Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise Hands-On

The release of Rare's Viva Pinata on the Xbox 360 in 2006 took some gamers by surprise. Due to the colorful nature of the papier-mache, candy-filled creatures, it seemed that the game was solely aimed at children. However, those who were brave enough to venture into the world of Viva Pinata found themselves pleasantly surprised because it's a game that can keep the younger audience engaged while providing enough depth for adults as well. Rare announced last year at Comic-Con that Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise is coming to the Nintendo DS so that you can tend to your beloved garden wherever you go.

Pocket Paradise is based on the Xbox 360 version, with changes made to use the unique features of the DS. It is also an excellent introduction for those who haven't jumped on the Pinata bandwagon. Pocket Paradise includes new features as well as footage from the spin-off TV series. It plays very much like the original and has more than 60 pinatas, with seven new species. As the gardener, it's your job to transform a sad piece of real estate into a bustling haven for pinatas of all kinds to mingle and be merry. Given that it's a simulation, there are no real goals except the ones that you set for yourself. The game also does a decent job of guiding you along the way. Leafos is not here this time around to guide you through the tutorial; instead, there are training missions, also called episodes, in which characters from the TV show teach you the basics.

You begin with four tutorials, and as you progress, there are more episodes to unlock. If you give Hudson Horstachio a quick poke with the DS stylus, a tutorial will begin that focuses on moving around the garden. Instructions are clear and easy to follow, though it isn't always easy to use the stylus to view your garden. Dragging the stylus lets you move around the garden, but if you have a shovel selected, you'll end up whacking pinatas along the way. Fortunately, using the control pad is much easier. The other option is to use the purple control-pad icon at the lower right corner of your screen, which works the same way if you don't want to use your left thumb. Clicking and dragging your pinata to interact with another pinata works well as long as you don't have a cluster of seeds in the way; if you do, it becomes hard to select the proper target. Otherwise, selecting items and navigating through menus and the handy encyclopedia is incredibly simple with the touch screen. Everything is within a few taps, and the layout is easy to follow.

Fergy Fudgehog will go through the tools, introducing you to the many options with the shovel. Like its Xbox 360 predecessor, you can poke, whack, and dig to get your garden into shape. Your menu is located at the top of the screen, and by tapping on various icons, you'll get a drop-down list of items. Franklin Fizzlybear will explain the overhead map function, which provides a zoomed-out view of your garden and makes it easy to locate your pinatas. Double-tapping will take you to the pinata that you're looking for if you don't feel like scanning. It can be rather difficult to see where certain things are located in the normal view, and your only option is to zoom in further, with no ability to rotate the camera.

A new feature that has been added is playground mode, in which you can play with any pinatas that you've come across in your saved game. The playground lets you create a garden from the ground up. When you begin, there are eight slots to fill with water, grass, dirt, or tree cards that affect your garden's landscape. Once you've created the perfect piece of unpopulated land, you're free to build houses, bring in pinatas, plant seeds, and decorate your garden to your heart's content, free of charge.

Anyone who's played the previous iteration will know that this game really boils down to romancing, aka mating. Another welcome change is that you no longer have to play the tedious minigame each time your worms decide to get intimate. Now it's as simple as drawing a line between the two worms and letting nature take its course. The game itself feels more organized as well. The dual screen of the DS lets you focus on the garden on the bottom screen, whereas the top screen provides pertinent information about your land and details of your progress.

Despite the limitations of the DS graphically, the pinatas are still just as brightly colored, though not abnormally shiny as they would be in HD. Music and sound should also feel very familiar, with ambient noises and upbeat tunes. Pinatas and items can also be shared via the DS Wi-Fi.

For a game that requires quite a bit of time and careful management, making it portable on the DS is the perfect solution for those who want to make use of their time while riding public transit or waiting in line. This cute and charming sim is scheduled for a fall release, so be sure to check in and see how our garden is blooming.