Gardening

You might not be able to tell from the sugary-sweet visuals, but Viva Piñata is one of the deepest, most addictive games the XBOX 360 has to offer. The original, released back in 2006 garnered enough of a cult following for Rare to bring back their colorful characters for an encore performance. Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise sticks very close to the original's formula, while adding and improving on some elements to make it the game's best incarnation yet.

Viva Piñata's concept is a simple one. As a gardener with initially just a small patch of land to work with, you must nourish and grow your garden until it becomes a veritable piñata paradise. As it turns out, piñatas are quite difficult to please, and you need to complete various requirements before they will pay you a visit. For example, you might need to have a specific piñata residing in your garden, or enough of one type of terrain. Each time a new piñata decides to call your garden home, you gain experience which will eventually increase the size of your garden and allow you to buy new items so you can customize your space exactly the way you want it.

Strong customization

That's not an exaggeration - Trouble in Paradise boasts very strong customization options, matched only by the original Viva Piñata. A touch of the X button brings up your menu, and from there it is a simple matter of selecting the tool you want to use. Within seconds, you can deform the gardens terrain, plant new seeds, or build structures for your piñatas to enjoy. It is a very Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon-esque experience; you can spend hours making the garden your own, but you don't have to be required to do anything. The open-ended experience is very relaxing, and can easily draw you in for hours upon hours.

If all this 'freedom of choice' talk is making you feel a little angsty, never fear; Trouble in Paradise includes a new challenge feature to provide some motivation. People all over the world are throwing parties, and it is your job to provide the piñata (what's a party without one?). This consists of capturing the required breed of piñata, nurturing it until it is nearly bursting with candy, and firing it off to a party overseas. The challenges are a logical and certainly welcome addition, as it is easy to get lost with so much to do. With this new feature you are given a helpful suggestion and a bit of motivation, so you will always have something to do.

Safe sequel

The only other big addition to the Viva Piñata formula is two new areas: the Piñarctic and the Dessert Desert. Both are home to unique piñata breeds that won't visit your garden, at least, not on their own free will. Once you are in either region, you can place traps and wait for an unsuspecting piñata to stumble onto it. While the entirely new styles of piñata species are certainly welcome, the whole thing is executed quite poorly. The piñatas are very slow, and it can take upwards of five minutes to catch the one you have got your eye on. As there is no way to leave your traps and return to your garden, the experience quickly becomes tedious.

However, there isn't much else that is new to report here. Trouble in Paradise is a very safe, by-the-books sequel to the original game. There are a few interface tweaks here and there - you can now cycle through piñatas, seeds, or terrain packets with the bumper buttons, which speeds the game up quite a bit. There is also an included cooperative mode, but it is fairly useless. While it can help ease a younger player into the game, you will have to heavily restrict anyone you play with online for fear they will trash your garden. But to be honest, these features don't quite make a Viva Piñata 2 - more of a Viva Piñata 1.5, the sort of game the original should have been. Those who own the original will probably find Trouble in Paradise too light on new content to warrant a new purchase.

Visuals and sounds

The sugary-sweet visual style of the Viva Piñata franchise has remained intact, and Trouble in Paradise is just as much a looker as past entries. Rare's penchant for adorable character designs rings true here, and each breed of piñata has its own distinct shape and color scheme. There is also an equally unique animation style for each. I know I instantly fell in love with each species after witnessing their entrance sequence. If your soul is too shriveled to appreciate the art style, you should at least be impressed from a technical standpoint. While a few of the textures are underwhelming, the water looks fantastic, the animation is slick, and the frame rate rarely slips, even in the busiest gardens.

Complimenting the brilliant animation are some adorable sound effects, which are equally unique to each breed. Beautiful, ambient music gives the experience additional cuteness, although most of the tunes are recycled from the original. The game's sound unfortunately starts to slip up when it comes to the human voice acting. Many voice clips have been reused from the first game, and they are so over-the-top and creepy that they cut through the relaxing nature of the rest of the game.

Better than its predecessor

Trouble in Paradise is a very basic sequel, making smart albeit predictable improvements to the Viva Piñata formula. If you own the original, there is not quite enough new content here to warrant another investment of your time and money. However, if you are new to the world of Viva Piñata, Trouble in Paradise is simply a better game than its predecessor. While it isn't quite a full-fledged sequel, Trouble in Paradise is the definitive Viva Piñata experience.

Now if you will excuse me, I think my garden needs a few more monkey-nut trees.