Viva-Pinata
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Video: Making of the Viva Pinata BelieVe videos
Some of you may have had your fill of the Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise BelieVe video series, which is sorta understandable. But, being the hardcore Viva Piñata fanboys that we are, we can never have enough. That's why when we came across the latest BelieVe video, we had no doubt in our minds that we wanted to share it. Though, in all actuality, it isn't a new video, it's more of a "making of" behind the scenes look at how the videos were created. Simply put, to create a Viva Piñata BelieVe video all you need is a few BK toys, some chicken wire, newspaper, boxes, styrofoam and a healthy dose of creativity. And it's that creativity bit that gets us every time.
Viva Pinata 2's four player co-op isn't gimped!
As was semi confirmed via some leaky achievements, Rare has informed us that four player online co-op will be a part of Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise and (best part) it won't be gimped! Just like local co-op, four player online co-op will allow players to join the "host" in their garden and only their garden. Meaning that everyone who enters the a garden will only make changes or do damage to the host's garden while having no effect on their game saves. All four players will have the ability to interact with the garden and have access to normal player tools. Simply put, there's no co-op gimpage! Not only will players be able to visit and play in eachother's gardens, but everyone can partake in 2D top down races, competitions and win monthly leaderboard prizes. It's like the online Viva Piñata experience we've always wanted! Also, we've been told to expect much more Trouble in Paradise info (including more co-op specifics) to be released during Leipzig, so keep your eyes peeled. To recap: Trouble in Paradise will sport local AND four player Xbox Live co-op where players can interact with and edit the host's garden with access to all normal in-game tools. Yup, we like! %Gallery-22615%
Viva Pinata DS coming Sept 2, Rare releases new Halo 3 parody
Rare has announced that the THQ-published Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise for the DS will be proliferating retail shelves with dirty puns on September 2 in North America and September 5 in UK and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) alongside the Xbox 360 sequel VP: Trouble in Paradise. The DS title will also "begin to filter through to the rest of the world on the 11th, with VP:TIP not far behind."Along with the announcement, Rare also released its second Halo 3 parody, "Museum," based on the sci-fi shooters' Believe ad campaign. We've embedded the video and the previously released (and pretty funny) "Believe Pinata" video after the break. Gallery: Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise
Sweet, delicious release date and teaser for Viva Pinata
One of Rare's overworked carrier pigeons just landed on our windowsill, bringing with it some candy crucial news: Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise will be launching across North America on September 2nd, in Europe on September 5th, and in the rest of the world beginning September 11th. That's exciting enough (and hey: really soon), but that's not where the happy news ends: Rare also took the time to film a second spoof video for its game, again poking fun at the terribly serious Halo 3 teasers from 2007. You can watch the first after the break (and please do watch it if you haven't already).Release dates here"Museum" video hereOur Rare interview here%Gallery-8991%
Rare settles on Viva: Pocket release and a new BelieVe trailer too
Rare just sent word (via express pigeon airmail, no less) that the Nintendo DS edition Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise has been given a release date that should be familiar to all Viva Piñata fans. As it stands, Pocket Paradise will release to the United States on September 2nd and in Europe on September 5th, which is the exact release date for the 360's Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. Speaking of which, Rare today also announced that Trouble in Paradise has gone gold and is currently being pressed to disc on some manufacturing line in Mexico.Hold on, that's not all. Rare released a second Halo 3 inspired Viva Piñata BelieVe trailer titled "Museum" and we're told it was done by the voice actor for Leafos herself! Oh, how we love these BelieVe trailers ... just watch and have a good belly laugh. Har, har!
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise parties with four player online co-op
If those pesky Achievements for the game are to be believed, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise will support four player online co-op. 360sync.com lists all the "bleep bloops" for the upcoming candy-filled animal simulator and one 10-point achievement, named "Full House," comes with with the description: Play 4 Player Online Co-op for 1 hour. We're still not exactly sure what co-op entails, as there also Achievements listed for playing two player co-op, both online and off, for one hour. We should get more details soon before VP: TiP starts getting whacked at retail on Sept. 2. [Via X3F]
First Pinata Vision card goes online
Viva Piñata and general Rare fansite MundoRare posted photos of the first ever, official Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise Vision card. You know, those Trouble in Paradise cards that, once scanned, plop the card's character into your virtual garden space. Well, the first Piñata Vision card we're being treated to is Ryan, one of thirty pinata cards that Rare developers have created and (have selfishly) named after themselves. It's a crazy interesting idea that we can't wait to embrace. As long as the scanning process is more efficient then our local grocery store's self checkout lanes. Those wonky scanners are no fun.
