User Reviews (1 - 6 of 6)

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Great potential, but big flaws

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: December 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

A mini-game tournament starring the Viva Pinata characters is a cool concept. Too bad the execution failed.

1) The mini-games that you want to play cannot be played at any time. You have to be lucky that the tournament selection will pick that mini-game in some long sequence of mini-games. They focus around racing tracks too much. These are fine by themselves, but it would have been nice to have a choice of not including them. What is really needed is to customize your own tournament line-up! Even allow duplication of your favorites.

2) They should have allowed the users to pick any animal -- not just four.

3) The voice commentary is really bad. They are depressing (as if they know this game is bad) and very repetitive.

OK Game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I honestly only bought the game to support the Viva Pinata name. I love the cartoon and I loved the fist game and I can't wait for the next Viva Pinata to drop in September. This game is all right but it gets old fast. Not much variety here. I think you will have more fun if you play this game with some people rather then playing the computer.

Although It's Viva Pinata, It's Not That Great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

What this game offers over the original Viva Pinata game is that it includes the actual characters from the Viva Pinata television series. You get variations on characters -- their alter egos, if you think about -- in both male and female versions, such as Fergie and Francine, as examples. The voices are a perfect match, and the pre-race and post-race commentary is exactly what you would expect from Viva Pinata.

This game, however, gets very repetitive, very quickly. After the first hour into the game, it became fairly obvious that there isn't much to the game. For the most part, you pick a "length", and that decision determines the number of races and challenges that you must complete. Once you complete a race, you complete one or more challenges, which are mini games that mostly involve button-mashing. Honestly, the "short" length is just the right length, with any other length getting extremely tedious. The game randomly picks the challenges, so you have no control over the sequence. In fact, during a medium-length game, I had to play the same challenge twice between two races. This gave me the opportunity to practice, of course, but the game should be able to track the challenges between races to avoid duplication and subsequent boredom.

From a control perspective, this game is a mixed bag. The races are easy to play, although my 7-year old daughter complained about the controls being too difficult for her. The mini-game challenges are a completely different story. Before each challenge, there is a summary screen that explains the controls and goals for the selected challenge. The game makes an effort, at times, to display on-screen control tips during the challenge (especially during any challenge that involves drinking soda and burping). But some of the "run and smash" challenges are difficult to control, and aiming in many of the shooting and smashing challenges is tough. At times, things are so frantic, you can't keep track of your own score and you don't even know if you're getting it right. Sometimes I'm surprised when I win the challenge.

What I like about this game are the achievements, which are quite creative and somewhat challenging to obtain. Although after an hour, you might unlock 20% of the achievements, there are quite a few that will require some creativity to unlock. It's not just about winning, all the time.

If it weren't for the multi-player (offline and online) aspect of this game, I probably would not recommend it. Fortunately, it has good replay value because of its multi-player modes. I would not recommend it for children younger than 9 or 10, since the controls are not always intuitive. It's a fun game with a few issues that make it less than perfect.

Pinata fun ala Mario Party!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you are familar with the Mario Party concept, you are familar with this game! If not, here you go: it is basically a set of head-to-head minigames. The concept is pretty simple. You start off with a race (there are seven different courses) and then you can play between one to three mini games (your choice) after each race. You can also choose the number of times you race, etc. There is a large number of mini games: more and more are unlocked as you play the game. Up to four people can play at a time.

As to the game, I will let my ten year old daughter take over: "This game is really fun. Because they have some funny comments and funny mini games. After each race, two pinates say funny jokes and the pinatas have funny dances and say funny things when they win. I think this game is good for kids between 6 and 13. My dad thinks it is fun too and he is forty something."

I should add that this game is entirely appropiate for any age range. If your kids like Viva Pinata, they will also like this game. Enjoy!

Kids Love It!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Great fun! But very different from the original. This is a bunch of mini competitions. The kids love playing against eachother. The graphics are good. My only complaint is there is too much talking in between the games and the pinata's don't always do what your controller is telling it to. But other than that i would reccomend it. My kids 4-10 love it!

Fun family game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for our family for family game night. We all enjoy it and have fun. Our children find it very entertaining. Easy for my 5 year old. Sometimes he wins even though we're "not letting him win". It's also pretty funny. Children find it amusing to throw a dart on the donkey-like pinata's behind and several other minigames. My 2 year old loves watching as well as playing a couple of the easy games such as an apple eating game and anything that requires only pushing buttons. This game is fun for all ages!!!!

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