Viva Pinata 2

[Gamerforlife]

I don't know if there are any VP fans on this board. I have to say I'm very disappointed with the game thus far. In fact, I keep turning it off and going back to Castle Crashers. They took the single most annoying thing about the first game, which was that stupid, out of place romancing mini-game and actually made it more annoying than it already was.

Oh, and there is a new type of weed in the game that can literally destroy your entire garden very quickly and there seems to be little you can do to stop it once it gets going. So you make a new garden and start over from scratch, losing HOURS of hard work. It seems to pop up frequently and randomly too. You turn around and out of nowhere there's like three weeds in the garden.

The trap system for capturing the new types of pinatas is annoying and re-capturing older pinatas that you already acquired in the first game is not very rewarding.

Damnit, I'm sure it gets better. At least I hope so, but right now it's looking like the curse of the sequel has struck again. God why are designers so stupid. No offense lordofduct

[Ack]

Shoot, my girlfriend enjoyed the first one too. I'll have to let her know the second's a bit of a disappointment. Thanks for the heads up about it!

[UBERTRON777]

Really? Is it that bad? I'll probably still buy it anyways as it was a nice diversion from all that blam! blam! blam!

[Gamerforlife]

Well, to be fair these are my first impressions. The reviews have actually been great:

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/946126.asp

I'll post more impressions after I put some more time in. I think I figured out what was causing the weeds, but I had to head on over to the gamefaqs forums to find out what it was, which is annoying. I'm not having an issue with them now, but the fact that I actually had to start the game over just because of some weeds has left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully it won't happen again.

It's these stupid new hemlock weed and fire weeds they put into the game. The hemlock one in particular. Your pinatas eat them it seems, then start dropping sour candies everywhere,which poison other pinatas. Meanwhile, while you're hacking away trying to kill that stupid hemlock weed, it drops three seeds to the ground, which quickly plant themselves and in the next like three seconds, you have three more hemlock weeds. It's absolutely EVIL and I've lost some respect for the folks at Rare for putting that into the game.

For anyone who is going to play the game, DO NOT KILL SOUR PINATAS! They drop the seeds for those weeds. Those idiots at Rare give you no clue at all about this. Dead pinatas did not drop seeds in the first game. Most players will kill a sour pinata and simply move on to doing something else without realizing that it just dropped some nasty seeds in your garden. There are quite a few posts about this on the gamefaqs forum, so it's something that has pissed off quite a few players. Of course, the fanboys are quick to defend the game and talk about how this is a welcome new challenge

These people completely miss the point as the original game was never about challenge, It was meant to be a fun and relaxing game.

It's the thing I hate about sequels, when designers get away from what made their game good in the first place

[General Chaos]

Isn't there a mode where there aren't any of the sour piñatas? I thought it was pretty tedious in the first one so this doesn't bode well.

[Gamerforlife]

Isn't there a mode where there aren't any of the sour piñatas? I thought it was pretty tedious in the first one so this doesn't bode well.

I think there's a just for fun mode, but I don't think you can do everything in that mode so it's pointless. You can pay the shop lady to stop them from coming, but it costs a fortune for each one. Basically, you have to let the sours do their thing and just accept it. You can smash any sour candy they drop, but anything else they do to mess with your progress, you have to grin and bear it

Ruffians are harder to get rid of in this one. I don't think there's a permanent way to get rid of Professor Pester unlike the first game. He just keeps coming back to annoy you over and over and over again. You can sink money into a decoy, so he won't kill any of your pinatas, but you get sick of spending money on decoys over and over again each time he destroys one. They don't come cheap either

This game sucks. Rare made EVERYTHING more annoying. I mean hardcore Viva Pinata fans might still like it. It still has some of the original's charm and addictive gameplay, but everything is such a hassle now. The game feels like more of a chore to play. Getting the newer pinatas from the arctic and desert regions as permanent residents is kind of a pain too.

And like I said before, I don't like re-acquiring pinatas from the first game and romancing them all over again. Why the hell can't developers let players carry their progress over into sequels. I mean seriously, can't we do that sort of thing now? You work hard getting all these pinatas and then the next game comes out, and basically all the work doesn't count for squat. And since this game really feels more like an expansion(not a particularly good one) than a sequel, there's no excuse for this.

Okay, I'm ranting now. I just feel like going to Rare HQ and punching somebody. Think I need to go play Castle Crashers and beat the crap out of some people

[General Chaos]

This is really disappointing b/c I was looking forward to the co-op option in this as well. Of course I realize the nature of local co-op in VP will be limited, but it's still an interesting idea to me.

Perhaps I'll give it a try, but I already though the sours and other garden intrusions were annoying in the first VP so this will likely drive me nuts.

[Gamerforlife]

This is really disappointing b/c I was looking forward to the co-op option in this as well. Of course I realize the nature of local co-op in VP will be limited, but it's still an interesting idea to me.

Perhaps I'll give it a try, but I already though the sours and other garden intrusions were annoying in the first VP so this will likely drive me nuts.

Give it a shot. I mean personally, I don't like that they made everything harder, but it might appeal to some people. It's still essentially the same game, just that Rare makes you work harder for everything this time around. It bugs me because Viva Pinata was not a game I played for challenge. I liked it because it was a really relaxing game that never really punished you or pushed you too hard. It was a break from the challenges of other games. This new one has sort of moved away from that though.

One of the things I also hate is that if you don't successfully trap a pinata in the arctic or desert regions, you've basically wasted all the money you spent on the trap and the bait. You'll find a lot of regular pinatas going for your bait instead of the one you want, which is annoying. You can scare them away, but you have to be paying attention. Also, you might trap the pinata you want, then he might break out of it. Oh, and after you trap a pinata and bring him back to the garden, you then have to meet the resident requirements for him to stay in your garden. The game doesn't TELL you what the requirements are until after you trap them and bring them back to your garden. If you can't meet the requirements, you'll not only have to remedy that, but you'll have to go to the arctic/desert region and trap them AGAIN.

It's so annoying. I really hate to be complaining about this game, as I loved the first so much and I'm still playing this new one despite how annoying they made everything, but man this game is not what I was expecting.

[Gamerforlife]

Put a fair amount of hours into the game now and I've kind of adapted to the changes and I'm started to do well in the game now. I still don't like the changes they made, but you do sort of get used to them after awhile. I think you Viva Pinata fans might still enjoy this despite all of my complaints. It's not really an ideal sequel, and there are certain things about the game that STILL haven't been improved in addition to the afore mentioned things that they made worse. Yet in spite of all that, I'm still finding this game pretty addicting.

I don't know, I'm dissapointed by it and yet I still find myself drawn to keep playing it. I don't know if this is a condemnation or a recommendation