Rare: Kameo & PDZ sold tons, stop crying
This might be an unpopular opinion among some but, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power were boring games. Although each showcased a small portion of the Xbox 360's new power at launch, the games were (mostly) critically chokeslammed. Blame it on the short development cycle of launch games or the decline of Rare's developmental quality (until Viva Piñata that is) but both games could have been much better. So, what does Rare think of the majority opinion on those launch releases? Well, they're a business, they care about sales, and according to Rare's Nick Burton, they sold a metric ton of copies of each (you jerk): "One of the things that I always find funny is when people always quote Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero as being flops at the launch of the 360. In the industry if you break even you're lucky, you're in the minority," Burton told VideoGamer. "If you make a decent amount of money you're really in the minority. You're in the top percentile. Those two games made a lot of money. For the install base they sold phenomenally well." Honestly, we didn't need Burton to tell us PDZ and Kameo made money because we can already tell Rare has been infused with cash. Look at Viva Piñata and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts -- clearly the people of Rare purchased some creativity and talent with that stack of monies. We joke because we love.
Viva Piata trailer makes us Believe
Now this is how you promote Viva Piñata. Parodying the Halo 3 Believe advertisement that swept a camera through a gorgeously crafted diorama, this trailer takes the characters of Piñata Island and places them in a similar epic battle -- complete with the original dramatic music. Is it fan made or legit? We don't know. It looks so good that it may be a professional job but it's so creative that it seems fan made. Who cares really, it is incredible. Also it works because now we totally can't wait for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise to ship. We just hope it isn't like Halo 3 in that it doesn't include a scenario like this one at all. Watch it. Live it. Love it. This trailer is epic. Believe.[Thanks, Sean]
E308: Viva Pinata was an Xbox game?
Okay, confession time: I never played Viva Piñata the first time around. The allure of festive animal husbandry was insufficient to entice me into the console purchase required. I've researched the original (by, uh, watching some YouTube videos and such), but I went into my quick demo of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise without a real preconceived notion of how Viva Piñata is supposed to look or play.How was this ever anything but a DS game? The tasks involved in playing Viva -- watering and planting plants, clearing land, building structures for critters -- make so much sense in the top-down perspective of Pocket Paradise that it's hard to imagine this game in a different perspective on a different system. It would be so much harder, I think, to manage a large-scale garden in a more zoomed-in view. Having a larger, wider look at the goings-on in the garden makes the game seem more natural and easier. %Gallery-8991%
E308: Fresh Viva Pinata screens hunted down
Hacking our way through the undergrowth that surrounds our local press site, we located ten new wild and untamed Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise screenshots! Like the heartless types we are, we instantly clubbed them, bagged them, removed them from their natural habitat, and dropped them in our gallery for the rest of the world to gawk at.Disappointingly, a quick inspection reveals no new species (there are seven fresh piñatas in this remake), but there's a bright side, reader: the most cheerful DS boxart of 2008 so far.%Gallery-8991%[Via press release]
DS Daily: Viva Remakes
The DS version of Viva Piñata looks really great -- for a DS game. A lot of what made the original Xbox 360 game appeal to the Xbox 360 audience was in the amazing high-def graphics, with the weird paper "fur" visible on every character. But the new game is for a different audience -- the DS audience (which probably includes the entire 360 audience anyway). Graphics don't matter as much, and this kind of game actually seems more in line with the Animal Crossing-loving DS crowd.Do you think Viva Piñata will end up more popular on the DS due to meshing well with the DS audience? Or will it lose the sales that were generated mostly by shader-hungry 360 fanboys? Alternately, will some sort of fanboy vendetta on either side hurt sales?%Gallery-8991%
DS Fanboy interview -- Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise
Rare's Viva Piñata first charmed gamers back in 2006, when it appeared on the Xbox 360. Instantly, the title's original premise of nurturing beautifully animated piñatas in a garden of your own making helped it stand out in the crowd. On a system more renowned for third-person adventure games and futuristic shooters, Viva Piñata was a delightful revelation.Soon, the candy-filled creatures will be making their debut on the DS in Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise. Based on the original Viva Piñata title, what we've seen so far suggests that the team have achieved something we'd have never expected: they've managed to squeeze an Xbox 360 title on to Nintendo's handheld, while preserving every feature and trinket that was available in the original.With its fertilizer and shovel prepared for Pocket Paradise's release later this year, DS Fanboy sat down with Pocket Paradise Producer Paul Machacek and Software Development Engineer Joe Humfrey to chat about why they brought Viva Piñata to the DS, the jump from analog stick to stylus control, and the emotions involved in seeing your very first Mousemallow perish. Go past the break for our full interview!%Gallery-8991%
