you are sneaking up sound like that stereotypical "sneaking into the place" music they play in sitcoms, and anyting you are running around rapidly, it sounds like basic "we are on an adventure in JAPAN" theme.

I want to play it soon.

[lazyfatbum]

the music is very interactive, it also speeds up and slows down depending on your speed and will cchange depending on where you are in the room or what you're doing.

I agree that it's art-as-game, but not just because of the music. The writing in the story is superb and deals with extremely adult themes (not sexual, well... sorta) in a way that's not only universal culturally but so that kids can understand it too. things like the father sleeping on the couch, wife being overcome by bills and housework, to the point of shutting off from the family and putting the daughter through emotional turmoil... and then the mom starts talking about divorce. Pretty heavy stuff but all light hearted and friendly in its presentation. I've never played a game that talks about divorce and resposibility with relationships. awesome, awesome writing.

[The Former DMiller]

Man, all the talk about Chibi Robo in this thread and the other thread that lazy started has really made me want to play the game. I just hope I can find some place to rent it...and some time to play it.

[lazyfatbum]

Chibi-Robo, Battalion Wars and Sonic Riders have been my best friends for a few months now. :D

I have to say, that MS greenlighting such a game for 360 and fully supporting it, comparing it to Gears of War, etc, really shows off how serious MS is getting about the industry. They see that they were painting themselves in to a corner and leaving out the most important demographic of cosole owners; gameplayers. And the most important age group of that demographic: kids. By diversifying their scope they're getting in to a long term relationship where kids ae going to grow up playing games like Viva pinata and expecting good Rare games on their 360. We could see a rebirth of the N64 with 360 where rare becomes the kind of developer where when they announce a game, everyone listens. And of course, if Pinata sells well, more companies will be less afraid of porting or producing quirky japanese titles that aren't 'HaRDc0R3!11!' and actually go after multiple age ranges. The day where E rated games outsell M rated games on a XBox might not to be too far off.

Of course MS is looking at bottom line, and using history to judge the future that if you only apply your scope to older gamers you will eventually bottom out and have to pull out of the market because once your singular demographic grows out of gaming you have nothing to fall back on. However, i think MS is learning the Nintendo manta of how to make money through good games that apply to all ages and skill levels.

I really, seriously hope that Rare pulls it off... Nintendo sites have articles about 'what hapened to Rare?" or 'Is Rare dead?" because even the most hardcore of fans are disappointed with their recent offerings. Even the hardcore fans who bought a 360 just to follow Rare are giving up on them, so here's to a bright future for Pinata.

[Great Rumbler]

[Dark Jaguar]

<img src="http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/jesusgldldr.gif">

[lazyfatbum]

it's funny because it's inivitable.