Viva Pinata was one of the most overlooked games of 2006. It seemed to fail at nabbing any demographic and alienated most everyone. Hardcore gamers were offended by the kiddie graphics while children and casual gamers probably found the game far more difficult than they had anticipated. All told, the sales numbers were apparently sub-par for what turned out to be a great game.

Yes, it was the Christmas break of ’06 and Julie convinced me that playing a game with character names like “Buzzlegum” and “Chewnicorn” was a good idea. As it turned out, Viva Pinata was a game of complex resource management and environmental balance. So basically, it was the perfect game for me.

If you never gave Viva a shot, the game revolved around a gardener trying to successfully rear pinata animals. Each pinata would have a list of requirements before it would visit your garden, live in your garden, or “romance” to propagate its species. Sometimes, it seemed like it would be easier to get real life panda bears to screw in New York city than to get two Chippopotamus to do the deed. Three variants per species ensured that it took Julie and I over 50 hours to unlock everything in the game.

The problem with the game was that 8 year old kids, to whom the game was catered, would be in way over their heads if they tried to manage their garden ecosystem without the guide of a parent. To anyone age 12 and over, the game looked entirely too fluffy and screamed of a North American answer to Pokemon.

Despite a relatively successful cartoon series spin-off, the game’s disappointing sales had me thinking that it was going to be a one-off gem forever to be lumped in the category of “failed casual outreach game”. Yup, I just invented that category. The release of the extremely disappointing “Viva Pinata: Party Animals”, a collection of trite mini-games that makes Mario Party 8 look spectacular, further nailed home that I shouldn’t expect a proper sequel.

Alas, I was wrong, as Rare Games announced that they are resurrecting the franchise with Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. The game will be a return to the garden and will bear a great resemble the original. It’s great news for those of us who ate up the first Viva Pinata, although it may once again fail to lure in a new audience for the Microsoft subsidiary.

The game isn’t entirely without revision. The addition of “Just For Fun” mode, which allows younger players a much easier ride through the game. Never fear if you are member of the hardcore, as the game will retain such a setting for you. The game also allows you to venture outside the garden and recruit animals from a desert and an arctic setting. There are also 32 new pinata type being added to the game, although there’s no indication as to whether or not all the original pinatas will make the cut for Trouble in Paradise. If I lose my Fudgehog, I’ll be pissed.

Although we’ve yet to play the game, we’re pretty excited to get our hands on it. Hopefully it’ll make it out in late 2008, although not too late as to once again get lost in the holiday video game crunch. It would be a shame to see another Viva Pinata game fail as it would most likely spell the end of this very enjoyable series. If it lives up to the calibre of its older brother, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise will be a must-play in a year already loaded with great games.

Pinata pinata pinata!! I am so excited for this game. Why someone would choose to make a sequel to a game that didn’t sell well is beyond me, but I am very happy that they did. I also severely hope they keep the Galagoogoo. It was my favourite.

If you didn’t play the original game because the colours were too bright, or because it was based on a kid’s cartoon, then you deserve to have missed out on a really great gaming experience. It is one of my all-time biggest gaming pet peeves when people make judgements like that. The original game did have a mode for children, but at it’s core, it was much too complicated for a child to truly appreciate. The intricate balancing of an entire ecosystem isn’t exactly as easy as tic tac toe.

I could go into explaining the complexities of the game, but it’s really all summed up quite well here.

If you missed out on the first one and you can be a big enough person to see past the cotton candy look of it, I really think that any gamer, and especially any completionist, would enjoy this game.

Lickatoads and Twingersnaps and Fizzlybears, Oh my!