So said general manager of Microsoft Game Studios Shane Kim when asked about Viva Piñata last week by games blog Kotaku. As important as Gears of War though? Blimey. It's certainly a big claim, but then Microsoft is hardly shirking when it comes to throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this new project. For a start, this is a game in development at Rare, the same studio that Microsoft swiped from under the nose of Nintendo for a wallet-busting $375 million. And this isn't "just" a game, either. Viva Piñata the Xbox 360 videogame is merely a single cog in a giant new media property that, by the end of 2006, will have spawned a Saturday morning TV show on the Fox network and goodness knows how much merchandise. But... what is it?
Well, at first glance it appears to be something of a hybrid, the brightly-hued lovechild of Pikmin, Pokémon and Animal Crossing. Infact, with its rather charming cast of crepe paper animals, hefty financial backing and emphasis on social gameplay, this could yet prove as popular as any of those franchises. In the game, players are put in charge of a garden on Piñata Island that's surrounded on all sides by impenetrable jungle. Lurking in this jungle are the eponymous piñatas, black and white creatures lavishly constructed from - of all things - paper. Your task? To lure these beasts into your garden through cunning use of your tools, and through carefully selecting precisely what grows on your patch.
Eighteen months into development, and the game is already exhibiting the kind of vivid environments and lush shrubbery last seen in Kameo
That last bit is especially important, as every one of the sixty breeds of piñata are attracted either by different types of plants, trees or shrubs, though some piñatas can be lured simply by the presence of other piñatas (for example, the appearance of a worm piñata can attract a bird piñata). Once in your garden, the new arrivals quickly shed their black and white coats and appear in full, glorious colour. If two piñatas of the same kind appear in your garden, then breeding becomes possible, producing eggs that can be saved, hatched or traded online via Xbox Live.
The online aspect of the title is something that Microsoft seems keen to push. The idea of trading eggs online suggests that some inspiration may have been drawn from Animal Crossing DS, a title that encourages the trading of items and helping out other people when it comes to completing collections. There can be complications when it comes to rearing your piñatas however: the creatures can break (dropping candy which can also be collected, traded or fed to other piñatas), and there's a range of pests that can prove bothersome to you and your precious piñatas.
From a visual standpoint, it's clear that Rare is involved. Even in static screenshots, the animals manage to exude a charm and an appeal that we last saw in the characters of Banjo-Kazooie. Are the visuals perhaps overly juvenile for the PALGN readership? For some, maybe. But then cute visuals of this kind never hurt Animal Crossing, and there's little doubt that the first screenshots of the game demonstrate just how well Rare has got to grips with the X360 hardware. Shrubbery and other greenery is impressively portrayed, the water effects look absolutely top-notch and the creatures are commendably surreal and stylish, real world animals fashioned with a wonderful crepe paper effect (as is the grass, incidentally).
The use of colour looks set to be key to Viva Piñata's gameplay.
So will Microsoft's new big hope for the 360 do the business? It's certainly got potential, and fusing the "Gotta catch 'em all" philosophy of Pokémon with the rewarding trading experience offered by Animal Crossing is a deftly clever move on the part of Rare. Whether or not the game will appeal to gamers outside the playground is anybody's guess, though Shane Kim did also admit to Kotaku that "producing a casual game meant to appeal to all ages and types of gamers" was precisely the aim of the exercise. It seems as though Microsoft may have some lofty ambitions for this title.
Yet thankfully, whether it succeeds commercially or not, Viva Piñata looks like it could be amongst the first innovative, original IP to hit the 360. Don't get us wrong - we enjoy our Project Gotham Racing 3 and GRAW as much as the next gamer - but there can be little denying that the 360 line-up could do with an injection of innovation. And, when this latest Rare venture does finally appear on shop shelves close to this Christmas, we're already fairly certain that innovation is one thing we'll definitely be seeing.
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