Okay, this title is slightly misleading. We haven’t actually played Spore yet. We were going to go pick it up on Sunday, but we were too busy playing Pinata. A sequel, based on a children’s television series, that we’ve only known about for a year, managed to eclipse Spore. A game that we’ve known about for years, and years, and years, and is one of the most hyped games ever. I’m sure we’ll get around to Spore, as I know Chris is going to buy it, but right now, I only have eyes for Pinata.

The full title of the game is Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. I can call it Pinata, though. We’re tight like that. I won’t go into explaining the basics of the game, as I believe we’ve already done that in a previous article. Instead, I’ll talk about the differences between TIP, and its predecessor, of which there are very few. Sure, they’ve added a few new creatures, and sure they are cute (seriously, some of them are just too cute), but other than that, it’s pretty much the same. They used the same voice clips, the same animations, the same graphics. The only additions (other than new animals), are some minor tweaks to the romancing mini-game (for those who aren’t fans of the series, “romancing” is code for pinata sex), and arctic and desert environments that you can travel to to trap exotic animals. S’morpion? Yes please! There’s also a co-op mode, but we haven’t really tried it out yet. Am I disappointed by the lack of new content? Absolutely not. They changed just enough to keep it from being identical to the first one, but not so much that you’re left wondering what happened to that game you really like.

I know I’ve talked about this before, both in writing, and on podcasts, so I’ll try to keep it brief. I love Viva Pinata. That’s about it. I’m not generally into God games (anything Sims loses my interest in about five seconds), but this one is different somehow. Is it the galagoogoo?

Possibly. Also, I am generally against real-time strategy, but Pinata manages to slide into my affections anyhow. It’s simple, yet still engaging, complex, yet not confusing. It manages to strike the perfect balance in almost all areas. It has a simple mode for children, but a more demanding mode for adults. Plus, it’s a completionists’s dream. 100 species x 7 awards per species + an encyclopedia that keeps track of your accomplishments = hours of fun. You know you want to play.

On the Spore side of things… Digital Rights Management? Screw you Will Wright. If I shell out money for a game, I should be able to install it as many times as I want. Spore’s DRM limits you to 3 installs per disc, with no credits for uninstalling. You may obtain extra installs on a “case-by-case basis” by phoning customer service, which basically means you are limited to 3 installs, so get lost. While it’s better than their original plan of making you re-register online every 10 days (I wouldn’t even buy it if I had to do that), it’s still a kick in the teeth. I am more than willing to pay for games, a fact to which my over-crowded basement can attest, but things like this make me WANT to pirate software. It’s the electronic equivalent of teenagers acting out because their parents are too strict. Oh, you don’t trust me? Then let me give you a good reason not to. The truly sad part is that DRM isn’t punishing pirates, who will find a way to get around it, it’s punishing the people who actually paid for the game. Would I necessarily need to install the game more than 3 times? Probably not, but I’d like the option left open to me, since I own the disc. Jackasses.

My recommendation… forget DRM restrictions and play Pinata instead.

Wow, such anger. I can’t imagine working up that much ire in the same article that features a picture of a pink stuffed animal…but that’s why I’m just the two cents on this one.

To be honest, I kind of forgot about Pinata until last week. I was so focused on Spore and the bevy of other fall releases that Viva Pinata got lost in the shuffle. It also hasn’t received a lot of hype or press. It’s too bad that this game may once again slip under the radar since it is essentially Viva Pinata 1.5; a similar game to the original with many of the control problems tweaked or fixed. One new addition, the use of the bumpers to scroll through the animals, addresses the problem of finding various animals in the garden. There is a slight lag while scrolling through the animals but hopefully it will be fixed with a future patch. There was a patch to install the first time we put in the disc…the day it came out. What’s that all about? I guess it could be the topic of a whole other article.

Finally, Will Wright can do no wrong in my books. The DRM scheme is terrible and I don’t agree with what is being done in the least but I doubt that Will Wright dreamt up the cockamamy idea. I’m sure it was the work of boardroom executives at EA that have, in all honesty, probably never installed a PC game.