Unfortunately all is not well on Piñata island. Professor Pester, along with his gang of Ruffians have wiped out Piñata Central's computer records, which will pose a threat to parties everywhere. In Trouble in Paradise players need to help rebuild the computer database by sending piñatas to parties all around the world. Sure, it's a pretty average plot, but any excuse to return to Piñata Island is okay with us.
The first thing we should point out is that Trouble in Paradise isn't a huge step up from its predecessors. Rather than try rewrite the wheel it seems that Rare will simply be adding to the game. The objectives remain rather similar, build up a beautiful garden, attract piñatas, mate them and keep improving your garden to attract even more piñatas. This doesn't mean that those who played through the first game will be bored though, as Rare has upped the ante. The customisation is what has us most excited. Now, as well as being able to plant grass, trees and flowers and dig ponds and lakes players are able to place sand and snow in their garden, which will make the exotic piñata species feel more at home. You'll alsi be able to enhance your garden with themed object packs, you could turn your garden into a space centre, a pirate cove or a haunted graveyard.
Trouble in Paradise will also contain thirty two new species of piñata that can run, crawl, fly and swim into your garden. Sure, most of these piñatas will be piñatas you will want in your garden, but there are new sour piñatas that will try and cause damage to your garden. When a sour piñata does infiltrate your garden you have the choice to either tame the sour (by using the shovel) or using candy to keep the sour piñata sweet.
One of the newest additions to the game is a new feature called Piñata Vision. Piñata vision allows players to plug in an Xbox Live Vision camera and interact with the game through the use of printed cards which will feature a unique barcode. With Piñata Vision gamers will be able to hold their piñata card up to the vision camera and the content will drop directly into the game. We're not quite sure yet how essential Piñata Vision will be, or whether each card will only be able to be used once to stop people from cloning Piñata or items, but we're looking forward to using this unique little feature.
Trouble in Paradise will also feature a slew of other improvements. There will be a 'just for fun' mode for those who like to play around without having to worry about sour piñatas, there will also be a new tutorial system and you'll also be able to take photos of your Piñatas and share them over Xbox Live. With several more months of development time left we also wouldn't be surprised if Rare threw in some other little bonuses.
Overall Trouble in Paradise looks to be shaping up rather well. Rare was onto a great thing when they released the first game in 2006 and we're pleased that the company isn't reinventing the wheel, they are just adding more options, more customisation and most importantly, making the game easier and more approachable for those who are new to the franchise. With the game just a few months away from release we can't wait to start building our new garden.
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