Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

Plays it safe with a few tweaks.

If you've played Viva Piñata before, there are no surprises in store here. This is almost a carbon copy of the original with a little more variety in species, plants, and items. As such, there isn't much I can say about the gameplay that wasn't already said in my review of the original (click over there if you're interested and give me an upvote if you're feeling charitable - gotta get that badge somehow right?). So, rather than rehash the same things I said before, I'll just focus on the things that are different in terms of achievements.

While none of the achievements are technically unobtainable, 4 of them are a HUGE pain. Two achievements require the 360 version of the game (sorry Rare Replay folks) because you need the Xbox 360 Vision Camera, which is not compatible with the Xbox One, and the Kinect does not work for these achievements. You can pick up the camera and a copy of the game for around $25 total on Amazon, but you have to be REALLY committed to achievements if you're willing to drop any amount of money just for two achievements. That being said, the camera does make it MUCH quicker to blow through the rest of the game, so if you're interested in knocking this game out, it's not as though you'd be dropping that money on just those achievements with nothing else to show for it.

The other two frustrating achievements are online achievements. One is for spending an hour online in 4-player mode (this can be done with two physical people and two guests, one on each console), and the other is for getting a "famous piñata." The latter wasn't originally intended to be online only, you used to have to get every award in the entire game, and then the designers would send you a special unique version of a piñata, which is what you needed for this achievement. However, this game is quite old at this point, and the designers are no longer sending out these piñatas, so the only way you can get this achievement is to be visiting someone's garden when they unpack one. They can box up their own famous piñata and send it to themselves, and then unbox it, so there IS a way, and it only takes 5 minutes. However, (and this is the problem for both of these achievements) the game is dead at this point. NO ONE is playing this anymore. There are a few Good Samaritans out there who still have the game and still have their famous piñatas, and they periodically set up massive boosting sessions, but it's only a matter of time before they move on. And I didn't see anyone volunteering to help out with the 1-hour, 4-player achievement. I was lucky enough to have a 3-day Gold subscription voucher that I was able to use on a dummy account, which let me boost it myself using the physical copy on my 360 with a dummy controller and the digital Rare Replay version on my One with another dummy controller.

So with all this being said, if you're the type who wants to 100% the game, start this one up at your own risk. You WILL have to buy additional equipment (possibly all the way up to a new game system if you don't already own a 360), and the boosting scene for this game feels like it's living on borrowed time, which is also essential for a 100% completion. If you're happy with 940 gs and don't care about your percentage, go for it by all means, it's a charming little game. But completionists should tread lightly.
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