Viva Pinata sequel busts open in early September
All you Nerds worried about wasting Mounds of time waiting for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise should stop being such Airheads. The anticipated sequel will be Star-bursting onto the scene on Sept. 2 in North and Latin America and Sept. 5 in Europe and the UK. That leaves plenty of Paydays for you Smarties to save up the $59.99 you need to buy it. That's not a Whopper of a price ... much less than the 100 Grands it would take to travel to ... Whatchamacallit ... Mars. You see, piñatas are filled with candy ... [Via X3F]
Step into Viva Pinata video paradise
Gamespot has uploaded five new videos from Rare's upcoming DS romp, Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise. The videos focus on what matters most: gameplay. While they are brief in length, the combination of all five make for a nice little diversion in the usual rigmarole of your day. We suggest you take a break and check out the rest of the videos past the break.%Gallery-8991%
MS supports Viva Piata franchise heading to DS
Chatting with Eurogamer, Rare engineer Joe Humfrey re-confirmed Microsoft's' understanding ways when talking about Viva Piñata making its way to rival Nintendo's DS, saying that "they see DS as a very viable platform." Humfrey is of course talking about their upcoming Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise project that'll bring those adorable piñatas to the DS. Which, admittedly, seems a bit odd at first, but makes sense from an "let's do all we can to expand the franchise" mindset. "They put the Viva Piñata franchise on TV to reach a broad audience, they put it on PC to reach a different broad audience, and they're doing the same thing with the DS," says Humfrey, "they're trying to widen the audience of the franchise."And we fully agree. A DS version of Viva Piñata is going to roxorz and Microsoft should embrace Nintendo's portable handheld, that is until our Xboy releases. When that happens, we won't play nice with Nintendo.
Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise media is for mature audiences
This latest set of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise screenshots contains adult content, and should be viewed with parental guidance. Be sure that your state or municipality does not have obscenity laws against viewing scenes of piñata romance before venturing into our gallery.In addition, we've embedded the first two Viva Piñata videos after the break -- they're too hot for the front page due to graphic Whirlm content. Well, one of them is. The other one's mostly gardening. Although, now that we think about it, considering that the Piñatas are basically ambulatory plant matter, it's all mostly gardening. Naughty gardening. %Gallery-8991%
Trouble in Paradise trailer teaches us evil
Rare just released a new Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise trailer today and even though we don't get to see any in-game goodness, we do get to be completely entertained. You'll have to jump over to Eurogamer to watch the vid, but it's worth it because you'll get to watch Professor Pester detail his evil plan to his fellow henchmen and hilarity ensues. Hmm, now after watching the trailer we have a mad jonesing for some desert dessert and chilled penguin on a stick ... yummm!
Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise gets its own little oasis online
Rare has kept quiet for the most part about Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, preferring, for the most part, to limit themselves to releasing one screenshot every couple of months and making some joke about the game's progress. Now they've boldly opened a website for the game! Which even has information! And screenshots, which we've added to our gallery. There's an interview with some of the Pocket Paradise team as well, which is mostly jokes!Looks like players who have already broken open the 360 game will have something to look forward to here: new piñatas, which will also appear in the 360 sequel Trouble in Paradise. The DS game will also use a new episodic format in addition to the Playground mode.%Gallery-8991%
Microsoft Game Studios' 2008 in Gaming: A Yearbook
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox/2008_Yearbook_Microsoft_Game_Studios'; Interested in seeing what you'll be playing on your Xbox 360 in the coming months? X3F has compiled the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook for you, a list of this year's exclusive graduating class with a detailed account of each title's current status and the stories surrounding them.The 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook chronicles the graduates, like the soon-to-be released Ninja Gaiden II, and the titles that didn't make it to grad, like Alan Wake. Yep, he had to be held back for a semester or two. Or maybe three, we just don't know yet.Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to introduce the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios graduating class ...
